On Wednesday the Vienna Capitals will be guests at Hydro Fehérvár AV19 and will play the first of three games within five days. The Viennese want to get their second win in the second game under interim head coach Fabian Scholz against the recently stumbling Hungarians. The game at the MET Aréna Székesfehérvár starts at 7:15 p.m. As usual, this game will be broadcast live on sporteurope.tv.
After four defeats in a row, the Vienna Capitals won again last Saturday against the Pioneers Vorarlberg. The 4-3 win after a shootout was the first victory over the Ländle-Cracks after six consecutive defeats. The Viennese remain in tenth place in the table with 15 points. The previously placed Hungarian teams FTC-Telekom (17 points) and table neighbors Hydro Fehérvár AV19 (16) are already within striking distance, each having played one more game. Attacker Mitch Hults was the Viennese match winner against Vorarlberg. The 30-year-old American was involved in all three goals in regular time with two assists and one goal of his own. In the shootout, the left-handed shooter sank the first penalty, which was also enough for the decision.
With eleven points (4 goals + 7 assists) after twelve games, Mitch Hults is in second place in the team’s internal scorer ranking. Caps captain Linden Vey continues to lead this with twelve points (2 goals + 10 assists). In terms of personnel, the coaching team has almost everything to offer. Leon Wallner returns to the line-up today, only the long-term injured Senna Peeters is out. Whether the ill defender Dominic Hackl can play today will be decided on match day.
Hydro Fehérvár AV19 lost the last three games in a row, on Sunday the Hungarians suffered a painful 1:7 defeat at the Steinbach Black Wings Linz. The team coached by David Kiss is the most harmless team in the win2day ICE Hockey League with an efficiency of 7.37 percent. For comparison: 11.55 percent of all shots on goal by the Vienna Capitals ended up in the opponent’s goal, which is the fourth best value in a league comparison. With only 25 goals scored, the Hungarians, together with the Pioneers Vorarlberg, also occupy last place in this ranking.
This is also emblematic of the fact that Anze Kuralt and Istvan Bartalis lead the team in the scorer rankings with just seven points. Former Caps striker Trevor Cheek only has three points (1 goal + 2 assists) after 13 appearances. With a plus/minus value of -10, the 32-year-old American is in last place within the team. In the preseason, the Hungarians and the Caps each won two of the four regular season duels, and in the “best of three” pre-playoff series, Fehérvár came out on top with a score of 2-1. The last meeting so far took place during the pre-season, which the Viennese won 4-3 after a shootout.
Statement Simon Bourque, defender of the Vienna Capitals
“Away games in Székesfehérvár are always difficult, we face a smaller ice surface and we have to adapt to that. We need every point and want to take as many as possible with us today. Our goal is to go into the international break with a good feeling, that’s why we need a lot of points this week. In the last two weeks we only had two matches, so I think it’s positive that we now have so many games in quick succession.”
vienna-capitals.at , Image: Soós Attila
