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Brett Pollock and HCB only managed a brief spell of dominance against Villach. © Manfred Mair
Ice hockey harakiri: Bolzano throws everything away
What was that all about, Foxes? On Sunday afternoon, HC Bozen threw away a seemingly certain victory in front of thousands of incredulous fans. Even worse: the struggling Villach club was actually given a helping hand in scoring goals.
11 January 2026
From the Sparkasse Arena in Bolzano
From:
Alexander Foppa
According to official club figures, 3.912 spectators – including countless children – attended Family Day at the Sparkasse Arena. In reality, however, there were likely many more who rubbed their eyes in disbelief after the final whistle in the packed stands. HCB Südtirol squandered a 4-2 lead in the final minutes and lost to Villach 4-5 in overtime.
The Foxes did manage to score points in their ninth of ten games under new coach Doug Shedden, but the flip side of the record is that HCB lost in overtime or a penalty shootout for the third time in a row. This means Bolzano is not a serious title contender – especially since their latest stumble came against a team that has only managed two wins in their last 14 games.
Blatant defensive weaknesses
But even the struggling Carinthians mercilessly exposed Bolzano's weaknesses: The once again revamped attacking units produced more fluctuating chances than well-thought-out attacks. Dozens of scoring opportunities went begging. New signing Matteo Gennaro, who took Michele Marchetti's place in the squad, was right in the thick of it and made sporadic appearances from the halfway point onward.
The poor finishing would have been forgivable, however, if the defense had performed its primary task – preventing goals – even remotely satisfactorily. Instead, the defenders wandered aimlessly around the ice at times, barely blocked any shots, and never cleared goalie Sam Harvey's view. As a result, VSV needed only 20 shots on goal to score five times – one more than HCB managed in their 46 attempts. An alarming statistic.
The wild goings-on in detail
| Villach double strike | Ten shots on goal were enough for the visitors in the first 24 minutes to take a 2-0 lead. For Strong's long-range shot that made it 1-0, Bozen's Samuelsson should have cleared his goalie's view (16th minute). For Hutchison's goal to make it 2-0, Swedish defenseman and new signing Cairns completely lost his marking (24th minute). |
| Brunner or Cairns? | Bolzano's goal to close the gap caused puzzled looks in the arena: Cairns fired from the blue line, Brunner got his stick in place and deflected it decisively (33rd minute). However, the goal was credited to the defenseman, who celebrated his first goal in his second appearance for HCB. No matter, the main thing is that Bolzano was back in the game. |
| Special teams stab | The scoring drought is over – and suddenly one goal follows another, though none at five-on-five. Gildon's goal to tie the game at 2-2 came with HCB on a two-man advantage (37th minute), while Gersich's goal to make it 3-2 came with a man advantage. And then Gazley adds another with a clinical counter-attack while shorthanded, making it 4-2 (52nd minute). |
| How can that be? | When all that remained was to secure the home victory, the Foxes did the exact opposite: they stopped playing hockey, practically invited Rebernig (52nd minute) and Hutchison (59th minute) to score, and then allowed themselves to be cheaply countered in overtime. Scherbak scored the game-winner for Villach in the 62nd minute, giving them an unexpected victory. |
This dropped point meant Bolzano missed the opportunity to close the gap on the leading trio. However, they'll have another chance in just three days: Shedden has given his players time off from training until Tuesday, after which they'll travel by coach to Székesfehérvár, 700 kilometers away, where their next league match is scheduled for Wednesday.
HCB Südtirol Alperia – Villacher SV 4:5 OT
HSBC: Harvey (Gamper); Valentine-Samuelsson, Gildon-Seed, Miglioranzi-DiPerna, Cairns; Schneider-Bradley-McClure, Pollock-Gersich-Gazley, Frigo-Mantenuto-DiGiacinto, Frank-Misley-Brunner, Gennaro.Coach: Shedden
VSV: Kulda-Vallant, Wall-MacPherson, Strong-Katic, Uschan, Hutchison-Helewka-Hughes, Scherbak-Hancock-Wallenta, Sintschnig-Maxa-Van Nes, Rebernig-Tschurnig-Prodinger.
Coach: Allard
Gates: 0:1 Steven Strong (15.14), 0:2 Nick Hutchison (23.36), 1:2 Matt Cairns (32.43), 2:2 Max Gildon (36.29), 3:2 Shane Gersich (39.44), 4:2 Dustin Gazley (51.11), 4:3 Maximilian Rebernig (51.38), 4:4 Nick Hutchison (58.43), 4:5 Nikita Scherbak (61.42)
Official attendance: 3.912
The other Sunday games:
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