After the hard-fought 5:4 overtime victory in Bolzano, the EC iDMWärmepumpen VSV is now looking forward. In the local town hall, the Adler are facing a groundbreaking double this weekend: on Friday (7:15 p.m.) they will meet EC Red Bull Salzburg, on Saturday (7:15 p.m.) they will face Fehérvár AV19, both games will be broadcast live on sporteurope.tv and on Radio Kärnten Eishockey-Magazin. This gives Blue and White the chance to collect important points in the fight for the pre-playoff places with the audience behind them.
The initial situation:
After the last difficult phase, EC iDM Heat Pumps VSV have two groundbreaking home games on the program next weekend. The Eagles are currently in eleventh place in the table after 35 games this season and are therefore still outside the pre-playoff ranks. With 14 wins, 21 defeats and 44 points with a goal difference of 108:120, the signs are clearly on the hunt for catch-up. The gap to the eleventh-placed Viennese, who have played one game more, is only two points – a small gap that could be made up for with a double win week against Salzburg and Fehérvár. However, a real challenge awaits on Friday evening with Red Bull Salzburg. The Bulls are in third place after 37 games, have collected 69 points and have the best defense in the league with a goal difference of +45 (121:76).
The offensive also works almost as desired, which makes Salzburg the clear favorites. After twelve wins in a row, Salzburg recently suffered a 1:4 defeat against Pustertal. The direct duel in the recent past has so far been evenly matched: out of the last ten meetings, five games have gone to the Eagles and five to the Bulls. In the Villach town hall, the Adler recently managed to win three times out of five matches, while the only home game against Salzburg so far this season was lost 3-4 after extra time. On Saturday Villach Hydro welcomes Fehérvár AV19. The Hungarians are in eighth place with 52 points after 37 games, have collected 17 wins and 20 defeats and have a goal balance of 89:116. The record against the Hungarians is slightly negative for Blue and White: out of the last ten matches, six went to Fehérvár and four to Villach. The Hungarians were also in the lead recently in the Villach town hall, three of the last five duels went to the guests, while VSV only left the ice as winners twice. The last meeting in Villach on October 5th ended with a 2:4 defeat for the Adler.
The opponents:
EC Red Bull Salzburg has been considered the benchmark in Austrian ice hockey for two decades. Twelve national championship titles and ten ICEHL championships (formerly EBEL) underline the dominance of the “Bulls”, who won the title again last season. After finishing second in the regular round, Salzburg swept the EC-KAC off the ice in the final with a commanding 4-0 sweep and were once again crowned champions. During the current season, a prominent name, Manny Viveiros, took over as coach. The Austro-Canadian is no stranger to Carinthia: between 1991 and 1995 he played for the VSV and later shaped the EC-KAC for years as a coach and sports manager. Viveiros most recently gained international experience in North America, including as head coach of the Henderson Silver Knights (AHL) and the Vancouver Giants (WHL). The signing of Michael Raffl attracted particular attention in the summer. The Villach-born striker returned to the ICEHL after his time at HC Lausanne. With 629 NHL appearances for the Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals and Dallas Stars, Raffl is one of the league’s most renowned newcomers. There are also several players with a blue and white past in the Mozartstadt squad: goalkeeper David Kickert (2017/18), VSV homegrown players Florian Lanzinger and Lucas Thaler as well as Thomas Raffl, who wore the Villach jersey until 2009 and recently played his 1000th league game.
While Salzburg continues to rely on a mix of star power and experience, Hydro Fehérvár AV19 presents itself as one of the most experienced teams in the league. With an average age of 28.26 years, the Hungarians are the second oldest squad in the ICEHL after HC Bozen. After David Kiss’s leave of absence, the club now relies on Ted Dent, who worked as head coach in the AHL for years and most recently looked after the Augsburg Panthers in the DEL. The Hungarians rely on the duo Dominik Horváth and Rasmus Reijola in goal. The defense remained largely unchanged, only the Norwegian Ole Einar Engeland, who came from HC Pustertal, strengthened the defense. The offensive, however, has been heavily upgraded: Darren Archibald, who already attracted attention in Vienna in 2020/21, faceoff specialist Drake Rymsha from Düsseldorf and Justin Richards provide additional depth and quality in the attack. Although there are no direct personal connections to the EC iDM Heat Pumps VSV, the wealth of experience in the Fehérvár squad is considerable. Together, the players have 59 NHL appearances, 164 games in the top Swedish league and more than 1,000 games in the AHL. The Hungarians recently secured additional offensive power with the signing of Max Gerlach. The American is no stranger to the win2day ICE Hockey League: he previously played for HC Pustertal and HC TIWAG Innsbruck and knows the league and its requirements very well.
