There are two tough away trips waiting for the Steinbach Black Wings Linz this weekend. The Linz team will have their third meeting with the Vienna Capitals on Friday evening and their next direct duel in the table.
With regained self-confidence and even more energy, the people of Stahlstadt are starting the next intensive phase today. Five games will take place within ten days, two of them in front of a home crowd and three on foreign ice. The capital city team won the first game between the two teams on home ice with a narrow score of 7:6. The second and last meeting was a long time ago – Linden Vey and Co. had to admit defeat 1:4 in the “HalloWien-Special”. Since then, the Capitals have played 20 more duels, winning nine of them. Sometimes they won clearly in two out of three games against Bolzano, but on the other hand they had to accept a bitter 1:6 in Salzburg.
The Viennese team have also been playing under the new leadership of head coach Kevin Constantine since November. With last Monday’s game, which ended 5-2 for the capital city team, Kevin Constantine’s team collected another three points and is currently in eighth place in the table. Only one point separates them and the Linzers, who are one place behind. On Friday, the Linz team will have to pay particular attention to Vienna’s top goalscorer Linden Vey, who leads the internal statistics with nine goals and 26 assists. Carter Souch follows closely behind with 15 goals and eleven assists. Mitch Hults is in third place and has recorded a total of 22 points so far.
Locker room update
On the Linz side, they were able to score nine points in the last four games and also scored well in terms of goals. With two shutouts against Fehérvár and Villach and the win against Innsbruck, Brian Lebler and Co. recorded a total of 15 goals on home ice. While things are going positively at the Linz AG Eisarena, the Upper Austrians’ focus is clearly on improving their away record. This has been catastrophic in the current championship so far and the Stahlstadters have only collected nine points on foreign ice. The main reason for this is the start, which head coach Philipp Lukas’ team misses too often. The last time the first goal was scored in an away game was at the end of November in the game against Graz.
The excuse of numerous injury-related absences thankfully disappears after the turn of the year. Defender Gerd Kragl has also returned to full training this week, but a decision about his comeback will be made spontaneously. Thomas Höneckl will also act as a back-up again after recovering from a foot injury. Otherwise there are no changes to the Stahlstädter line-up for the away game against Vienna.
Two days after the match against Vienna, the Steinbach Black Wings Linz travel to Laibach. Next Wednesday, the Stahlstadters return to the Linz AG Eisarena and face Budapest. Tickets for the home game are available online at www.tickets.blackwings.at or at the box office.
Voices:
Head coach Philipp Lukas: “Against Vienna there is always a certain derby atmosphere, they are always close, hard-fought and emotional games and we have to be prepared for that. Of course we are always looking for ways to best prepare our team and regeneration is an important part of that. We have had the opportunity to use the time for this for a long time and so we found the two days off to be very positive.”
Andreas Kristler: “It will be a game with playoff character. We have to be 100 percent ready, show fighting spirit and give it full throttle. We were used to playing a lot of games over the Christmas and New Year period and we have to stay calm again now, but still give it full throttle.”
Vienna Capitals – Steinbach Black Wings Linz
📅 Basic round 38: Friday, January 9th, 7:15 p.m., Steffl Arena
📺 Live stream: sporteurope.tv
blackwings.at , Image: Black Wings Linz/Eisenbauer
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