The Vienna Capitals will host Hydro Fehérvár AV19 in the STEFFL Arena tomorrow, Wednesday. As part of the duel between the table neighbors, Kevin Constantine will meet his former club for the first time in his role as Caps head coach, with whom he reached the final of the win2day ICE Hockey League in the 2021/22 season. The game in the STEFFL Arena starts at 7:15 p.m. As usual, tomorrow’s encounter will be broadcast live on sporteurope.tv.
The Vienna Capitals have only won one of their last six games. This circumstance resulted in the Viennese taking eleventh place in the table with 21 points from 19 games. The gap to Hydro Fehérvár AV19 is six points, but the Viennese have played two fewer games than the Hungarians. A success over tomorrow’s guests would be even more important considering the table picture.
Caps captain Linden Vey is now the capital club’s sole top scorer. The 34-year-old Canadian recorded two assists in last Friday’s 4-2 defeat at EC-KAC after five games without a goal involvement. Vey has 18 points (5 goals + 13 assists) from as many games. The Viennese’s best goalscorer is still Carter Souch, who has hit the mark seven times so far. Caps head coach Kevin Constantine can rely on Sam Antonitsch again tomorrow. The 29-year-old Viennese missed the last two games due to an upper body injury. The quartet, consisting of Senna Peeters, Marco Richter, Maximilian Theirich and Sebastian Wraneschitz, is missing due to long-term injuries.
For Caps head coach Kevin Constantine, the first meeting with Hydro Fehérvár AV19 as head coach of the Viennese is tomorrow. The 66-year-old looked after the Hungarians from 2021 to 2023 and promptly made it to the final in his first season in Székesfehérvár. After the first duel of the season between the Caps and Fehérvár, which the Viennese won 6-3 on October 29th, the Hungarians gave Constantine’s successor David Kiss a leave of absence. Canadian Ted Dent took over as head coach during the international break. Like Kiss, Dent is also supported by associate coach Tyler Dietrich.
The 41-year-old played under Constantine in the Western Hockey League with the Everett Silvertips from 2003 to 2005. Fehérvár has won three of its last five games, most recently a 4-1 home defeat against Villach last Sunday. With just eleven points (5 goals + 6 assists), Anze Kuralt is the top scorer in the tenth place in the table. Together with former Caps strikers Darren Archibald and Trevor Cheek, the Slovenian leads the team’s top scorer rankings with five goals.
Statement Kevin Constantine, head coach of the Vienna Capitals
“The preparations for this game went well. We are continuing to work through our plan. Some of the elements we are working on are slowly becoming habitual. Once these habits are established, our flow and offense will also improve. We have already seen improvements in various areas, but there is still a long way to go. I still know a few Fehérvár players from my time there, some interpersonal relationships were built there. Tomorrow I will be on the other side, but I respect many of the players who are still there and did a good job under me back then.”
vienna-capitals.at , Image: Soós Attila
