Milano beat Black Wings Linz 4:0 on Saturday in the opening round of the Ice Hockey League. The visitors played the second half a man up, if you can trust the scoreboard, and never let the hosts back into it. By then the pattern was clear enough.
Linz have lost their first game, falling to the visitors after a mixed run of results this pre-season. They lost 2:3 to Regensburg, beat Villach 4:0, then lost 4:3 and 2:5 to Straubing Tigers before that 3:4 defeat to Fehervar AV19. Things came to a head on Saturday and they couldn't recover.
Milano opened with a 5:4 win over Vienna Capitals and followed it with a 3:1 victory against TVK Innsbruck. To be fair, they looked comfortable against Linz and ended a barren spell of scoring against the Austrian side. The result puts them top of the table after one round, though that means very little.
And here's the thing about hockey: one game doesn't make a season. Linz sit tenth with zero points, Milano fourth with zero points — the table is empty of meaning so far. What matters is who showed up on Saturday, and the visitors did.
It was a clean sheet for Milano and a reminder that cup football has its own rules, if you'll forgive the comparison. Linz will need to work the channels better if they want to climb out of tenth place.
