Leclaire Finally Nets First Win of the Season

Pascal Leclaire (pictured) shone tonight as he picked up his first win of the season, beating the Havana Moon, 3-1. The first line of Jason Spezza, Kyle Wellwood, and Marty St. Louis continued thier hot streak (2 points each) and Michael Ryder added a goal just as Havana looked like they might get back into the game. Jason Spezza was a shocking 22-3 in the face-off circle on the night as well, ripping mainly into Eric Staal and brought his season point total to 95.

Linz took the lead early in the 1st period on Kyle Wellwood's 19th goal of the season on a stellar pass from Spezza. Early in the 2nd period, Spezza added one of his own, this time on a rebound off of a Martin St. Louis shot and Linz headed into the 3rd on unknown ground, holding a 2-0 lead, perhaps the worst lead in all of hockey. Only 32 seconds in the 3rd period, Alex Ovechkin scored his 32nd and brought the Moon within one and many of the fans in the Eishalle thought this was the beginning of another Black Wings 3rd period meltdown. However, midway through the third, Michael Ryder intercepted a Ric Jackman pass and was left all alone to spring down the ice and deposit the puck behind Marty Biron to make it 3-1 and seal the deal.

Overall the game was a small bright spot after a loss against Southwest the night before (despite the heroics of Spezza-Wellwood-St. Louis) and the night before travelling to Karlstad for their third game in three nights. Making tomorrow nights game even more difficult will be the fact that Jordan Leopold, Linz' #1 (when healthy) defenseman left the game again. He'll not suit up in Sweden and may indeed be lost for the rest of the season after managing only 52 games this year. Andy Greene will take his place in the line-up as the Black Wings play out the rest of the season.

Wisborg blows away Black Wings

Scott Gomez and Martin Straka of the Wisborg Donuts dismantled the Black Wings tonight 5-2 in Linz. Heavily outshot 58-22, the Black Wings spent most of the game playing in their own end of the rink and even more time shorthanded as some rather unbalanced refereeing led to 9 power play opportunies (and two goals) to Linz's one chance with the man advantage. The lone bright spot for the Wings was two goals by Jordan Leopold (pictured), his 7th and 8th of the season (with Spezza assisting on both goals). Stephane Robidas took 4 minor penalties himself and Donald Brashear added three of his own.

Linz will continue to play out the season on Sunday against River Cities. Pascal Leclaire and Kyle Wellwood should both be back for that match. The playoffs continue to slide out of view as well, as Portland won tonight.

Linz and Predators play dirty in Stinktown

Linz fell behind three goals early against the Hamilton Predators in Steeltown in a rough and tumble affair for a Tuesday night. Hamilton owned a 2-0 lead 1:11 into the 1st period on a goal by Sheldon Souray and it seems that at that point the Black Wings had already decided the game was unwinnable and began taking it to the Predators physically.

Just over a minute after the 2nd goal, Todd Fedoruk (pictured), perhaps in an attempt to spark his team, laid a beating on Jordin Tootoo and the game only got uglier from there. Midway through the 2nd period, Mark Streit lacde Boyd Devereaux into the boards. This led to an long delay at Jordin Tootoo took revenge for his Fedoruk beating out on Donald Brashear. Neither Devereaux nor Streit returned to the game after the incident. Donald Brashear also got a 10 minute misconduct for instigating and saw no more ice this evening after the incident. Kyle Wellwood also left the game in the second period in an apparently unrelated incident.

The rough play continued in the 3rd period as Todd Fedoruk and Sheldon Souray got into it again, however, only roughing minors were called but in the ensuring chatter, Sheldon Souray was given a 10-minute misconduct was hit the showers early. Somewhere in this mess, Garnett Exelby scored his first goal of the season.

Pascal Leclaire started again tonight and is still hunting for his first win of the season. He faced 35 shots on a night when the Black Wings defensive woes were glaring, 44 completed passes to 16 intercepted, but if you take out Greg Zanon's 13-0 record it's 31-16.

Kyle Wellwood, who has played a surprisingly successful role on the left wing of Jason Spezza and Martin St. Louis will miss a game or two. Boyd Devereaux, not so lucky, will likely be gone for the remainder of the season. Scottie Upshall is rumoured to be replacing Wellwood on the first line tomorrow night. Rookie Patrick O'Sullivan will replace Devereaux on the 2nd line against the Sandblasters of Hawaii on Wednesday to show of parts of what will likely be an integral part of the Black Wings 2008-2009 team.

Lahr power play drops Linz

Linz got into penalty trouble early and paid the price, eight minor penalties in a row to start the game. Lahr scored 2 first period power play goals and added another one in the third to put the Black Wings away 4-2. A shallow defense continues to doom Linz and sloppy play at both ends of the ice (almost 30% of thier passes are intecepted) make games difficult to watch.



Jason Spezza scored his 31st of the season and Greg Zanon added his 4th in the losing effort.

The rotating defense corps saw Derrick Walser benched as Andy Greene returned to the line-up.

Linz is off until Tuesday when they skid into the Hammer.

Linz Drops Two more

Denver and Long Island turns turns dropping the Black Wings, both with final scores of 6-2.



