Zell am See and Jesenice reach the Alps Hockey League final

Zell am See comfortably prevailed over Wipptal Broncos Weihenstephan in the semi-finals and therefore remain unbeaten in the play-offs. The “Eisbären” won game four 3:0 – all the goals came in the final six minutes of the game. Hubert Berger gave the visitors the lead in the 55th minute, Philip Putnik made it 2:0 just one minute later, and Maximilian Wilfan sealed the victory with an empty-net goal.

EKZ netminder Max Zimmermann stopped all 27 shots on his goal and recorded his sixth shutout of the season. It was Zell am See’s first-ever semi-final appearance – and the Salzburg side have now immediately reached the final. Sterzing, meanwhile, suffered a semi-final exit for the second consecutive year.

In the final, Zell am See will face the 2023 champions, Jesenice. The Slovenians are in the Alps Hockey League final for the third time and caused a minor upset in the semi-finals by sweeping defending champions Rittner Buam SkyAlps. However, three of the four games were only decided in overtime. Jesenice won the fourth game 4:3 after overtime – Olli Valtola finally secured the decisive goal for his team in the 86th minute. Like Tjas Lesnicar, the Finn scored twice for the home side.

The score was 1:1 until the 54th minute, when Jesenice pulled away to 3:1 with two goals in 24 seconds. But Ritten battled back and equalised with two goals of their own in 66 seconds. Particularly impressive: Ethan Szypula scored twice for Ritten and finished the season with a total of 102 points. This makes him the first player in Alps Hockey League history to surpass the 100-point mark in a season.

The start of the final series has been brought forward to Saturday, 05 April. Game one of the “best-of-7” series will take place in Zell am See. This season, the Pinzgau side have won four of their five meetings with the Slovenians.

Alps Hockey League - Semi-finals:

HDD SIJ Acroni Jesenice vs. Rittner Buam SkyAlps 4:3 after overtime (0:0,1:1,2:2,1:0)
>> Goalscorers and statistics

Final score in the “best-of-7” series: 4:0


Wipptal Broncos Weihenstephan vs. EK Die Zeller Eisbären 0:3 (0:0,0:0,0:3)
>> Goalscorers and statistics

Final score in the “best-of-7” series: 0:4