HC Appiano/Eppan

Merano and Pergine play for the Serie B title

Two-time Italian champion Merano and Pergine have qualified for the final Best-of-Five-series in Italy's second tier league 'Serie B'. Pergine, nicknamed the 'Lynx', was the eight-seeded team coming into the playoffs, sweeping the Aurora Frogs and Appiano Pirates on its way to the finals. The Eagles from Merano finished the regular season on third place, before knocking out HC Fiemme and the Neumarkt Wildgoose.

Kevin DeVergilio received 8-games suspension

After the tumultuous game #2 of playoffs quarterfinals between Appiano and Asiago, the Disciplinary Committee of Italian Federation fined Asiago forward Kevin DeVergilio with eight games-suspension for hitting intentionally an opponent with the stick, seriously wounding him. For other fights Appiano's Marc Olivier Vallerand received three games suspension and Matteo Tessari (Asiago) and Michael Messner (Appiano) one game.

INL playoff pairings chosen

The Inter-National-League (INL), joint competition of teams from Austria, Italy and Slovenia, has a fixed schedule for the upcoming quarterfinals. Jesenice beat Caldaro 4:3ot in the decisive game for the last playoff ticket. Immediately afterwards, the first teams picked their opponent for quarterfinals. The pairings are: Gherdeina – Jesenice, Appiano – Bregenzerwald, Egna – Feldkirch, Zell am See – Lustenau. All best-of-five series start on March 1.

Vladislav Serov died

Former Ukrainian forward Vladislav Serov, who played for the national team of Ukraine at the Olympic Games in 2002 in Salt Lake City (USA) and the World Championships in 2004 in the Czech Republic, suddenly died at 35 for unknown causes
Formed in famous Kharkov Druzhba-78 hockey school,Serov played for Ukraine at the World Junior Championship and then spent almost his entire career in North America, playing for various teams in AHL, UHL, IHL and ECHL. In 2003-04 played for Italian Appiano scoring 22 points in 18 games. In 2006-07 - his last active season - Serov won Ukranian title with ATEK Kyiv