In the Long Island game, youngsters Sidney Crosby and Zach Parise each tallied four points in their win. Long Island dominated the game throughout but Boyd Devereaux scored his 11th of the season and Marty St. Louis scored his 26 in their losing effort. Additionally, Greg Zanon left the game early in the first period and did not return. He was also scratched from Wednesday night's game against Denver.

In the game against the Spurs Vicent Lecavalier scored a hat trick, with Marion Hossa assisting on all three goals. Ryan Smyth also grabbed three points and newly acquired Teemu Selanne got two assists. The Spurs shelled Eddie Belfour with 52 shots on goal as Linz diced with disaster as they played their second game in a row with now back-up goalie as Pascal Leclaire couldn't suit up once again and Wade Dubielewicz was trade to North Dakota at the trade deadline.

On the horizon, Pascal Leclaire and Greg Zanon should both be back for Saturday night's game in Lahr, Germany.

Linz Beats Niagara Falls, adds Robidas

Greg Zanon had a goal and an assist and Marty St. Louis added two assists as the Black Wings beat the Niagara Falls Thunder 3-1 on trade deadline night. On this night Linz made a couple of minor deals sending prospect Phillipe Gogulla to River Cities in exchange for unrestricted free agent defenseman Stephane Robidas. Additionally, back-up goalie Wade Dubielewicz was sent to North Dakota for goalie prospect Adam Dennis and forward Troy Brouwer.

Wade was a great back-up goaltender, however, with his limited GP and the upcoming retirement of Ed Belfour, we'll have to resign someone who can take on a bit more of a load for next season. In the meantime, up and coming Pascal Leclaire will back up Eddie Belfour. In his first start in months however, Pascal Leclaire was injured early in the first period and will not play in the next two games.

Stephane Robidas was playing in River Cities but was not expected to be resigned next season by the Renegades. However, Linz without an alternate auto-resign, picked him up with the full intention of keeping him on for at least another year. He'll be thrown right into the fire too as Darius Kasparaitus was waived after last night's game and it's expected Robidas will take his place in the Black Wings line-up.

The additions of Troy Brouwer and Adam Dennis bolster the Linz minor league system. Currently playing in Rockford of the AHL, Troy scored 41 goals last year and already has another 29 this year in the AHL. The jury remains out on what he can bring to the big leagues but 3rd line winger sounds about right.

Adam Dennis is a Buffalo goalie prospect mired behind Ryan Miller. He's small for a goalie and will liekly not amount to anything but a back-up. He will currently back-up Justin Pogge on the Black Wings minor league team.

Belfour shuts out Springfield

Once again the Black Wings got off to a strong start and, backstopped by Eddie Belfour, they kept a clean sheet against the Homers. Secondary scoring was the key tonight with Derrick Walser, the injury fill-in defenseman, scored twice with enforcer Donal Brashear adding one, and oft-benched Jiri Hudler scoring his first goal of the year. Jason Spezza assisted on three of Linz' four goals.

Doug Janik played a particularly strong game assiting twice, blocking shots and laying out hits all night long.

The sad part of the night for Hudler, Janik, and Walser is that with the return of Exelby and Devereaux from injury, there's a good chance that two of the three will be relegated to the press box for the next game against Beverly Hills.

The win puts the Black Wings only two points behind Portland for the final playoff spot in the Jazz Conference despite the poor play over the past month and the recent jettisoning of players.

Linz Waives Two

After tonight's loss against the Hawaii Sandblasters, Linz waived wingers Jeff Hamilton and Craig Adams.

Craig Adams, an old-hand Linzer has played the penalty kill in Upper Austria for years. However, with free agency impending and a rebuild project underway Craig was waived with hopes that another team will pick him up and give him a chance to contibute for a contending team.

Jeff Hamilton signed last season with Linz and has chipped in secondary scoring when called upon and the Black Wings organization wish him well.

Wings blasted in Hawaii

As usual the Black Wings got off to a decent start in tonight's tilt against Hawaii. However, fatigue set in and the Sandblasters were able to take over, scoring their game winning goal late in the 2nd period en route to a 4-2 win. Ilya Kovalchuk of the Sandblasters got assist on all four goals.
Again, the Black Wings were massively outshot (43-14) as the Linz defense, already missing Jordan Leopold and Frantisek Kaberle also lost Greg Zanon and Garnett Exelby leaving such names as Nolan Pratt (36 minutes on the ice tonight), Derrick Walser, Darius Kasparitus and Andy Greene to face down Kovalchuk, Alfredsson and the rest of Hawaii's elite club. Boyd Devereaux also left early in the game.
Linz will host Quebec tomorrow, short three defensemen.

BlackWings drop Wolves

Linz struck hard and fast at home to the Thunder Bay Timberwolves. Unsung heroes Shawn Bates and Derrick Walser scored two goals in ten seconds to give them a 3-0 lead and the defense was able to clamp down and hold Thunder Bay to one goal giving Linz a rare 3-1 win. Jason Spezza tallied another two assists and now closes in on 50 for the season.

Of note, no Linz defenseman has not missed time this season. Frantisek is the healthiest Linz backliner by missing only 6 games this year, followed by Jordan Leopold who's missed 8. All other defenders have either spent time in the ER or riding the pine.
Derrick Walser has only played 18 games, has 6 points in those games but is a brutal -14.
Linz already has three 20+ goal scorers so far this season. Last season Linz had only two, Ryder with 43 and Eric Lindros with 21 (most of which were scored elsewhere)