Game recap
The home side were able to show off their defensive skills right at the start. There were two consecutive shorthanded games, including 42 seconds of 3 vs. 5. The defense held tight and Atte Tolvanen in Salzburg's goal made his first strong saves. The Red Bulls then began to build up their offense and pushed the Italians back into their zone for the most part. In the 13th minute, Peter Hochkofler deflected Dennis Robertson's shot beyond the reach of Bruneck goalkeeper Andreas Bernard to give Salzburg the lead. A short time later (15th), Mario Huber had the next great chance on his stick after a beautiful cross pass from Tyler Lewington. Benjamin Nissner (16) also had a chance in the slot on his comeback. But then the visitors turned the game on its head. Alex Petan scored first in the power play (17') with a concealed shot from distance. Mats Frycklund then converted Jason Akeson's short pass, who had previously driven through the Salzburg defense (20th) and then Matthias Mantinger also scored with a deflected shot 3 seconds before the break to fix the 2-goal lead after 20 minutes.
After the break, the Red Bulls wanted to counteract immediately, but had to concede two more goals within a minute. Jason Akeson (22') and David Morley on the powerplay (23') increased the visitors' lead to 5:1, whereupon Atte Tolvanen made way for David Kickert in goal. The sudden insecurity in defense was also evident when Raphael Andergassen scored the sixth goal after a brief scramble right in front of the goal (29.). The Red Bulls continued to fight and tried everything going forward. But the visitors remained dangerous with further chances - e.g. Dante Hannoun with a solo shot (37') - while Salzburg struggled in the build-up and, despite their best efforts, rarely finished well. 1:6 after 40 minutes.
The final third continued to be up and down, with many duels for the disc, but only rarely directly in front of goal. Salzburg also created chances with good shots from half-distance or, as on the 2-on-1 counter-attack with Florian Baltram on the trigger (54'), but then there was still Andreas Bernard in the visitors' goal, who didn't let anything through until the end. The Red Bulls never stopped playing, but were unable to break down the visitors' defense. Mats Frycklund finally scored for the second time that evening and sealed the Red Bulls' clear 1:7 defeat.