Jesenice – The Rittner Buam SkyAlps finished the weekend in Slovenia with six points. Following their 3-2 victory on Friday against KHL Sisak, they defeated HD Jesenice 3-1 on Saturday, thus maximizing their points haul from the road trip in the Alps Hockey League.
Two debutants from Kaltern in action
Coach Teemu Virtala had brought in reinforcements from the farm team, SV Kaltern Rothoblaas, for the two away games. Samuel Rohregger, 24, made his debut in goal for the Rittner Buam against Jesenice and made several strong saves in the first period. Jonas Oberrauch, 23, had already made his debut on Friday in Sisak. In the first period, Capannelli, Josef Prast, Schives, and Robert Öhler missed good scoring chances before Capannelli, playing shorthanded just before the break, stole the puck from an opponent, skated in alone on goalie Dukaric, and scored to make it 1–0 (19:32).
Shorthander ties the game for Jesenice
In the second period, Jesenice pressed for the equalizer but was denied several times by Rohregger and the crossbar. Ritten weathered three shorthanded situations with ease, only to concede the equalizer—of all things—while on the power play: Mlakar finished off a counterattack to make it 1–1 (38:42). The final period was a closely contested affair, with the goalies on both sides putting in outstanding performances. Miceli broke the deadlock in the 57th minute when, after a pass from Schives, he found himself alone in front of Dukaric and coolly finished to make it 2–1. Markkula sealed the 3–1 final score with an empty-net goal in the 60th minute.
