HC Gherdeina edged EC Die Adler Kitzbuhel 4-3 in regulation, a game that stayed level through 60 minutes of scoreboard math until the hosts found the one goal the visitors could not answer. Neither side scored in the opening period, and every subsequent frame was traded evenly.
The first period ended 0-0 with the forecheck producing little clean looks. The middle period broke open for two goals apiece — goals at 22, 34, 35 and 39 minutes — and it was 2-2 after 40. The third followed the same pattern, one goal each, with strikes at 46 and 49 leaving it 3-3 after the period, before Gherdeina's fourth settled the 4-3 final.
The defining number is the symmetry: 0-0, 2-2, 1-1 by period, with Gherdeina scoring four times to Kitzbuhel's three. Six of the seven goals came inside a 28-minute window from the 22nd to the 49th minute, which tells you how little separated these teams until the last goal.