The Piedmont hosts were hungry for points after stumbling in their first two matches and seeking their first win of the season. Meanwhile, the improving Falcons wanted to build on Thursday's home success against Brixen. However, at the Cotta Morandini in Torre Pellice, 33 shots from Fassa against Valpe's 28 weren't enough to secure a positive result despite a good performance.
In a first period that immediately signalled this would be a hard-fought match, chances came at both ends but only Filippo Salvai found the net, opening the scoring at 13:50. Returning from the dressing rooms, with the Ladins still getting their bearings, Long doubled the lead at 21:11 with his first shot at Scola's goal. At this point, down 0-2, the Falcons weren't having it and began to increase the tempo, putting the home defence under increasing pressure.
Three minutes later they pulled one back through "Seba" Rossi, then restored parity with Salo's equaliser a minute and a half before the second buzzer. The third period opened at 2-2, but once again the opening moments proved fatal as Savolainen found the Piedmont lead after ninety seconds on the power play, scoring at his second attempt with a shot into the top corner.
At this point the intensity between the contenders increased and Fassa came close to equalising several times, but Valpe's defence held firm. In the closing stages, the Ladins tried the desperate move of pulling Scola from the net, but with an empty goal conceded 2-4 with Savolainen's second personal strike at 58:26, effectively sealing the match.
The journey back to Val di Fassa was pointless, but with the knowledge that the path taken by coach Laurila and his lads is the right one to positively face upcoming challenges.
The IHL returns to action next Saturday 4 October with the fourth round of regular season play. For the Falcons, another away match takes them to Cavalese to visit Valdifiemme for the classic "Avisio Derby".
Lineups
HC VALLPELLICE BULDOGS
Andrea Basraoui 60:00 (Federico Micheletti); Samuel Payra - Leonardo Sibille; Nicolo' Chiabrando - Francesco De Biasio; Jean Nicolò Leger - Loris Giordano; Andrea Ricca; Marco Pozzi - Tommaso Salvai - Cristian Long; Veeti Evert Olavi Vuorio - Filippo Salvai - Joonas Oskari Savolainen; Oleksandr Liubimov - Andrea Vaccarino - Filippo Solaro; Gabriele Piccoli; Tecnico: Dino Anthony Grossi;
FASSAFALCONS:
Gianni Scola 59:30 (Mattia Bacchini); Jimi Martti Mikael Kuronen - Andrea Ploner; Marco Defrancesco - Alexander Vigl; Dennis Kustatscher - Luca Roberto Carpano; Stefano Talmon; Niklas Daniel Salo - Alfeo Deluca - Andrii Mikhnov; Sebastiano Rossi - André Alexander Vigl - Tobias Moroder; Nik Trottner - Igor Cassan - Riccardo Stoffie; Nicola Defrancesco - Igor Bogdanov - Mirko Gilmozzi; Tecnico: Harri Juhani Laurila, Assistant: Luigi Marchetti;
Goalscorers
13:50 F. Salvai (L. Giordano, S. Payra) (1:0), 21:11 C. Long (M. Pozzi, T. Salvai) (2:0), 24:53 S. Rossi (T. Moroder, A. Vigl) (2:1), 38:05 N. Salo (A. Ploner, A. Mikhnov) (2:2), 41:30 J. Savolainen (V. Vuorio, M. Pozzi) (3:2, PP1), 58:26 J. Savolainen (F. Salvai) (4:2)
Penalty Minutes: 11-13 (2-4, 2-2, 7-7)
Shots on Goal: 28-33 (9-10, 8-11, 11-12)
Referees: A. Petrov, S. Vignolo (T. Brida, L. Tortia)
