EC Red Bull Salzburg have something of a dip in form over the past few games, losing five on the trot and now consequently sit bottom of the upper tier, the placement round. Goalie Thomas Höneckl, who might get another start since Veteran Star-Netminder Marty Turco’s paperwork has not been finalized as of yet, says: “The whole team loses or wins. We’re not a unit out there at the moment. We can’t hot a barn upfront and on Defence, we’re open like said barns‘ door. That way, you can’t win games.“ 28 goals conceded while scoring 12 are proof he’s right. The situation down at Volksgarten’s sick bay doesn’t help matters: Rob Davison (lower body), Jeremy Williams, Danny Bois (concussions) and Alexander Pallestrang (Knee) are out. Steven Regier (Hamstring) is rated doubtful, Goalie Josh Tordjman is available following the removal of his wisdom tooth and gunning for a start after missing three, too, if Turco remains kept out by missing paperwork.
KHL Medvescak Zagreb returned to winning ways by beating SAPA Fehervar AV19 with Michael Ouzas turning in his first shut-out in Erste Bank Eishockey Liga. “Michael did well. The guys were on top of it mentally and played proper good and simple hockey.”, says Headcoach Marty Turco, who doesn’t care about Salzburgs cold streak. “They are a quality team and they’ll be at the next level with Turco. We need to play simple hockey, then we can win in Salzburg.” Slava Trukhno is the only players sidelined for Medvescak.

Olimpija face KAC
HDD TILIA Olimpia Ljubljana take on EC-KAC at home in their bid to stay in the hunt for the top-three. Coach Hannu Järvenpää: „It was a great game again. The whole team did well. Now, we need the same level of performance against Klagenfurt. A lot will depend on the goalies. We want to defend fourth place with a win.”, the Finnish gentleman said. Ales Music, Anze Ropret and Igor Cevetk are out injured, Justin Taylor is rated doubtful.
EC-KAC’s Forward John Lammers points out: “We’ve done better on the Defence. We need to step up production on the offence. We want to have home advantage in the Quarters. We could overtake the Slovenians. We need to play clever and simple. They have a good team, though and will give us trouble on the counter-attack.”
Tyler Spurgeon, Greg Hager and Stefan Geier are out. Dieter Kalt and Johannes Kirisits are rated doubtful by the organization. Russian Andrei Zyuzin will touch down in Klagenfurt on Tuesday and might be thrown in to the mix in Ljubljana already.

Can the Devils stop the Black Wings
EHC Liwest Black Wings Linz confidently circle atop of the standings, far from anyone else, with five points over closes rival Medvescak. Now, they could equalie their best streak (eight wins) this season with their fifth win over SAPA Fehervar AV19. Stat fact: The last three game winning goals for Linz came on the Powerplay, so we asked whether there had been extra training on that aspect of the game. Mark Szücs reacted unexpectedly: „Powerplay has actually improved since we train it less. The situations on the ice are always different and it seems to have helped. We go to net a lot, we go where it hurts. The Hungarian team, they are quality. They have given us a hard times everytime we played them. They play rather defensive and wait for their chances and have to absolute scoring lines and a third one that works extremly hard in the D. Overall, I think that if we play our game, we will win.” Danny Irmen has five goals in five contests against SAPA Fehervar and 24 overall. Daniel Oberkofler is rated doubtful, while Pat Leahy remains sidelined.
SAPA Fehervar AV19 may have been shut out by KHL Medvescak Zagreb but Assistant Coach Lajos Enekes shrugs it off: „That just wasn’t our day. We’ were only really good shorthanded.” Istvan Sofron (28 goals) and Derek Ryan (24 Tore, level with Irmen) will look to make amends for the blanks they fired in Linz up until now. Enekes looks for a team effort, though: „Black Wings play a great season and there are a lot of reasons for their lead. We only have a chance to get a wiun here if everyone does what’s necessary. Stick to the game plan, make as little mistakes as possible and react quicker in our zone because their extreme forecheck will out us in trouble if we don’t.” Balint Magosi is looking for a return, while Juraj Durco remains out. Bence Balizs, who’s up for the Young Star of the Month vote, will likely start in the net.

Tuesday, 31. January 2012, 19:15.
EC Red Bull Salzburg – KHL Medvescak Zagreb (243)
Referees: BERNEKER, FALKNER, Hofstätter, Zehenthofer
Previous matches:
07.10.2011: EC Red Bull Salzburg – KHL Medvescak Zagreb 6:4 (0:0, 2:1, 4:3)
04.11.2011: KHL Medvescak Zagreb – EC Red Bull Salzburg 5:0 (3:0, 1:0, 1:0)
06.12.2011: EC Red Bull Salzburg – KHL Medvescak Zagreb 6:2 (3:0, 1:1, 2:1)
20.01.2012: KHL Medvescak Zagreb – EC Red Bull Salzburg 6:3 (1:1, 1:0, 4:2)

Live-TV Sport TV (SLO)
HDD TILIA Olimpija Ljubljana – EC-KAC (242)
Referees: JELINEK, SMETANA, Hribar, Piragic
Previous matches:
23.10.2011: HDD TILIA Olimpija Ljubljana – EC-KAC 6:0 (2:0, 3:0, 1:0)
16.11.2011: EC-KAC – HDD TILIA Olimpija Ljubljana 2:1 (0:0, 1:0, 1:1)
06.12.2011: EC-KAC – HDD TILIA Olimpija Ljubljana 3:4 (0:2, 2:1, 1:1)
20.01.2012: HDD TILIA Olimpija Ljubljana – EC-KAC 0:4 (0:2, 0:2, 0:0)

EHC Liwest Black Wings Linz – SAPA Fehervar AV19 (241)
Referees: DREMELJ, KELLNER, Hütter, Rakovic
Previous matches:
23.09.2011: SAPA Fehervar AV19 – EHC Liwest Black Wings Linz 5:6 n. P. (3:1, 2:1, 0:3, 0:0, 0:1)
28.10.2011: EHC Liwest Black Wings Linz – SAPA Fehervar AV19 4:1 (1:0, 2:0, 1:1)
22.11.2011: SAPA Fehervar AV19 – EHC Liwest Black Wings Linz 3:4 (0:0, 3:1, 0:3)
08.01.2012: EHC Liwest Black Wings Linz – SAPA Fehervar AV19 4:0 (0:0, 1:0, 3:0)