The starting position
With yesterday's 6:2 away win against Asiago Hockey, the Red Bulls recorded their second win in a row and have thus returned to the top of the table. The two most recent wins against Ljubljana and Asiago were victories against teams from the bottom third of the table, but they also had to be hard-earned - yesterday the score was still 2-2 after the second period - and showed that the Red Bulls are on the right track. Especially with a better conversion of chances, ten goals in the last two games bear witness to this.
The Hungarians, however, are a different caliber team. The team led by ex-Salzburg man and leading player Janos Hari is holding its own in the top third of the table, but surprisingly lost at bottom of the table Graz on Friday. Yesterday, however, Hydro Fehérvár AV19 put that right and won 2:1 at home against Linz, who had been top of the table until then. In their first match against the Red Bulls, the Hungarians lost 4-1 in Salzburg, but that was over two months ago.
The opponent
Székesfehérvár are currently the league's top attacking team with 82 goals. The Red Bulls have scored 66 goals so far, which is the sixth-best figure. Concentrating on just a few goalscorers will not work, as ten Hungarian players have scored five goals or more so far. Janos Hari and Istvan Bartalis lead the way with 10 and 9 goals respectively.
By comparison, the Red Bulls have six players who have scored five or more times. Peter Schneider is the third-best scorer in the league with 13 goals.
Incidentally, Hungary's last win against Salzburg dates back to February 20, 2022. Since then - final 2022, basic round and quarter-finals 2022/23 and first game of the current basic round - the Red Bulls have always won.