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Emotions ran high. © Villacher SV
Ahead of the Milan showdown: Bolzano slips up
HC Bozen suffered their second defeat of the season on Friday evening. In a spectacular match, Villacher SV prevailed in overtime.
09 October 2026
From:
Thomas Debelyak
Sunday holds a real highlight for HC Bozen: The Foxes will be visiting their arch-rivals, Milano HC. After almost 14 years, this highly anticipated duel is finally back. However, the dress rehearsal went awry for HCB: The ICE Hockey League leaders suffered a 3-4 overtime defeat against Villacher SV.
In front of 2.700 fans, the Foxes fired on all cylinders, registering 38 shots on Joe Cannata's goal, but in the end, Villach won despite managing only 22 shots. Why did the extra point go to the Eagles? Firstly, because they wanted the win that little bit more that night. Secondly, because they were clearly superior in one crucial area: their special teams.
All three of Villach's goals in regulation time came on the power play. The Carinthians converted three of their five power plays into goals, an outstanding record – or a sobering statistic for Bolzano's penalty killing, depending on how you look at it. HCB only managed one goal in five attempts with the man advantage. On a positive note, Daniel Gellon scored his first goal for Bolzano.
The highlights
| Premiere | Gellon scored his first goal in an HCB jersey to give his team an early lead (7th minute), followed by DiGiacinto, who perfectly deflected a shot from Bradley into the net (13th minute). However, Villach struck back before the end of the first period: During a power play, the wily Hughes delivered a brilliant pass behind the net, setting up Hancock for the 1-2 goal (17th minute). |
| It's getting wilder | In the second period, VSV equalized again on the power play when the puck fell to Sproul after a scramble, who scored to make it 2-2 (23rd minute). Cole Schneider put Bolzano back in the lead with a wrist shot (35th minute), but Sproul scored again – on the power play – after a short clearance by van de Leest to tie the game at 3-3 (41st minute). |
| Goal or no goal? | Shortly before the end, Bolzano celebrated what appeared to be Kivihalme's goal to make it 4-3. However, after a coaches' challenge, the HCB defender's goal was disallowed due to an offside in the goal crease by DiGiacinto (52nd minute). |
| The winning goal | In overtime, Villach's Wallenta sealed the victory with a magnificent goal. He snatched the puck in the neutral zone, skated past the Bolzano defense, and beat Domingue with a cheeky backhand shot under the crossbar. |
The defeat against Villach isn't a disaster, especially since Bolzano took a point and defended their top spot in the standings. Furthermore, captain Luca Frigo and his teammates are still undefeated after 60 minutes. Now comes the highly anticipated first-ever clash against Milano HC, Bolzano's biggest rival in history.
The two clubs will face each other in Milan on Sunday at 17 p.m. The dress rehearsal also went badly for the newly promoted team: in their first ICE home game, they suffered a surprising 1-4 defeat against Innsbruck despite a goal from Diego Kostner. HC Pustertal also suffered defeat in Linz.
Villacher SV – HC Bozen 4:3 nV
VSV: Cannata (Swette); Schreier-Sproul, Walford-Wall, Strong-Larochelle; Rebernig-Metzler-Hughes, Teasdale-Hancock-Wallenta, Cramarossa-Rauchenwald-Wieltschnig, Raspotnig-Maxa-SintschnigCoach: Allard
HSBC: Domingue (Costantini); van de Leest-Leslie, Hillman-Buono, Kivihalme-Larcher, Schneider-Elson-McClure, Ratcliffe-Bradley-Gazley, DiGiacinto-Mantenuto-Gellon, Frigo-Misley-Remolato
Coach: Karhula
Gates: 0:1 Daniel Gellon (6.55), 0:2 Cristiano DiGiacinto (12.04), 1:2 Kevin Hancock (16.01), 2:2 Ryan Sproul (22.11), 2:3 Cole Schneider (34.18), 3:3 Ryan Sproul (40.52)
Viewers: 2.695
The other games
Black Wings Linz – HC Pustertal 5:2 (click here for the report)Goals: 1:0 Gaffal (9.11), 1:1 Bowlby (12.50), 2:1 Knott (13.32), 3:1 Gaffal (23.57), 3:2 Deluca (30.08), 4:2 Lebler (34.12), 5:2 Knott (54.31)
Audience: 3.466
Milano HC – HC Innsbruck 1:4
Goals: 1:0 Kostner (10.31), 1:1 Innsbruck (18.29), 1:2 Owre (34.06), 1:3 Richards (41.43), 1:4 Witting (58.44)
Audience: 2.654
Ferencvarosi TC – Vienna Capitals 3:2
Goals: 0:1 Lilja (2.52), 1:1 Savoie (21.40), 2:1 Kestila (40.16), 3:1 Toth (51.59), 3:2 Vey (59.06)
Audience: 1.418
Graz99ers – Olimpija Ljubljana 3:4 aet
Goals: 0:1 Lawrence (0.25), 1:1 Lippitsch (36.45), 1:2 Lawrence (44.00), 1:3 Meyer (46.50), 2:3 Huber (50.26), 3:3 Swaney (52.52), 3:4 Meyer (64.04)
Audience: 2.662
Fehervar AV19 – Red Bull Salzburg 1:6
Goals: 1:0 Ambrus (12.53), 1:1 Schneider (30.07), 1:2 Lee (35.10), 1:3 Lee (37.31), 1:4 Schneider (38.55), 1:5 Schneider (48.47), 1:6 Galipeau (58.28)
Audience: 3.771
Pioneers Vorarlberg – Klagenfurter AC 4:5 nP
Goals: 1-0 Murray (7:32), 1-1 Waschnig (14:37), 2-1 Britt (20:50), 2-2 Nickl (26:35), 2-3 Herburger (36:22), 3-3 Leeb (36:49), 4-3 van Nees (37:37), 4-4 Drozg (43:59). Decisive penalty: Hundertpfund.
Audience: 1.212
| SP | G | U | V | TV | P | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. HCB South Tyrol | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 31:20 | 19 |
| 2. Linz | 9 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 35:27 | 18 |
| 3. EC Klagenfurt | 9 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 37:27 | 17 |
| 4. HC Milan | 9 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 27:28 | 15 |
| 5. HC Pustertal | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 24:19 | 14 |
| 6. Olimpija Ljubljana | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 37:25 | 14 |
| 7. EC Salzburg | 9 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 30:31 | 13 |
| 8. EC Villacher SV | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 23:25 | 12 |
| 9. Graz99ers | 9 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 23:27 | 12 |
| 10. Vienna Capitals | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 24:24 | 11 |
| 11. HC Innsbruck | 9 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 22:26 | 11 |
| 12. Ferencvarosi | 7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 23:24 | 10 |
| 13. Fehervar | 9 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 17:30 | 10 |
| 14. Vorarlberg | 9 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 20:40 | 1 |
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