After the convincing 8: 3 away victory in Linz and the successful reaction to three defeats, the “Adler” recently conquered the title favorite in Graz with 4: 3. Now the blue-whites on Friday (starting at the game: 7:15 p.m., live on the Radio Carinthia ice hockey magazine and on Sporteurope.tv) want to celebrate their first home win of the season in the Villacher Stadthalle.
The starting situation:
The EC IDM heat pumps VSV currently ranks with 10 points from six games (3 wins, 2 defeats, 1 overtime defeat) in table position five and has a almost negative goal difference from -1. The “Adler” recently presented themselves particularly strongly: With a clear 8: 3 in Linz and a hard-fought 4: 3 win at the title favorite in Graz, Villach celebrated two full successes in a row. The Pioneers Vorarlberg, on the other hand, are in the table cellar: with only three points from six games (1 victory, 5 defeats, goal difference -16), they are in 12th place, tied with Innsbruck and Linz. The Vorarlbergers drove their only win to date in the 4-2 against Vienna. The direct duel also speaks a clear language: in the last ten encounters, eight went to Villacher, including all five recent meetings. The home balance is even more remarkable – the VSV has never lost at home against the Pioneers, but has won all the six games so far.
The opponent:
The Pioneers Vorarlberg are among the few teams in the league, in whose rows no player can show a direct past at VSV. In the goal, the Vorarlbergers continue to trust the duo Alex Caffi and David Madlener. On the defensive, mostly relies on proven staff, supplemented by new signing Louie Roehl, who came from the Echl from the Wheeling Nailers. In the attack, on the other hand, it was rebuilt: with Collin Adams, Cole Gallant, Nathan Burke, Eric Florchuk and Casey Dornbach, five new legionaries came to the team and form the new scaffolding of the offensive. Of them, only Dornbach and Adams can build on experience in European hockey, for the remaining three actors it is the first stop.
Opponents and Stats to Watch:
At the Pioneers Vorarlberg, the numbers clearly show where there is still a need to catch up. In both special teams, the Vorarlbergs rank in the lower league: in the power play you stand with 2 goals from 14 attempts and a quota of 14.29 % to tenth place, as well as outnumbered – there were only 12 out of 18 situations (66.6 %). The punch is also lacking: with only 127 goal shots in six games (21.1 per game), the team is in this classification at the end of the table. The Expected Goals statistics confirm this picture: Only 9:14 expected hits have been created so far. In addition, there are goalkeeper values that are currently still strongly below average, because both David Madlener (84.21 %) and Alex Caffi (84.47 %) move at the lower end of the league. Top scorer of the Vorarlberg is currently Cole Gallant with a goal and three assists in four games, his plus/minus balance is at -1.
Blue and white stats & facts:
The VSV is significantly improved after the last three games and shows offensive how defensively bright spots. Top scorer is now the Dutchman Guus van Nes with three goals and three assists at a plus/minus record of +3 in six games, and he also set eight hits. Captain Alexander Rauchwald, who comes to 1 goal and 5 assists, has a plus/minus rating of +5 and also blocked three shots. Paul Sintschnig also stands out: three goals and an assist in four games as well as a plus/minus record of +4 reflect its effectiveness. Physically, he presented himself strongly and collected 13 hits and 12 disc conquests in six games.
Philipp Lindner continues to convince the defenders. Born in Tyroleans, 2 assists, won 52.4 % of his duels and already made it to 19 shots. Despite the positive developments, the special teams remain a problem child: in the outnumber of Villach only 12 out of 22 situations (54.55 %), in the power play you met in 3 out of 17 opportunities (17.65 %). The offensive of the VSV is definitely highly emphasized: with an average of 34.4 goal shots per game, the most active team is placed in the league, and the most opportunities were created with 14.13 expected goals. Joe Cannata also shows strong performances in the goal: he parried 1.1 hits more than statistically expected and has a solid fishing rate of 90.34 %.
ecvsv.at Image: Bernd Stefan
