The starting position
The Red Bulls won yesterday in Bruneck against HC Pustertal Wölfe, who had been on top of the standings for a long time, with 4:1 and thus regained the lead in the standings (together with Székesfehérvár) after Villach, who had been level on points before, could not score yesterday. With the exception of Benjamin Nissner, Salzburg had a full lineup at the start and showed a compact performance, which they now want to bring to the ice in the home game against the Vienna Capitals.
The Vienna Capitals, on the other hand, haven't really found their stride yet and find themselves in second-to-last place in the standings (12th) with only three wins and ten losses in 13 games. It was only on Monday that the club management reacted and parted company with head coach Marc Habscheid. The coaching duties are temporarily taken over by the current assistant coach Christian Dolezal together with U15 coach Fabian Scholz - the native of Zell also once played in the Red Bulls' junior team. Also yesterday the Capitals had to succumb to the KAC at home with 2:5.
Two days ago the Capitals have strengthened with the Vorarlberg Kilian Zündel, the 22-year-old defender was loaned from the Swiss first division team HC Ambrì-Piotta. In yesterday's home game against Klagenfurt, the Austrian international has not yet been used. If he is cleared to play tomorrow, it would be his first return as a player to Salzburg - as it was for Dominique Heinrich, however, who could not be used recently due to injury - where he played in the Red Bull Ice Hockey Academy from 2016 and the last two years until 2022 in Salzburg's professional team and just in his last season also celebrated the Austrian championship title.
