Wolves win the penalty thriller against Thurgau

Stefan Mair surprisingly led the club from the small town of Weinfelden to the semi-finals of the Swiss League in March. Now the Swiss have found a renowned successor for Mair in the form of the Swede Markus Akerblom. In the preseason they were already able to achieve two successes against league rivals and only came off the ice as a narrow loser against the National League promoted Kloten.

For the Wolves, Dan Catenacci made his debut in the black and yellow dress in the newly formed “Italolinie” with Dante Hannoun and Anthony Bardaro. The injured Filip Ahl, Matt Spencer and Reece Willcox were missing, and Tomas Sholl was in goal for the second time. A tight game with few goals The starting third was balanced, with the Wolves being the slightly more dangerous team, but Thurgau goalie Bryan Rüegger prevented the home team from taking the lead thanks to two brilliant deeds. In the second minute he cleared the ball to Dante Hannoun after a nice pass from Anthony Bardaro. He was also able to scrape the puck off the line in extremis in the 8th minute, when Ivan Deluca practically only had the empty goal in front of him after magical preparatory work by Olivier Archambault. But the guests didn't hide either and missed their biggest chance to score to date just before the end of the period when Valentin Senn narrowly missed from the best position.

Tomas Sholl closed the Pustertal box. © Iwan Foppa / Optic Rapid

In the second third, the Wolves acted with even more forward momentum, but neglected their defense a bit. In the 27th minute, Thurgau captain Dominic Hobi fired a first warning shot that rattled the crossbar. A short time later, Sholl parries a slap shot from ex-Fassan Sebastiano Soracreppa, but Ramon Knellwolf pushes the rebound over the line to make it 1-0 for the guests. The black and yellow tried to react, but were unsuccessful in front of the opponent's goal for a long time, and it was only in the final phase that things got really tricky again in front of the Thurgau goal. With promising final attempts by Marc-Olivier Roy and Daniel Glira, Rüegger remained the winner. Shortly before the siren, the Swiss goalkeeper was also powerless: Hannoun served Berger perfectly in the slot, who sank the shot right into the left corner of the cross - 1-1!

Pustertal and Thurgau fought a hard-fought match. © Iwan Foppa / Optic Rapid

The final third was full of tension, both teams played from a secure defense, so scoring chances remained rare. Despite a power play for both teams, the score remained 1-1 and the game went into overtime. No decision in overtime In overtime, Morten Jensen failed to beat Rüegger after a nice solo action with his backhand. However, Thurgau had the best chance in the final phase when Hobi put the puck on the inside post. However, it remained a draw and the penalties had to decide.

The penalty shootout turned into a real thriller: in the first five attempts only Roy scored for the Wolves and Elo for Thurgau, after that only the Finnish superstar Eero Elo was successful for Thurgau. He always provided the right answer to the further goals from Archambault and Roy. Only when Bardaro put the HCP in front for the fourth time did Elo fail because of Sholl, who held on to the narrow victory for the home team.

The Pustertal continues in the preseason with the Vinschgaucup in Latsch, where the DEL top club Ingolstadt awaits on August 26th.

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
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Wolves win the penalty thriller against Thurgau

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