Alpine League 1998/99

Alpine League
◄ previous	1998/99 season
Master:	VEU Feldkirch

The 1998-99 season was the seventh and final staging of the Alpenliga in Hockey . A total of 16 teams from Austria , Italy and Slovenia took part. Defending champion was VEU Feldkirch , which was able to secure the championship for the fourth time in a row this season.

Participant field and mode

After the Italian teams had not participated in the previous year and therefore the 1997/98 season had only been played with nine teams, the field of participants was increased to sixteen teams when they returned. The EHC Graz, the successor to EC Graz , which went bankrupt last year, was originally there . However, this was granted only a short lifetime, as he followed the path of his predecessor during the basic round in December.

In the basic round, a simple round-trip round was first played, which resulted in thirty games for each team. The best eight of the 16 teams qualified for an intermediate round, which was played in the form of two tournaments with four participants each in Bozen and Feldkirch. There was a break in which the respective national championships were played. The two group winners then played the final. First of all the victories counted, in case of a tie the goal difference.

Developments after the season

The Alpine League was held for the last time in the 1998/99 season. Although successful, the league struggled with a number of problems throughout its existence. The fans often criticized the fact that some of the participating clubs did not meet the requirements for a league of this format, which was especially true for some of the Italian clubs. In addition, the lack of importance of the league was criticized, as it only served as a preliminary skirmish for the subsequent national championships, in which the national championship titles were usually played on a much smaller scale (in the previous season only the final was played after the national leagues) . When the Italian clubs announced that they would no longer be available for another season, the Alpine League was finally dissolved.

Austria and Slovenia, however, stuck to the concept of a transnational league and founded the Interliga for the 1999/2000 season together with some Hungarian clubs , in which Austria only participated for one season, as the league system in Austria was subsequently reformed (see Austrian Ice Hockey League 2000/01 ). The Interliga was able to keep a relatively large position in Eastern European ice hockey for a few years before it was dissolved in 2007.

Basic round

table

space	team	Sp	S.	OTS	OTN	N	Gates	Diff.	Pt
1	EC VSV	30th	27	0	0	3	197: 071	+128	57
2	EC KAC	30th	23	1	0	6th	169: 082	+87	48
3	Viennese EV	30th	21st	1	2	6th	164: 089	+75	46
4th	VEU Feldkirch	30th	22nd	1	0	7th	154: 080	+74	46
5	HC Bolzano	30th	19th	0	1	10	166: 113	+53	39
6th	WSV Sterzing Broncos	30th	15th	3	1	11	132: 131	+1	37
7th	HK Olimpija Ljubljana	30th	14th	2	2	12	158: 115	+43	34
8th	HC Merano	30th	16	0	2	12	150: 129	+21	34
9	Asiago Hockey	30th	15th	1	1	13	133: 136	−3	33
10	SG Cortina-Milano	30th	13	1	2	14th	119: 136	−17	30th
11	HK Jesenice	30th	9	4th	1	16	089: 109	−20	27
12	HC Alleghe	30th	6th	2	3	19th	106: 161	−55	19th
13	SHC Fassa	30th	5	3	2	20th	096: 144	−48	18th
14th	EV Bruneck	30th	5	2	3	20th	091: 181	−90	17th
15th	HK Bled	30th	4th	1	0	25th	055: 189	−134	10
16	HC Courmaosta	30th	4th	0	2	24	095: 208	−113	10

Playoffs

Group stage

Group A (held in Bolzano)

space	team	Sp	S.	OTS	OTN	N	Gates	Diff.	Pt
1	HC Bolzano	3	2	0	1	0	14: 08	+6	5
2	EC VSV	3	2	0	0	1	19: 08	+11	4th
3	HC Merano	3	2	0	0	1	12:11	+1	4th
4th	WSV Sterzing Broncos	3	0	0	0	3	04:22	−18	0

