1998–99 Alpenliga season
The 1998/99 season was the seventh and final discharge of the Alps league in ice hockey. A total of 16 teams participated from the states Austria, Italy and Slovenia. Defending champion was the VEU Feldkirch, which was able to secure this season for the fourth time in a row the championship.
- 4.1 Group Stage
- 4.2 final
Participants and mode
After the Italian team had not participated in the previous year and, therefore, the season was held in 1997/98 with only nine teams, the number of participants was increased again to sixteen teams with their return. Present was originally the EHC Graz, the successor to the bankrupt in the previous EC Graz. This, however, only a short lifetime was granted, as it is still the way his predecessor followed in December during the reason passage.
In the regular season, first a simple round-trip round was played, which resulted in thirty games for each team. The best eight of the 16 teams qualified for the second round, which was played out in the form of two tournaments, each with four participants in Bolzano or Feldkirch. There was a pause, in which the respective national championships were played. Following this, the two group winners wore out the final. Here were the first victories, tied score the goal difference.
Developments after the season
In the 1998/99 season the Alps League was held for the last time. Although quite successfully contended the league throughout their entire existence with some problems. So was criticized by the fans often that some of the participating clubs not meet the requirements for a league this format fulfilled what was true in particular for some of the Italian clubs. In addition, the lack of importance of the League was criticized because it served only as preliminaries for the taking place after the national championships, most of which have a much smaller scale, the state championship were played ( in the previous season was only the final played according to the National Leagues ). As well as the Italian club announced not to stand for another season available, the Alps league was finally dissolved.
However, Austria and Slovenia stopped at the concept of a transnational league fixed and established for the 1999/2000 season along with several Hungarian clubs Inter League but participated in the Austria only for a season, as the league system was reformed into Austria in connection (see Austrian Ice Hockey 2000/ 01). The Inter League could keep for a few years a relatively large role in the Eastern European Hockey, before it was dissolved in 2007.
Regular season
Table
Playoffs
Group stage
Final
With two significant victories without conceding a goal, the VEU Feldkirch secured the fourth successive title.
Cadre of the Alps League Champion
Goalkeepers: Erik Granqvist, Reinhard Divis, Bruno Campese, Leif Berggren
Defender: Dominic Lavoie, Patrik Aronsson, Niklas Gällstedt, Michael Lampert, Erik Ryman, Kjell Samuelsson, Patrik Lund Back
Attacker: Daniel Gauthier, Simon Wheeldon, Jonas Bergqvist, Rick Nasheim, Tomaž Vnuk, Gerhard Puschnik, Tomas beach mountain, Nik Zupančič, Andreas Loth, Bernd Schmidle, Fritz Gansler, Wolfgang Strauss, Christian Perthaler, Klaus Tschemernjak, Konrad Dorn, Walter Fussi, Bengt -Åke Gustafsson ( player-manager ), Mike Rossi