The next cracker awaits the Steinbach Black Wings Linz in the first home game of the new calendar year. On Saturday afternoon, the Linzers will face a direct competitor in the fight for playoff qualification, the Villacher Adlers. For the first time, the Stahlstadters can be seen live on ORF 1. Attention: Due to the TV broadcast, the game starts at 4:30 p.m.!
With the 1:5 defeat against Salzburg, the Steinbach Black Wings Linz were unable to continue their successful end to the year in front of their home crowd. However, there isn’t much time to ponder, as the next important points will be discussed tomorrow. The Upper Austrians will host the Villacher Adler in the Linz AG Eisarena one last time in the regular season. The duels of the season so far are evenly matched. While the Carinthians won the first meeting in Linz, Brian Lebler & Co. took revenge a few weeks later with an overtime victory in the Villach town hall. The Eagles went through a dip in form in December and suffered eight defeats in a row.
Just yesterday, Villach ended this series with a 6-2 win against Innsbruck. Adam Helewka was in top form, scoring a hat trick and being involved in another goal. With 31 scorer points, the Canadian native is currently the second best point collector in Carinthia. Both teams are almost equal in the power play. The Linzers have a success rate of 22.22%, the Eagles follow closely behind with 22.12%. When it comes to penalty killing, however, the Upper Austrians have a significantly better rate. With 76.29%, Villach is in second-to-last place in the league comparison. Head coach Pierre Allard’s team has collected 42 points so far and is currently in seventh place in the table – one point ahead of the Upper Austrians, although they have played two fewer games. Between the posts, Joe Cannata is the clear number one. With a save percentage of 90.29%, he is in 14th place in the win2day ICE Hockey League goalie comparison.
Locker room update
The Steinbach Black Wings Linz had high hopes for the New Year’s match in Salzburg. After the two previous home wins, the Upper Austrians clearly had to give way to the champions. From the start, the league Croesus punished any carelessness in their own third and won the last duel in the regular season early on. Furthermore, the biggest construction site is around your own goal, because that’s where the defensive network makes it too easy for the opponents to act. The VSV took advantage of exactly this circumstance in their first guest game at the Untere Donaulände and exposed their weaknesses with the final score of 8:3 at the end of September. Linz also needs to catch up physically in the key games. In a traditionally emotional comparison of strength against Blue and White, Andreas Kristler and his teammates are challenged, on the one hand, to defend their fortress with all means possible. On the other hand, it is important to keep the games under control between the whistles. With Luka Maver, a physically present supporter returns to the squad after a month and a half injury break.
Seats for the game are sold out once again. All other tickets are available at www.tickets.blackwings.at or at the box office.
Voices:
Head Coach Philipp Lukas: “The game with the disc was hardly there because Salzburg kept us busy a lot. I hoped that we could play with a little more self-confidence, but we didn’t manage to do that. If you’re forced to defend for long stretches of the game, you’ll make mistakes at some point. I would definitely like to have conceded two goals back because they were structural problems. We addressed that in training today and prepared for tomorrow. We’re happy that we’ve got Luka Maver back after a long time. He embodies a certain passion and Emotionality – factors that we need against Villach.”
Luka Maver: “It’s been a long time where I’ve been working hard to get back. Finally it’s time and I’m ready. I’m really happy to be back. All the guys in the dressing room take our situation very seriously and know what to do. I want to do my best to help because we all have one goal: to win. We have to find our energy and finally play 60 minutes of Black Wings hockey. That means hard work, winning duels and consistently scoring go.”
Steinbach Black Wings Linz – EC iDM heat pumps VSV
📅 Basic round, round 36: Saturday, January 3rd, 2026, 4:30 p.m., Linz AG Eisarena
📺 Free live stream: ORF 1
Image: BWL / Eisenbauer
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