Group B (held in Feldkirch)

space	team	Sp	S.	OTS	OTN	N	Gates	Diff.	Pt
1	VEU Feldkirch	3	2	0	1	0	12: 08	+4	5
2	EC KAC	3	2	0	0	1	10: 04	+6	4th
3	Viennese EV	3	1	0	0	2	06:12	−6	2
4th	HK Olimpija Ljubljana	3	0	1	0	2	07:11	−4	2

final

April 12, 1999

HC Bolzano

0: 4 (-: -, -: -, - :-)

VEU Feldkirch

April 14, 1999

VEU Feldkirch

6: 0 (-: -, -: -, - :-)

HC Bolzano

With two clear wins without conceding a goal, VEU Feldkirch secured their fourth championship title in a row.

Squad of the Alpine League champions

Alpine league champion VEU Feldkirch

Goalkeepers: Erik Granqvist , Reinhard Divis , Bruno Campese , Leif Berggren Defenders: Dominic Lavoie , Patrik Aronsson , Niklas Gällstedt , Michael Lampert , Erik Ryman , Kjell Samuelsson , Patrik Lundback Attackers: Daniel Gauthier , Simon Wheeldon , Jonas Bergqvist , Rick Nasheim , Tomaž Vnuk , Gerhard Puschnik , Tomas Strandberg , Nik Zupančič , Andreas Loth , Bernd Schmidle , Fritz Gansler , Wolfgang Strauss , Christian Perthaler , Klaus Tschemernjak , Konrad Dorn , Walter Fussi , Bengt-Åke Gustafsson ( player-coach ) , Mike Rossi

statistics

Top scorer Item player team Sp T V Pt SM 1 Marty Murray VSV 33 26th 41 67 12 2 Richard Laplante Meran 32 21st 41 62 22nd 3 Gino Cavallini VSV 33 28 31 59 32 4th Daniel Gauthier Feldkirch 34 24 33 57 16 5 Igor Maslennikov Bolzano 26th 23 34 57 26th 6th Martin Pavlu Bolzano 35 19th 38 57 46 7th Stefan Nilsson KAC 33 10 47 57 38 8th Dmitri Kwartalnow KAC 32 34 21st 55 18th 9 Yegor Bashkatov WEV 33 23 30th 53 16 10 Ivo Jan Ljubljana 29 38 14th 52 40 11 Reggie Savage Asiago 27 25th 27 52 69 Jean-Yves Roy VSV 29 25th 27 52 26th Ray Podloski VSV 33 25th 27 52 4th 14th Sergei Vostrikov Bolzano 28 28 24 51 61 15th Anthony Iob Asiago 27 20th 31 51 67

Goalkeeper (at least 1,000 minutes of play) Item player team Sp Min GT GTS SO V SM 1 Michael Puschacher KAC 22nd 1278 48 2.25 4th 0 4th 2 Mike O'Neill VSV 31 1719 70 2.44 1 0 0 3 Reinhard Divis VEU 30th 1770 75 2.54 4th 0 4th 4th Fredrik Andersson WEV 29 1571 79 3.02 2 0 6th 5 Gaber Glavič Jesenice 20th 1165 69 3.55 0 0 25th 6th Trevor Prior Bolzano 35 2113 129 3.66 0 0 4th 7th Klemen Mohorič Ljubljana 21st 1143 73 3.83 1 0 0 8th Åke Lilljebjörn Meran 32 1896 130 4.11 1 0 4th 9 Mike Torchia Asiago 30th 1775 130 4.39 1 3 2 10 Piero Greco Sterzing 24 1412 107 4.55 0 0 4th 11 Andrea Carpano Fassa 29 1724 131 4.56 0 0 6th 12 Harald Golser Brunico 21st 1188 99 5.00 0 0 39 13 Diego Riva Alleghe 26th 1411 122 5.19 0 0 10 14th Anže Ulčar Bled 20th 1159 125 6.47 0 1 8th 15th Carlo Giovinazzi Courmaosta 23 1338 161 7.22 0 0 0

Web links

• Alpine League 1998/99 at hockeyarchives.info (French)