Match report
After a lively start on both sides, the Red Bulls, who were once again without seven convalescing players, felt their way noticeably better in front of Asiago's goal, where Cowley Stevenson initially did a good job. However, the real chances were still few and far between and the visitors also made dangerous counter-attacks into Salzburg's defensive zone. In the 13th minute, Benjamin Nissner had the best chance up to that point to head over the crossbar directly in front of goal. The Red Bulls set the tone, but were not yet compelling enough in front of goal. Just in the final minute, Alexander Ierullo shot towards goal almost on the baseline, where the shot was unfortunately deflected into the net by Salzburg goalkeeper David Kickert. Asiago led 1:0 after 20 minutes.
The home side stepped up their attacking game in the second period and Paul Stapelfeldt had a free shot from half-distance (24'). However, the visitors did not remain idle and took advantage of a miscommunication in Salzburg's defense, Matteo Gennaro unexpectedly got hold of the disc and scored from a turn to give Asiago a 2:0 lead (27'). Shortly afterwards, Philipp Krening failed to get through right in front of goal (30'). The Red Bulls were finally rewarded when Peter Schneider finished off Thomas Raffl's clever pass on a counter-attack to make it 2:1 (35'). The Red Bulls now clearly had the upper hand and went one better. Thomas Raffl fired in a hammer shot from the blue line to tie the game at 2:2.
Almost directly from the face-off, Peter Schneider went solo on goal at the start of the final period, but was unable to get a shot on target. After two consecutive Salzburg power plays without scoring, the visitors were back in the game. Then came the performance of Thomas Raffl. The captain beat a defender on a solo run across half the ice and backhanded the shot under the crossbar (48'). However, the game remained tightly contested until the end. Troy Borke scored what was supposed to be the decisive goal with an empty-net goal in the 58th minute, but Asiago managed to score a third goal on the power play as the final buzzer sounded. But that was it, the Red Bulls won 4:3 against Asiago with another short lineup and good efforts of some academy players and celebrated a 4-point weekend.