The U-15 48er Stars started off slowly but showed what they were made of Saturday afternoon in Vienna by defeating a stronger than expected Villacher SV by a score of 6 - 2, to take themselves one step closer to their ultimate goal the Austrian under 15 Championship. It was not what the home team expected and they were caught off guard by a fast skating hard checking group from Corinthia that went out to an early 1 - 0 lead at the 4 minute mark and continued to pressure the Stars throughout the first half of the period. Then on a well executed power play  the 48er Stars got the equalizer on a nice point shot form Stefan Hrdina with assists to Schröder and Krammer. Five minutes later a determined Cedric Irhuesoie not only got the puck away from the Villach defenseman at his own blue line, he then raced down the ice and managed to get off a shot while under pressure from the secon defenseman and banged in his own rebound to give the homeside an unassised 2 - 1 lead goining into the first period break.

Villach pressed for the equalizer early in the second and with the man advantage (Weber in the box)  some poor short handed play by the Stars gave VSV the break they needed and the game was again tied at two. Both teams missed on several good scoring chances and in the penalty filled period niether team was able to gain the advantage until the 33rd minute when a nice give and go lead in a quick one timer from the slot by Philipp Kreuzer off a great pass by Victoria Hummel to put the home side up again. Just two minutes later an even nicer play ended in a Nikolaus Houben score from a clever Fritz Schröder pass gaining some much needed breathing room. Villach continued to counter with some great quick transition chances which were handled flawlessly by the Stars goalie Raphi Ungar.

Going into the third with a 4 - 2 lead the 48er Stars now had to continue to play thier game and protect against the Villach counters that had plagued them throughout the game. They managed to contain Villachs offense the first half of the period and began to slowly take over the game. After Sam Atonitsch banged in another nice passing play from Schröder and Hrdina the Stars settled in to a more conservative mode failing on a number of clear chances to add to the score until Dylan Weber off found the net off a nice goal mouth pass from Niki Kraus and a helper by Philipp Kreuzer. The 48er Stars needed to kill off two late period penalies to maintain their lead, which they did and brought home the win.

In the dressig room a very relieved coach Vorlicek let his team know he was happy with the result but not happy with the many giveaways afforded the opposition in this game. "We worked hard but at times not very smart which lead too many Villach opportunities. We just did not find our game early on and it took some good individual efforts to secure the victory."

Next Saturday the 48er Stars take on HC Innsbruck in Vienna at 16:00 and will need to be better defensively in their quest for the title!