Bolzano's signal to the league: Let the games begin!

Goals, speed, toughness and even more toughness. This is what the spectators got in the 48th and final regular season game of HC Bozen. It felt like the first playoff game of the season - and nine days before the real quarter-finals begin in the Sparkasse Arena. The fact that this is taking place in Bolzano is due to the Foxes' convincing 3-0 win against the sovereign first round winner from Klagenfurt.

The HCB was ready for the playoffs in all respects that evening, dominated the weakened Red Jackets for 60 minutes and thus took fourth place in the table. But perhaps the most important insight of the game came from Sam Harvey.

The goalie has been the Bolzano team's biggest weak point in recent weeks, but now showed one of his best performances in the HCB uniform to mark the start of the post-season. Just two days after he was given a pause for thought against Graz, he was celebrated for minutes by fans in the Sparkasse Arena for his second shutout of the season. The highlights Gazley's penalty Dustin Gazley runs alone towards KAC goalie Sebastian Dahm when he is brought down from behind. The result? Penalty and 1-0 for Bolzano. The HCB striker coolly converted to take the lead (5th). Halmos Deflection Halfway through the game, Mike Halmo sets the course for a home win. He decisively deflected an Alberga shot and was celebrated as the goalscorer to make it 2-0 (30th). Shortly afterwards, Klagenfurt's Nick Petersen failed on the crossbar. Valentine's monster hit No, he's not a goalscorer, but the fans celebrate him like one: Scott Valentine. He literally gets the 21-year-old Finn Van Ee out of his skates with a check on the open ice (46th). The refs watch the action in the video, but find no offense. Valentine's action is emblematic of the toughness in this game. Gazley's double The end of this exciting game was drawn by Gazley, who made it 3-0 with an empty net goal seconds before the end (60th). With this victory, Bozen fended off Black Wings Linz's attack to fourth place in the table. It is quite possible that these two teams will meet again in the quarterfinals from March 3rd. The “pick” will bring clarity, in which Klagenfurt, Fehervar and Salzburg will be allowed to select their playoff opponents in that order.

Snow causes chaos in the league Before that, however, two post-season tickets must be awarded. HC Pustertal, among others, fought for this this final match day, which was completely thrown off course by the snow chaos on the Brenner Pass , Salzburg received. At the end The HCP won against the Bulls 3-2 and will face Ljubljana in the qualifying from Sunday, while Innsbruck will play against Vorarlberg. The North Tyroleans' last game was scored 5-0 on Friday evening as Asiago did not make it to Innsbruck.

By the way: In Bolzano too, we had to improvise because of the traffic problems. Since an Austrian referee couldn't make it to South Tyrol, Neumarkt referee Turo Virta stepped in (not for the first time this season).

HCB Südtirol Alperia – EC Klagenfurter AC 3:0 HSBC: Harvey (Vallini); Valentine-Vandane, Teves-Di Perna, Miglioranzi-Parlett, Söderberg-Pietroniro; Halmo-Felicetti-Gazley, Frank-McClure-Thomas, Frigo-Mantenuto-Miceli, Brunner-Alberga-DiGiacinto Coach: Hanlon

KAC: Dahm (Vorauer); Unterweger-Jensen Aabo, Strong-Postma, Sablatting-Maier, Vallant; Ganahl-Haudum-Petersen, Schwinger-Hundredpfund-Kraus, Witting-Van Ee-Hochegger, Lam-Obersteiner-Lippitsch. Coach: Furey

Gates: 1:0 Dustin Gazley (penalty/4.53), 2:0 Michael Halmo (29.35), 3:0 Leonardo Felicetti (59.60)

Viewers: 3.490

The last match day at a glance: Pustertal – Salzburg 3:2 Goals: 1:0 Hannoun (15.58), 1:1 Huber (26.34), 2:1 Atwal (35.50), 3:1 Schofield (43.59), 3:2 Hochkofler (51.27) Audience: 2.677

Vienna – Villach 3:4 Goals: 1:0 Wardley (23.32), 1:1 MacPherson (24.25), 2:1 Weinger (35.18), 2:2 Lindner (39.55), 3:2 Böhm (42.41), 3:3 Lanzinger (50.32), 3:4 Lindner (54.33) Audience: 6.250

Linz – Ljubljana 6:5 Goals: 1:0 Feldner (4.13), 1:1 Gooch (7.51), 2:1 Lebler (15.13), 2:2 Zajc (17.21), 3:2 Feldner (27.07), 3:3 Bicevskis (27.33), 3:4 Pance, 4:4 Collins (40.42), 4:5 Mehle (41.41), 5:5 Romig (43.36), 6:5 St-Amant (58.55) Audience: 4.489

Graz – Fehervar 1:9 Goals: 0:1 McGauley (15.28), 0:2 Hari (16.46), 1:2 Matijevic (18.07), 1:3 Kuralt (24.17), 1:4 Kuralt (28.49), 1:5 Mihaly (29.42), 1:6 Hari (31.58), 1:7 Bartalis (34.16), 1:8 Leavens (39.50), 1:9 Fournier (46.09) Audience: 1.515

Innsbruck – Asiago cancelled (scored 5:0)

The final table of the basic round.

ICE Regular Season ICE	SP	TV	P
1. EC Klagenfurt	48	183:121	97
2. EC Salzburg	48	173:130	95
3. HCB South Tyrol	48	155:113	93
4. Linz	48	155:121	88
5. EC Villach	48	173:143	86
6. Graz99ers	48	149:121	86
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Bolzano's signal to the league: Let the games begin!

HCB Südtirol is ready for the playoffs, that much is certain. The Foxes gave 3.500 fans a foretaste of the hot phase of the season on Friday evening and also secured home advantage in the quarter-finals with a win against Ligakrösus Klagenfurt.

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