This is South Tyrol's best ice hockey village

The stronghold of South Tyrolean ice hockey is undoubtedly the state capital. There are no two opinions about this. At least when it comes to the performance of your own fighting team. The Foxes from Bolzano - who lost the final of the ICE Hockey League a few days ago - have been playing a leading role in one of the strongest leagues in Europe for years and no other club can even come close to this position, even if the HCB is in next year the ICE will have competition from its own country for the first time. The wolves of HC Pustertal were only accepted into the ICE circle a few weeks ago.

But neither Bolzano nor Bruneck could field the most powerful team in South Tyrol with native players from their own community. And this does not apply to the other ice hockey strongholds of Ritten, Val Gardena or Vipiteno. This rank currently belongs to the Überetsch wine village of Kaltern. Champion in the IHL, top player in the higher leagues Those native there “pikes” were recently the high flyers in the IHL. Not only are they the newly crowned champions for 2020/21, but they also won this title two years ago (last year it was not awarded due to Corona). As a result, the people of Kaltern can count on a whole series of excellent homegrown players, but they owe the rank mentioned here to another team, because the crème de la crème of the Kalterer ice hockey cracks are in action with other teams in higher-class leagues - at home and abroad. And the number of guest workers from Kalter and their quality is quite astonishing.

Kalterer are involved in almost all South Tyrolean AHL clubs and play an important role there. With the wolves in Bruneck, for example Raphael Andergassen a top performer for years, just like Matthias Mantinger at the Broncos in Vipiteno. Alex Free On the other hand, Buam was the Rittner Buam's goalscorer for years until he moved to Asiago last year and is now scoring important goals there. And at HC Gherdeina there are three people from Kaltern in action: the brothers Michael and Maximilian Sölva and Patrick Tomasini , although the latter was recently able to get a taste of ICE air at HCB Südtirol. Anton and Andreas Bernard as draft horses Not just a taste, but also a fixture in the former EBEL and now ICE is another Kalterer local for years. And he has even led his team on the ice as captain since 2018: Anthony Bernard is now an icon with the Foxes and, having won two EBEL pots, he is one of the most successful South Tyrolean ice hockey cracks ever.

This is what the dream team looks like.

Kaltern is traditionally well positioned at the goalkeeper position. Daniel Morandell and Alex Andergassen demonstrated this once again last season. But in the village's internal ranking they would probably still have to be content with places 2 and 3. With Andrew Bernard An absolute exceptional talent comes from Kaltern. The 30-year-old most recently worked for Väsby IK in the Swedish Allsvenskan. Next year he will look after the Villacher SV goal in the ICE. One even made it to the NHL But this is not the end of the Kalter flagpole. The absolute icing on the cake in Kalteren can be found in the best league in the world. As the first South Tyrolean ever to have Thomas DiPauli He made his NHL debut in January of the previous year with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but he was mostly in action with their farm team, the Scranton Penguins in the AHL.

He would of course be the figurehead of a Kalter all-star team. But just a look at his annual salary of 700.000 US dollars (around 590.000 euros) makes it clear that such thoughts will only be the stuff of a nice story, but never more. Together with the other guest workers from Kalter and the currently best people at home, the Hechte would easily be able to keep up in the Alps Hockey League. There is also external support The people of Kaltern don't have to look far for the coach. Your newly crowned champion coach in the IHL, Karl Anderlan, is a real godsend himself. And if he needs external support for his team, Angelo Miceli (HCB Südtirol) and Pontus Moren (Fiemme), who have now also made their home in Kaltern, might be there. In any case, the ice hockey world will continue to be able to fish from the Hechte basin, because the next generation of thugs is now in place so that Kaltern can continue to dream its dream team. Like 16-year-old Alan Lobis, who has been playing in the Finnish youth leagues for a year. All in all, a well-rounded story that sounds very good, but – as mentioned – will probably never actually take place on the ice.

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This is South Tyrol's best ice hockey village

It's not Bolzano. And not Bruneck, Val Gardena or Ritten either. The South Tyrolean town that could boast the most powerful local ice hockey team is completely different.

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