It's a shame – we fought hard but lost in the short term. It was a close match for a long time, but in the end the Bolzano team won against the undisciplined “Eagle” with 2-1 goals and also won the quarter-final series with 4-1 victories. The rest: EC iDM Heat Pumps VSV played a season with many ups and downs, but reached the playoffs for the fifth time in a row. Let's strike again next year! A big thank you to all VSV fans, especially our fan clubs for their great support at home and away – thank you!
The “Adlers” started the match against the Bozen-Foxes with the same line-up, i.e. without Maxi Rebernig, Arturs Kulda, Marco Richter, Paolo Wieltschnig and Andrew Desjardins and Maxim Collot. In the first few minutes, the blue-and-whites tried to take the momentum away from the home team's attacks, while also securing the win themselves with quick switch play. “Eagle” tactics seemed to work in the first few minutes; The people of Bolzano were not allowed to take any dangerous measures. The Eagles had the best chance to score in the 7th minute when Blas Tomasevic was denied from close range by Posen goalie Sam Harvey before Alex Wall could not capitalize on the rebound. As the game progressed the Eagles gained more confidence and looked more and more dangerous in front of Harvey. But he fell in the 11th minute – the opening goal for the home side: Willock's third strike was preceded by a needless penalty for blocking Robert Sabolic. Bolzano capitalized on a subsequent numerical advantage seconds later to make it 1-0 (11th) through Brad McClure. It stayed that way after the first third of the game.
At the start of the half, the home team stormed out of the locker room, looking to immediately follow. VSV goalie JP Lamoureux tries to stop Bolzano from scoring another goal. But the “Eagles” fought hard, had a lot of fighting spirit and rewarded themselves in the 28th minute: Felix Maxa equalized shortly after the numerical advantage for VSV expired. Villach poked the puck over the center goal line and beat Posen goalie Harvey to tie the game at 1-1. “Eagles” now returned to the competition – an open exchange of blows was created, a real playoff fight. However, the home side did it again in the 32nd minute: this time Christian Thomas curled a solo effort into the short corner from the right to make it 2-1. Just before the end of the half, John Hughes was forced into the penalty box for a tackle. But the “eagles” survived a minority of this number unscathed.
In the final third, the “Eagles” took more risks and became more attacking. It also created more space for the people of Bolzano. In the 44th minute, after a head check by the referees, Robert Sabolic was sent to the locker room early with a game-misconduct penalty. There was also a five minute penalty. But the “Eagles” fought back, threw themselves into the displays of the home team and were more than this for a long time with more effort. But that also required a huge amount of energy. VSV had two goal alarms in the final seconds, but the referees ruled “no goal” after reading the video. The “Eagles” lost the match and the series.
HCB Südtirol Alperia – EC iDM heat pipes VSV 2:1
Torrey: McClure (11.PP), Thomas (32.); Maxha (29.)
Photo: HCB/Vanna Antonello
