Now it's happened: Vienna cracks the Bolzano safe

Nine games, nine wins: The Sparkasse Arena has been an unbreakable safe so far this ICE season. Until, yes, until the Vienna Capitals stepped onto the ice in Bozen Süd for the first time. The Austrians, who traveled to the Talferstadt with a lack of personnel, had the right code word with them and deciphered the Bolzano armory with a 5-3 victory.

At first it looked as if the White Reds would set off fireworks again, because after just 31 seconds the Foxes took the lead with Mike Halmo's 11th goal of the season. But then the Viennese pulled the plug on the ICE leader. Coach Dave Barr had his players act with extremely high forechecking. This repeatedly caused trouble for the Bolzano defense, which affected the entire style of play: the Foxes appeared nervous and too often disjointed.

The deciding factor on Saturday evening in front of a great backdrop (almost 3000 fans were in the stadium) was our own mistakes. The first three Vienna goals all resulted from some blatant individual mistakes by the Foxes. Nevertheless, the HCB showed morale and fought until the end to win a point, but it wasn't to be. The best scenes Who is late ... ... life punishes him: after five minutes the score is already 1-1 in the Sparkasse Arena. After 31 seconds, Mike Halmo steals the puck from Vienna's Lukas Piff and scores his 11th goal of the season, then Sam Harvey lets a harmless Sascha Bauer shot pass between the pads (5th). Pretty good enemies Rafael Rotter elbows Halmo on the boards, which annoys him. He pounces on the Viennese bad boy like a bird of prey and knocks his helmet off his head. Suddenly several cracks are at each other and the stadium goes wild. Fatal mistakes First Mike Dalhuisen, then Cole Hults: The two Bozen defenders each played major bad passes and served Vienna's Matt Bradley (24th) and Rafael Rotter (he came straight from the penalty box, 33rd) the 2:1 and 3:1 on a silver platter . Pure excitement Matt Frattin for Bozen (39th), Maxwell Zimmer for Vienna (50th) and finally Angelo Miceli again for Bozen (58th): three power play goals ensure that it is 4:3 for the Capitals until shortly before the end. The HCB starts a final offensive, but the guests score the goal with an empty net. Glen Hanlon's team lost their second match in a row after the international break. At least for this night, Bozen remains at the top of the table, and on Sunday Salzburg could take first place with a win against Graz. Meanwhile, Vienna continues to Bruneck, where the match against HC Pustertal is scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m. Bolzano will face Klagenfurt away next Friday.

HCB Südtirol Alperia – Vienna Capitals 3:5 HSBC: Harvey (Bernard); Dalhuisen-Cole Hults, Culkin-Miglioranzi, Valentine-Di Perna; Ginnetti; Halmo-McClure-Gazley, Felicetti-Mitch Hults-Thomas, Frattin-Mantenuto-Miceli, Kasslatter-Alberga-Frank Coach: Hanlon

VIC: Steen (Starkbaum); Wall-Hackl, Piff-Würschl, Posch-Brunner, Rossmann; Zimmer-Sheppard-Bradley, Hartl-Prokes-Rotter, Antal-Kainz-Bauer, Böhm-Pilloni-Preiser Coach: Barr

Gates: 1:0 Mike Halmo (0.31), 1:1 Sascha Bauer (4.31), 1:2 Matt Bradley (23.18), 1:3 Rafael Rotter (32.19), 2:3 Matt Frattin (38.21), 2:4 Maxwell Zimmer (49.45), 3:4 Angelo Miceli (57.21), 3:5 Matt Bradley (59.05)

Viewers: 2932

The rest of the game Olimpija Ljubljana – HC Innsbruck 2:4 0:1 Shaw (7.02), 0:2 Ulmer (21.32), 1:2 Dodero (24.10), 2:2 Zajc (30.53), 2:3 Helewka (38.10), 2:4 Ulmer (59.28) Audience: 876

SP G U V TV P 1. HCB South Tyrol 19 13 0 6 69:49 38 2. Innsbruck 19 12 0 7 75:65 38 3. Salzburg 16 12 0 4 54:32 35 4. Villach 19 11 0 8 68:60 33 5. Linz 19 11 0 8 53:46 32 6. Fehervar 20 9 0 11 53:50 31 7. Vienna Capitals 18 10 0 8 57:46 30 8. Klagenfurt 19 10 0 9 59:51 29 9. Graz99ers 20 8 0 12 35:50 25 10. Olimpija Ljubljana 18 8 0 10 51:61 22 11. HC Pustertal 19 7 0 12 51:61 20 12. Asiago Hockey 17 6 0 11 47:66 17 13. Vorarlberg 17 3 0 14 30:65 10

ICE Regular Season ICE	SP	TV	P
1. Klagenfurt	47	183:101	102
2. Fehervar	46	146:126	89
3. Salzburg	46	142:107	87
4. HCB South Tyrol	46	137:125	76
5. Linz	46	146:116	75
6. Villach	46	155:136	74
View all

Football

Italy

International leagues

International

Winter sports

Tennis

Other sports

Motorsport

Cycling

Watersports

Events

Favorites

Now it's happened: Vienna cracks the Bolzano safe

HCB Südtirol Alperia's impressive, almost scary home series has come to an end. On Saturday evening, the Foxes had to leave the ice as losers in a home game for the first time this season.

Suggestions

Comments (0)