The red jackets decide on Sunday afternoon in Styria, in Kapfenberg they compete against the Starbulls Rosenheim.
Four days before the opening game in the Champions Hockey League in Klagenfurt against Sparta Prague (tickets (opens in a new window)), the EC-KAC will play its last preparatory game on Sunday, August 24th. After three pre-season games on their own ice, the red jackets travel to Styria at the end of their test game series: in Kapfenberg they compete against the Starbulls Rosenheim from the DEL2, and the start of the game is at 4 p.m.
LineUP decisions only on matchday
It will only be decided on Sunday morning whether Sebastian Dahm (most recently suffered slightly) and newcomer Mario Kempe (arrives in Klagenfurt on Saturday afternoon) will be used. Fix will be missing against Rosenheim Fabian Hochegger (injured) and Maximilian Preiml (protection after a light injury in the game against Vienna), and one or the other veteran could get a break for relaxation. Therefore, Gerrit Böhs (17) and Filip Simovic (18) give their debuts in the fighting team, the two defenders and strikers Johannes Dobrovolny (16) then travel to the far north on Monday and add the U20 Travel team of the EC-KAC, which started on Friday its top-class Sweden trip.
Rosenheim wants to confirm a good season
The Starbulls, native to the traditional Bavarian ice hockey location Rosenheim, commuted between the second and third performance class in the past two decades, but most recently had a clear upward trend: in 2023 they returned to the DEL2 and have since improved from eleventh (2024) to fifth place (2025) in the final classification. The predecessor clubs EV and Sportbund played for years in the highest leagues in Germany, three times – 1982, 1985 and 1989 – even the championship title in the Bundesliga at the time went to the city near the Chiemsee.
Rosenheim is based on his Finnish goalkeeper Oskar Autio, who was voted both a player and the goalkeeper of the year last year. The three imports among field players- Shane Hanna in defense as well as CJ Stretch and Charlie Sarault in attack- are all filled with former ICE or EBEL players.
So far ten friendly games
The story of friendly duels between the EC-KAC and the Starbulls Rosenheim (or its predecessor clubs) dates a whopping 75 years back, on January 7, 1950 you faced yourself at the open-air place in the Glangassen Klagenfurter for the first time. In total, the clubs have met ten times so far, both of them went out of ice five times as the winner. In the last encounter, held on September 4, 2016 in Rosenheim, the red jackets won 2-1 thanks to hits from Thomas Koch and Jamie Lundmark.
Two -day ceremony in Kapfenberg
The test game between red jackets and Starbulls is increasing as part of the two -day anniversary event of the Kapfenberger sports association, which has existed in its current form for ten years. Sunday starts at 10 a.m. with an early shop, which the Böhler factory chapel framed musically, the hosts compete with the Atse Graz at 12 p.m. before Klagenfurt and Rosenheim cross from 4:00 p.m.
Day tickets for Sunday costs € 15.00 and can be obtained online at the coffers of the Kapfenberger Stadthalle or already online (opens in a new window). A broadcast of the game in the livestream-commented on the long-standing Mr. Ice Hockey in ORF, Michael Berger-is also available (opens in a new window) (Pay-Per-View).
kac.at Image: VSV/Krammer
