01/20/2023 – HC Pustertal Wolves – HCB Südtirol Alperia

HC Bozen is a guest at the Intercable Arena in front of a sold out South Tyrolean derby house. The visitors come confident with 9 wins from their last 10 games and 3 draws in as many matches; On the other hand, the wolves want to fix what happened after the disgrace of Asiago. Coach Valtonen has to dispense with Christensen and top scorer Archambault and Spinel (for family reasons) and once again puts his trust in Scholl in goal. The suspended Halmo and the injured Dalhuisen and Glück are missing from the HCB.

HCP starts the game with impulse and never lets the foxes play. Pinpricks continue to lead, after 2 minutes Ahl and then Glira have the first chances, Harju hits the puck in front of Harvey alone (5), Roy manages a dangerous shot from the hole after 8 minutes. Willcox then gets carried away into an unnecessary foul on the gang and has to get into the cooler box for two minutes. The captain does not want to miss this opportunity and takes the initiative after only 30 seconds: Fratten passes the goal sharply from the right and Alberga only has to catch the scoops (11th minute). Bitter, because even then Shol had not had a single real chance to spare. From now on, the guests also play and come to different conclusions, but the game becomes more confusing. At the 17th minute Amorosa tries a blueliner, at the 18th minute Catenacci pulls out of the hole and a little later Bardaro clears the puck and Bozen can start at 2 on 1. But Scholl is still the winner against both Frigo and Sea Holts (19).

After a skirmish after the half-time whistle, the Wolves begin the second phase of the power play. However, this does not come to fruition and the two teams neutralize each other as a result, good opportunities are rare. The real action then comes from the 29th minute: in the two-minute pressure stage, the black-and-yellow really bite into the opposite third and face Plastino (alone in the slot after Hannoun-Kirbas), with Pavlin (Onetimer), with Ahl (from a short distance) And Willcox (shot from the right Hashmarks) also has very good chances to score, but Harvey cannot be beaten. At the other end, Miceli failed to hit Sholl from close range before McClure had to go into the box for being handicapped (32′). This time the majority game worked a little better; Roy misses his best chance alone against Harvey. After a solid play, it’s the HouseGuests’ turn again; Scholl’s first save with a big save (with his toe) against Fratten, who already has a goalie scream on his lips; Then a direct admission by Gazley touches the bar. The last chance for a sensational third with 27 shots on target (15-12) was found by Catenacci, who again tried central from the hole, but was still at 0:1 after 40 minutes.

The final section begins with another smash by Roy just 10 seconds later, and soon after that Bardaro fails to put the puck over the line. Even the numbers game two minutes later from the penalty spot against Gazzly does not achieve anything, the table leaders are very focused on penalties. Halfway through the third, McClure has a good chance to make it 2-0, but Sholl is denied; On the other side, a dangerous shot from Pavelin was blocked. When Diperna had to go into the penalty area in the 57th minute due to a late play, HCP had another chance to mobilize the last of his power playing power. But Catenacci gets caught up in the dribbling, and so Mantenuto and Frigo pull away at 2 on 1 and the Piedmontese serving HCB make it 0:2 with a shorter-game decided. Two minutes before the end of the game, Waltonen takes Scholl off the ice, but still cannot score. HCB shoots the empty goal with M. Hults to make it 0:3.

The second biggest favorite to win the championship title comes to Brunico on Sunday: at exactly 6:00 pm, the Wolves will meet the Red Bulls from Salzburg, who are third in the table (with two games less) and were without a match today.