The derby is back – tomorrow at Sparkass Arena Bolzano against Val Pusteria

The long wait is almost over. In just over 24 hours, Bolzano and Val Pusteria will meet again in the third derby of the season, the 193rd in history. There is great excitement in Alto Adige for one of the main events of the Ice Hockey League's regular season: with online ticket pre-sales alone, more than 4,000 tickets have already been sold. Pre-sales will take place at the stadium today, Friday 5 January, from 4pm to 6.30pm, and tomorrow from 1pm to 2.30pm, with the evening ticket office opening at 5.45pm.

Bolzano
For the foxes, the moment is delicate. Three consecutive defeats put an end to the golden period, which until December 28 had seen the red and white team win 17 out of 19 matches. Now, however, there is a need to reset the situation, postpone the knockouts against Innsbruck, Salzburg and Vorarlberg and return to scoring points to consolidate the positions. The first six. There are 14 days left until the end of the regular season and the battle is heating up: at the moment, Bolzano is in fifth place, -3 behind fourth-placed Linz and +1 and +3 respectively in Innsbruck and VSV, who have a game in hand.Less. For the derby against Brunico, coach Glen Hanlon will have all his players available, except for Tyler Sikora.

Pusteria Valley
After a break in relationship with coach Valtonen, the Yellow and Black team returned to success on Wednesday evening, beating Asiago in extra time at the Intercable Arena. The excellent start to the season came after a decline that saw Andergassen and his teammates fall to eighth place in the standings. However, Val Pusteria wants to enter a recovery phase and bring back some important pieces that have been sidelined for a long time due to injury, such as Dan Catenacci. Indeed, Wolves are gunning for a place in the top six: four points separate them from VSV, seventh, and six points from Innsbruck, sixth.

statistics
Val Pusteria can count on the best penalty kill (85.4%) and second-best power play (26.9%) in the league. Even the reds and whites excel in numerical deficiency (83.5%), while with the extra man the results are mixed (17.2%). The top scorers are Christian Thomas (12 goals and 15 assists), and Jason Åkesson (6 goals and 26 assists). But in goal, the vote will be double: at home in Bolzano, it will be Svedberg (89.5%, 25 games played) or Fallini (92.6%, 10 games played), at home Val Pusteria Bernard (91.1%, 20 games played) or Smith (89.2%). He played 14 matches.

former
The derby on January 6, given the direct struggle for classification, represents the most sensitive match this season. In the previous two matches there had been a win for each team, both away from home: on 29 September, Val Pusteria won 2-0 at Sparkass Arena, thanks to goals from Schofield and Vryklund and a strike from Bernard. But on December 1, it was Bolzano who prevailed in extra time, 3 to 2, with a McClure goal after overcoming a two-goal deficit.

Ranking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZZNNHnX9es