After the 4-1 home win against Innsbruck, the Steinbach Black Wings barely have time to breathe. With the Red Devils, the next direct competitor is already waiting in the fight for important points.
After yesterday’s 4-1 home win against the Haie from Innsbruck, the next difficult task awaits the Upper Austrians tomorrow. The Red Devils are currently in seventh place in the table with 42 points, just four points ahead of Linz, with the same number of games played. The Hungarians have recently presented themselves in mixed form. Although they managed a 2-1 win against the Vienna Capitals, yesterday they were clearly beaten 0-5 by the Green Dragons from Laibach. It was the fourth game this season in which the Hungarians failed to score.
Overall, head coach Ted Dent’s team is having a hard time scoring goals: with 69 goals scored, they have one of the weakest offensive values in the win2day ICE Hockey League, only the Pioneers are even lower with 66 goals. The most dangerous player remains Trevor Cheek, who scored a hat trick in the last meeting with the Stahlstadters. The internal scorer list is led by Anže Kuralt with 19 points (9 goals, 10 assists). A clear strength of the Hungarians, however, is penalty killing: with a success rate of 84 percent, they take second place in the league-wide ranking behind the Graz99ers. Rasmus Reijola is the clear number one between the posts and is one of the best goalkeepers in the league with a save percentage of 91.84 percent. In the duels of the season so far, Fehérvár was just ahead. The Red Devils won both games in Hungary 1-0 and 4-2. However, in the Linz AG Eisarena, the Stahlstadters defended their home fortress impressively and celebrated a clear 7-1 win.
Locker room update
Although head coach Philipp Lukas’s team did not find their usual game for large parts of the first 40 minutes, the Upper Austrians improved significantly in the final section and really stepped on the gas again. It wasn’t a brilliant performance, but it was an all the more important victory, especially considering that the Black Wings had recently failed to achieve any tangible success despite good performances. It was all the more important to win such a game. In addition, the Linz team managed to score the first goal of the encounter for the first time in four games and thus take the lead. Three defenders, Christoph Tialler, Patrick Söllinger and Yohann Auvitu, were responsible for the goals with a brace. While Tialler scored his first goal of the season, Auvitu was able to celebrate in the Stahlstädter uniform for the first time.
On New Year’s Day, Linz will travel to Salzburg for a tough away game before they welcome the Adler from Villach in front of their home crowd on January 3rd, 2026. Tickets are available at www.tickets.blackwings.at or at the box office.
Voices:
Jonathan Oshgan: “It was important for all of us that we were able to get the win yesterday. Those were important points that we can now build on. Against Fehérvár we have to go all out from the first minute tomorrow. I think we didn’t manage to do that in Fehérvár and slept through the first third a bit. We have to do better tomorrow and keep pushing for the full 60 minutes.”
Mark Szücs: “It’s difficult to carry the momentum from yesterday straight into tomorrow because you have to work on it every time. Every player has to put in the necessary effort again. Yesterday’s positive result will help us mentally. However, Fehérvár lost very clearly yesterday and they will come with full commitment – we have to be prepared for that.”
Steinbach Black Wings Linz – Hydro Fehervar AV19
📅 Basic round 33: Tuesday, December 30th, 7:15 p.m., Linz AG Eisarena
📺 Live stream: sporteurope.tv
blackwings.at , Image: Soós Attila
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