Week End Early for Black Wings

With no games on Saturday or Sunday, the week ended with back-to-back losses (outscored 15-7 in aggregate) Thursday and Friday nights.
Thursday's 7-4 drubbing at the hands of the Dayton Musicmen saw the wings outshot 50-24 but worse still, it saw defensemen Jeff Schultz, Frantisek Kaberle and Jordan Leopold all injured for the long-term. This pretty much ends the season for the Black Wings as the likes of Derrick Walser and Greg Zanon won't be able to hold back the tide of CCHL forwards for a month as the rest of the defense corp gets healthy.
On Friday night the Wings moved onto Portland, were doubled up in shots on goal (46-23), and actually held onto a lead going into the 3rd period but Portland was able to score 6 third period goals to end up winning 8-3.
Monday night sees Linz up against Lahr in a game that the Wings could win....but don't hold your breath.

Linz Falls Again, Adds Goc

The Black Wings worldwide whirlwind tour continued Monday night as they slid sideways into Calgary and came out scratched and dented. Out shot 35-16, including 16-1 in the 2nd period, the Black Wings came out of the gate early but sputtered fast and paid the ultimate price falling 6-1 to the Chinook. The ever-eloquent Darius Kasparitus got the Black Wings on the board in in the first but after that it was all Calgary, evening the score a couple of miutes later. In the second period Eddie Belfour managed to survive a Chinook bombardment allowing only one goal finished the period 2-1. However, once fatigue set in, the Wing stopped skating and Calgary exploded for four unanswered goals in the 3rd.

An ugly incident in the 2nd period saw Donald Brashear run David Aebischer right out of the game, for which he did not receive a penalty call. However, on his next shift Steve Montador of the Chinook came to his goalie's rescue but was promptly pummeled by Brashear and got a 5 minute major for taking a beating. Brashear also got a 5 minute major and was ejected from the game. For Linz, it was the only victory they would be taking out of this game.

After the game it was announced that the Black Wings have acquired forward Marcel Goc from the Dayton Musicmen for cash. The General Manager feels that this is a low risk/high reward deal for the Black Wings as they gain a young forward with some possible upside, who speaks German as an additional bonus. To make room for Goc, Jeremy Roenick was put on waivers after scoring 11 points in only 21 games. While we appreciate his contributions to Linz, there is no future in Upper Austria for the aging vet as the team continues on it's long term rebuilding project.

1 point Week-end for Linz

Linz was able to only must one point this weekend in back-to-back games against Southwest and Havana. In the Havana game, the Black Wings actually held a one goal lead going into the third period before dropping the ball. The Moon's Petr Cajanek set-up both third period goals, taking advantage of a very tired Linz defense to finished off the Wings.

Recent free agent signing Bates and doghouse escapee Jeff Hamilton were able to muster 4 points each over the two games as secondary scoring, those two combined with Michael Ryder, has come to life over the past few games. Sadly, defense still is and will remain the issue.

Doug Janik will also miss at least the next game, tonight against Calgary, as he left the Havana game early in the second period. Linz finds themselves solidly in 9th heading into the 3rd game in three night tonight. Travel for these games included a night in the desert of the American Southwest, travel halfway around the world to the hills of Upper Austria, with a return trip to the Canadian deserts of Alberta.

Linz comes from behind to beat River Cities

Finally the blog-losing streak ends as Linz comes from behind in the 3rd period to take two points from the Renegades. Micheal Ryder's power play goal, right off an offensive zone face-off (20th of the year and 2nd of the game) with just over five minuets left was enough as the Black Wing hung on to win. Jason Spezza continued his torrid scoring pace too, collecting two assists on the night.

Some of the same old problems continue though as Linz was outshot again, but nothing like the more recent lospided affairs and got into quite a bit of penalty trouble. More quality goaltending from vet Eddie Belfour and strong penalty killing managed to pull it out.

Micheal Ryder was buzzing the night all night, perhaps showcasing himself prior to the trade deadline.