Opponents and Stats to Watch:
Red Bull Salzburg is particularly strong this season, especially in terms of personnel. Michael Raffl stands out as one of the most important scorers: in 34 games he scored 14 goals and prepared 21 more goals, with a plus-minus balance of +16 and an impressive scoring efficiency of 18.2%. Troy Burke also deserves special attention: The striker has 11 goals and 16 assists in 28 appearances, a total of 27 points, and shines with the league’s best plus-minus rating of +28. In the special teams, Salzburg are below average: While the power play only scored 18 goals out of 112 outnumbered opportunities (16.07% success rate), the outnumbered team, with 26 goals conceded out of 123 situations, is also one of the weaker in the league (78.86% success rate, tenth place). Nevertheless, the Bulls shine in the duels, which they win on average 52.7%, especially defender Dennis Robertson, who won almost 54.1% of his duels. Salzburg also acted extremely efficiently at the faceoff point and was able to win 1,155 of 2,171 faceoffs (53.23%). The current form underlines the strength of the Mozartstadt team: In the last five league games, Salzburg have only conceded eight goals – one each against Linz, Vienna, Bozen, Laibach and four against Pustertal – and scored 19 goals in return.
Before this phase, they had previously recorded a series of twelve wins in a row before the most recent defeat against Pustertal (1:4) ended the series. In comparison, Fehérvár AV19 presents itself in a less dominant picture overall, but can make more of an impact in the special teams. In the power play, the Hungarians used 20 of their 107 powerplay opportunities (18.69%); when they were shorthanded, they conceded 20 goals from 112 situations with a success rate of 82.14%, putting them in fifth place. When it comes to scorers, “old master” Janos Hari (34 games, 11 goals, 15 assists, 26 points, -7) and Anze Kuralt (31 games, 10 goals, 14 assists, 24 points) continue to lead the statistics. There has also been a slight upward trend in goal recently: Rasmus Reijola conceded 77 goals in 29 appearances with a goals against average of 2.76 and a catch rate of 91.64%, while his backup Dominik Horvath scored 33 goals in 10 games with an average of 3.57 and a catch rate of 90.63%. While the Hungarians have been one of the league’s strongest duel teams in previous seasons, this season they only achieved a duel rate of 48.93% over the entire season, which means a decrease of almost 3% compared to the previous season. The Hungarians were able to celebrate three wins in the last five games, which slightly stabilized their recent form.
Blue-White Stats & Facts:
The EC iDM Heat Pumps VSV showed an impressive reaction to the recent mixed results in the 5:4 away win in Bolzano. Nikita Scherbak once again excelled and scored the decisive game-winning goal in overtime, also added two more goals and left the ice with a plus/minus balance of +2. Nick Hutchison shone with two goals: First, he took the 2-0 lead after a fantastic pass from Alex Wall, and shortly before the end he scored the equalizer that saved the Eagles into overtime. Defender Thomas Vallant also appeared to be defensively stable: He won 57.1% of his duels, brought 88% of the targets out of his own zone, scored four hits and blocked two shots. Goalkeeper Joe Cannata saved 42 of 46 shots, achieved a save rate of 91.3% and prevented 0.69 more goals than statistically expected. In terms of the season, Scherbak remains the heart of the offensive: in 34 games he recorded nine goals and 29 assists. Adam Helewka leads the scorers list with 17 goals in 33 games and 16 assists, while Guus Van Nes also makes an important contribution with seven goals, nine assists and a plus/minus balance of +9 with 16 points.
ecvsv.at Image: VSV/Stefan
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