After yesterday’s overtime win against the Graz 99ers, the Steinbach Black Wings Linz invite you to their second home game this weekend tomorrow. This season, the Linzers are challenging Fehérvár in front of their home crowd for the first time.
Two days after the playoff-like duel against the Murstadt team, Brian Lebler and Co. are already hunting for more points! Motivated and with regained self-confidence, head coach Philipp Lukas’ team will face the red devils from Hungary on Sunday afternoon. As is well known, the duels between the two teams are not easy! At the beginning of the season, the Upper Austrians met the Hungarians away. The game remained goalless until the final period. The Hungarians were finally able to save themselves with a 1-0 lead in the 51st minute and win the game by the narrowest of margins. Since then, the Red Devils have played nine matches, winning four of them. Among other things, they prevailed in the games against Salzburg and VSV. One of the main people responsible is Anze Kuralt. The Slovenian currently leads the team’s internal top scorer statistics with three goals and four assists. In the home game against Vorarlberg, head coach David Kiss’s team had to admit defeat with a 1:4 and are currently in ninth place in the table.
Locker room update
With the win against their quarter-final rivals from last season, Brian Lebler and Co. were able to return to their playful face. Over the entire 60 minutes, Linz managed to be much more compact than in previous games and thus show dominance on the ice. In general, you could structure your own game in a much more structured way, making it easier to deal with small setbacks during the match. The Stahlstadters still had a bit of difficulty converting their chances – they recorded a total of 33 shots on goal, three of which were converted. Nothing will change for the Upper Austrians in the line-up for tomorrow’s game: Luis Lindner will still be without Luis Lindner due to injury.
Linz AG Family Sunday
In addition, the first of five Linz AG Family Sundays this season will take place tomorrow. On these match days, children and young people up to the age of 18 receive a free standing ticket at the box office. In addition, the earlier start time of 3:30 p.m. ensures that even the youngest ones can experience the ice hockey fever up close. There is also another ticket campaign in cooperation with the OÖ Familienkarte. Admission tickets for the whole family (standing room in the Linz AG Eisarena) are available at www.tickets.blackwings.at or directly at the box office for just 25 euros. This offer is limited to 200 cards per game.
After tomorrow’s home game against Fehérvár, the Linz team will get back on the team bus next Wednesday and make their way to the Innsbruck Sharks. The next double home game weekend takes place two days later. The Stahlstadters meet Vienna and Budapest. Tickets for the matches in the Linz AG Eisarena are available online at tickets.blackwings.at and at the box office.
Head coach Philipp Lukas:
“We had a lot planned for yesterday’s game, it was hard-fought and that’s what we expected. Getting two points in front of the crowd is great. Nevertheless, things are moving on quickly now. There was a lot of good things that we can build on, but also a few things where we need to be better. We found ways to put our opponents under pressure and were able to create chances for ourselves. What we set out to do was quite good for us for long stretches of the game succeeded. But there were too many penalties that could have been avoided and we have to work on that, but we are happy with the points. We have to understand what we have to do on Friday to get points. It’s an early game on Sunday and we will train and prepare and we need the same performance on Sunday. If you put your focus on hard work and a certain style of play, then maybe the chains fall off and I think that was achieved at times yesterday.”
www.blackwings.at, Image: Soós Attila