Linz's next game is against the Scorpions in the desert on Saturday, followed by a 12 hours flight back to Upper Austria to make it back in time to host the Cuban Moon. Word has it that Hugo Chavez will be taking in the game while in Austria for an OPEC meeting.

Black Wings die fast in Winnipeg

The Linz Blogger Losing Era continues as the Winnipeg Ferrets staked themselves to a 4 goal first period lead and never looked back. Linz made a game of it (coming back to 4-3 at one point) but being shelled 46-19 in shots on goal takes it's toll and Mike Knuble put it away for the Ferrets with a last minute goal (giving him a hat-trick on the night).

Jeff Hamilton, inserted into the lineup to provide some secondary scoring for the team ended the game with no points, no shots and a -2, not doing himself any favours. Hamilton, O'Sullivan, Pahlsson, Roenick and Jiri Hudler, have all spent time on the 2nd line with Ryder in an attempt to find some consistant production but to no avail.

Tomorrow, Linz continues on their roadtrip to River Cities to take on Cam Ward and the Renegades. Shot-blocker Greg Zanon will return from injury for the Black Wings and may provide a little assistance in front of Eddie Belfour.

Linz drops another one

I am starting to question the wisdom of this blog. Since starting it the Black Wings are 0-4-1 and have been heavily outshot in every game. Tonight's 5-0 shut-out at the hands of the Hawaii Sandblasters saw the Wings outshot 47-27. All five goals for the Sandblasters were even strength and Frantisek Kaberle was a -4 on the night and his passes were getting picked off with alarming regularity all evening.

The playoffs are beginning to slip out of view for Linz. Luckily they get two nights off before playing Winnipeg on Tuesday night, though both Garnett Exelby and Greg Zanon are both expected to miss this game leaving the team thin on the blue line.

Black Wings crash in North Dakota

A familiar trend continued last night with the Black Wings being heavily outshot (this time 49-13) against the Ibex of North Dakota. Falling behind early and getting into some bad penalty trouble in the 2nd period build up a mountain that even some late game heroics could not overcome resulting in a 4-3 final score. Additionally, Patrick O'Sulllivan and oft injured Jordan Leopold both left the game in the second period and did not return.

The game also saw the introduction of Shawn Bates in a Linz uniform, however, he was a non-factor playing 12 minutes with no real notes to speak of.

Linz will try again tonight in a game they must win if there's really any conceivable hope of making the playoffs, against Gale's Long Island Express.

Linz and Lahr Draw

Special teams got to work as the Black Wings crossed the border in Germany to do battle with Lahr. Nine penalties were called in the first period alone but amazingly the only goal scored in the period was an even strength marker by Lahr rookie Braydon Coburn. His happiness would be short-lived as he left the game shortly afterwards and did not return.

Frantisek Kaberle and Kyle Wellwood scored the Black Wings goals, both on the power play. Once again, the Black Wings were heavily outshot, 35-22, however, the Lynchjustiz were held scoreless on the power play in ten opportunities.

All in all, this was a game the Black Wings were really hoping to win, however, given their play of late, it's not too bad to come away with a point on the road.

BlackWings downed by Ronin

After some promising play in January, the Black Wings skid into February sideways with a 6-3 loss to Victoria. As usual Linz was heavily outshot 43-18 and the Wings allowed six separate Ronin to score. The only bright spot of the night was the two goals by an otherwise struggling Michael Ryder.
2-2 after the first period (in which Ryder scored both Linz goals), the Black Wings managed to hang around until late in the second when Naslund capitalized on a Darius Kasparaitus penalty to put the Ronin ahead. Leading 4-3 after two periods, the Ronin salted the game away with two goals late in the 3rd.
Garnett Exelby was injured late in the 2nd period and will be out almost a month (he was alraedy a -3 in the game before he was injured).
Word in Upper Austria is that Wade Dubielewicz will start against MittelEuropa rivals Lahr, giving Eddie the Eagle a much needed rest. Belfour's faced so many shots this season he'll likely have to retire when it's over, hahaha.