Course of the game
After a short period of finding their feet with some unproductive back-and-forth, a brief scramble in front of Sam Harvey's goal began in the 4th minute. The Red Bulls then increasingly took the initiative in offense and the shots became more dangerous. The visitors were also dangerous in front of Atte Tolvanen's goal at intervals, but the Red Bulls created increasing stress in the Bolzano defensive zone. Nevertheless, the South Tyroleans defended well and rarely allowed any real chances, even with a lot of traffic in front of goal. Towards the end of the third period, it was up and down again, with Atte Tolvanen now having to watch out for some of the Italian shots. In the 18th minute, Nicolai Meyer hit the bar after Ryan Murphy's cross-ice pass, but 14 seconds before the break Lucas Thaler shot from the half-high slot to give Salzburg a deserved lead.
The Red Bulls started the second period full of pressure and played a five-minute overtime period early on after a penalty against Bolzano's Mike Halmo, but were unable to score despite several good opportunities. Salzburg continued to make more of the play and had chances with Florian Baltram alone in the half-high slot (30') and Nicolai Meyer with a direct shot in front of goal (33'). The visitors continued to make highly dangerous pinpricks, for example with Brad McClure from the slot (31). And then they scored the equalizer, the disc bounced from behind the goal directly to Christiano Digiacinto, who shot in freely (34'). The final phase was then an open exchange of blows, in which both teams took it in turns to play forward with chances regardless. The score remained 1:1 after 40 minutes.
The visitors initially went on the offensive in the final period, while the Red Bulls needed two or three minutes to switch back into attack mode. After a somewhat hectic powerplay (from the 44th), the Red Bulls also defended once while short-handed. The game continued to go back and forth, with the two teams playing with an open goal, with dicey situations alternating in front of both goals. And then the visitors went ahead, Luca Frigo scoring from an acute angle under the crossbar to give them a 2:1 lead (52'). The Red Bulls had the answer. Troy Bourke converted Tyler Lewington's pass at the left post (54) to equalize. From this moment on, the offense clearly belonged to Salzburg, who looked for the decision and played almost continuously in the attacking third. However, the score remained 2:2 after 60 minutes and the game went into overtime for the first time in the series.
But that was only to last 1:59 minutes, as Nicolai Meyer hammered the disk from half-distance towards the goal, where it was deflected by a Bolzano player and hit behind Sam Harvey; the Dane had also scored the decisive goal for the Salzburg championship title in the seventh game last season in Bolzano. The Red Bulls thus won the thrilling game 3:2 in overtime and qualified for the final series against Klagenfurt.