Medvescak beaten in first Pula match

The long-awaited 2-game trip to the 2000 year old Pula Arena was opened on Friday with a game between Croatian side KHL Medvescak Zagreb and the Slovenians from HDD Olimpija Ljubljana. It was spectacular to see the fans on the historic stands pushing their favourite teams - just as mentioned often before in the media, it had a lot of modern gladiators and the specators in old Roman times. Due to the conditions in the arena the game was postponed around one hour but only Medvescak seemed to be affected by that. Michael Ratchuk, Scott Freeman and Jaka Ankerst earned a solid three-goal lead after 40 minutes. Only with the start of the third period the Bears from Zagreb found an answer to the agressive play of Ljubljana. Tom Zanoski and Adam Naglich brought the result as close as to a one goal difference. Despite several good scoring chances in the last 12 minutes of regulation, the small advantage for Ljubljana didn't change anymore and Olimpija gained its first two points of the season.

The match between hosts EC VSV and strong Vienna Capitals was decided in the shootout. In an eventful first period all four goals came in the power play. First Dan Bjornlie brought the Capitals in front already in the 4th minute before Gerhard Unterluggauer - with his third consecutive shot in a 5 on 3 occasion - and Derek Ryan turned around the result for the home side. The delight over the lead didn't last too long as Francois Fortier earned the equalizer just a minute later. The next goal only came in the 39th when Scott Hotham get the lead back to Villach. With the begin of the third period it was Jamie Fraser who tied the match for Vienna. Later Capitals goalie Matt Zaba became the hero of the match. First he stopped a penalty shot by Derek Damon in overtime and then he kept his goal clean in the following shootout where Marcus Olsson as only goal scorer gained the extra point for Vienna. With 3 consecutive wins they stay the only unbeaten team in the league after three matches.

In most cases playing against a top team motivates you and makes things easier as no one would expect anything big from your side. Well, in the case of newcomers HC Innsbruck the journey to Salzburg to face local EC Red Bull became a complete nightmare yesterday. They were overchallenged at all points by their experienced opponents. After only three minutes Kevin Puschnik already opened the score in a historic Salzburg night - it was the highest win ever for the Red Bulls in EBEL. Before the first intermission Raffl and Pöck had added another two strikes to have a solid advantage. The lack of discipline made life harder than necessary for Innsbruck in the middle period where Duncan, Kinasewich and Kristler were all succesful with the men advantage. But only after the 7-0 through Ross Lupaschuk in the 31st minute Italian national goalie Thomas Tragust was allowed to leave the ice. Substitute Patrick Machreich also only kept his net clean for eight minutes and just before the second intermission DiBenedetto added another one. The third period started again with a goal by Salzburg - this time Trattnig made it 9-0 in power play - but an epic disaster was avoided by Innsbruck as this was the final score. Salzburg did step from the gas pedal without allowing their opponents to gain at least the consolidation goal to give young 18 year old Red Bull goalie Luka Gracnar his first ever EBEL shutout. With 9 different goal scorers Salzburg today once more prooved the depth of their roster.

The second newcomer EC Dornbirn showed a far better performance this evening but maybe they are even more disappointed than Innsbruck. Aganst current EBEL champions Black Wings Linz they missed their first big sensation despite a 3-0 lead after 34 minutes through their imports Andrew Kozek, Dale Mitchell and John Hecimovic. Just after the third goal it seemed that Linz felt a fast reaction was needed and within only two minutes the Dornbirn lead melt to just one after Mitterdorfer and Grabher Meier fired the puck into the Dornbirn net. In the middle of the last period the pressure was too high for the home side and within five minutes Fabian Scholz, Andy Hedlund and Gregor Baumgartner had decided the match in favour of Linz with the 5-3. Still Dornbirn fans can be proud that their team has shown such a good game against one of the league's top teams.

EC KAC won their seccond match in a row, underlining their ambitions for a top stop in the regular season. Against the Graz 99ers Johannes Reichel, Markus Pirmann and John Lammers turned around the initial guest lead through Mathias Iberer until "half time". In the 45th Iberer scored his second power play goal of the night to give hope back ot his side. When Graz took a timeout and pulled their goalie out of the net for an additional attacker, the result was the empty-netter through Lammers who decided the game with his second of the night.

Czech side Orli Znojmo went as favourites into the match against SAPA Fehervar AV19 from Hungary after defeating their first two opponents this season. Kyle Wharton and Richard Jarusek earned a lead twice for them as a consequence but István Sofron and Balazs Ladanyi fought back for the guests to have a 2-2 after 40 minutes. Juraj Durco and again Ladanyi - this time with an empty netter - pathed the way for the first SAPA Fehervar win of the young season. With 9 seconds left Jan Lattner managed to score the 3-4 but instead of a last opportunity for Znojmo in the remaining seconds it was Arpad Mihaly whose empty-netter brought the final score of 3-5 with five seconds left on the clock.

 

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