Gold for the Carinthian Steelers

Ahead of the fourth and final tournament of this first championship season in Para Ice Hockey, which took place at Gmunden Ice Rink on Sunday afternoon, it was already certain that the first Austrian title in this sport would go to Carinthian Steelers Klagenfurt.

The Carinthians, who had claimed six wins and conceded no goals over the previous three matchdays, once again demonstrated their class in the season finale, winning the gold medal with the maximum 24 points. This time, however, Klagenfurt did not keep a clean sheet, as the Graz Panthers celebrated their first goal against the Steelers in the seventh game of the season.

The battle for second place was eagerly anticipated. HV Warriors and Steirische Panther Graz had been evenly matched throughout the season. In the first three tournaments, the Lower Austrians won once and the Styrians twice after penalty shoot-outs. This meant that for the final meeting, the winner would claim second place.

Accordingly, the match was fiercely contested, with the Styrians opening the scoring through Michael Sauer with 1:0 after 6 minutes of play. It took until 18 minutes had been played for the Warriors to equalise through Dennis Wliszczak. But 50 seconds later, Sauer struck again to secure victory for the Panthers, who overtook the Warriors in the standings after their third consecutive win against them.

With an effective prevention concept and sufficient hygiene measures in place, the four tournaments of this first Austrian Para Ice Hockey Championship in Klagenfurt (14 February), Graz (7 March), St. Pölten (21 March) and Gmunden (28 March) were held smoothly and successfully.