Before the Vienna Capitals say goodbye to a short Christmas break, the second South Tyrol road trip of the season is coming up. It starts with today’s away game at HCB Südtirol Alperia (7:45 p.m.), before the Viennese team plays their last game before Christmas on Sunday at HC Falkensteiner Pustertal (6:00 p.m.). Both matches can be seen on sporteurope.tv.
Initial situation
The Vienna Capitals recently celebrated a 4-3 win over FTC-Telekom on Wednesday evening. Kevin Constantine’s team thus reduced the gap to the pre-playoff places to three points and, compared to their placed Budapesters, Hydro Fehérvár AV19 and Steinbach Black Wings Linz, played one fewer game before the Friday games. New signing Scott Kosmachuk made his debut in the Caps jersey against Ferencvaros and was able to contribute two assists. Captain Linden Vey, who scored the first goal of the game, is the Viennese’s best scorer with 23 points (6 goals + 17 assists). Carter Souch, who scored in the power play on Wednesday, leads the team’s top scorer rating with ten goals. Speaking of the power play: Vienna’s power play struck five times in the last three games. With a success rate of 23.75 percent, the capital city team has the third best power play in the win2day ICE Hockey League.
Penalty killing is the fourth best in the league with a success rate of 81.11 percent. The Viennese record outside the STEFFL Arena is less positive. While the Caps were able to win four of the last five home games, the Donaustadters have been waiting for a win for seven away games. Still under the then interim head coach Fabian Scholz, the Caps won 6-3 at Hydro Fehérvár AV19 on October 29th. The only point gained away from home since then was on November 28th in the 1:2 after overtime in Brunico. In terms of personnel, the coaching team can look forward to the return of Benjamin Lanzinger. The attacker sustained an upper body injury in the aforementioned away game in Bruneck. Senna Peeters, Marco Richter and Sebastian Wraneschitz are still out injured, Lukas Zach-Kiesling is not taking part in the road trip due to illness.+
Opponent
Today’s duel between the Caps and the HCB is the third meeting between the two teams within 21 days. Bolzano won on November 30th at the Sparkasse Arena, the Caps hit back on December 5th with a 4-1 home win at the STEFFL Arena. After the defeat in Vienna, the Foxes won their two subsequent games at FTC-Telekom (3:1) and against the Steinbach Black Wings Linz (7:4). During the success over the Upper Austrians, Doug Shedden was already behind the gang as head coach instead of Kurt Kleinendorst. There were also changes in the player squad compared to the last duel in Vienna. Finnish goalkeeper Christopher Gibson has been given a contract until February 2026 in response to the loss of Gianluca Vallini. Cole Schneider is the Foxes’ top scorer with 32 points (13 goals + 19 assists). Brad McClure leads the team in goalscoring with 16 goals. With 28 points from 13 home games, the Foxes are the second best home team in the win2day ICE Hockey League.
HC Falkensteiner Pustertal also has 28 points from 13 home games. The team from Bruneck last won against HC TIWAG Innsbruck 7-2 on Wednesday. Before that, the Pusterers lost three times in a row. This Friday the Wolves will face Olimpija Ljubljana away. The HCP only won both duels of the season against the Caps so far after overtime. Cole Bardreau is the be-all and end-all on offense for fourth-place Brunecker. The American leads the HCP in points (28), goals (13) and assists (15).
vienna-capitals.at Image: HCI / PAPA Productions
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