Skating hard, knuckling down and sacrificing themselves for the good of the team like one man, HK Acroni Jesenices players threw themselves at the powerful UPC Vienna Capitals. The visitors, who had arrived in Slovenia without Francois Fortier, heaped on the pressure, but failed to beat Michal Fikrt with their first period efforts, Jan Bercic could’ve scored for the Steelers but failed when running in alone on Raimund Divis.
In the second, the visitors made the young, inexperienced Steelers team pay: Right off the start, Jonathan Ferland took Fikrt out for a ride and scored the opening goal. The home side refused to back down and fought with all they had, at times stepping over the line of the rules. The result was Powerplay Vienna and Andre Lakos scored two Powerplay-Blueliners within 25 seconds. Heikki Mälkiä called a time out to allow his team to regroup, calmed the spirits and you could see the words helping. The Steelers failed to tally on a 5-on-3 and you can’t let chances like that go by if you want to win a game in which you’re 3:0 down.
They did better in the third period: Following Filip Gunnarsson’s shot that rang of the post, Antti Pusa hammered one in from just inside the zone. The Steelers played their hearts out and ran for the 2:3, but six minutes from time, they were caught on a counter attack by Benoit Gratton and Ferland, who scored his second of the night to secure the road win for Vienna.

Graz shut our Villach
No goals in the opening period of the Inter-Austrian Clash in the lower tier, too.
In the second, the home side began shorthanded and that would start the visitors downfall. Zdenek Blatny picked up a loose puck, and fired a shot in form the blue line that bounce off of Bernhard Starkbaum, over him and into the net. The Eagles were shellshocked and conceded again, five minutes later. Guillaume Lefebvre did well to dance by the whole Defence and then set up Sven Klimbacher for the two-nil.
Lefevbre added two goals himself in the third period, first firing up into the top-corner, then batting a rebound out of mid-air past a stranded goalie.

Graz and Vienna are now two points clear of Villach, three of Znojmo and five of Jesenice.

24.01.2012: HK Acroni Jesenice – UPC Vienna Capitals 1:4 (0:0, 0:3, 1:1)
Goals Jesenice: 1:3 Pusa (46.)
Goals Wien: 0:1, 1:4 Ferland (21., 54./sh), 0:2, 0:3 A. Lakos (28./pp2, 28./pp)

Moser Medical Graz99ers – EC REKORD-Fenster VSV 4:0 (0:0, 2:0, 2:0)
Goals Graz: 1:0 Blatny (21./SH.), 2:0 Klimbacher (26.), 3:0, 4:0 Lefebvre (48., 50.)