Course of the game
Six Red Bulls players had to sit out today due to convalescence. Instead, 20-year-old academy striker Maximilian Wurzer was delighted to make his sixth ICE appearance with the Salzburgers, also his first of the current season. The Red Bulls immediately played actively forward and put Vorarlberg goalkeeper Alex Caffi under pressure. Salzburg goalkeeper David Kickert only had to intervene for the first time in the 4th minute. The Red Bulls combined time and again in front of goal and created good chances. The flow was interrupted in the 12th minute when Dennis Robertson had to leave the ice with a 5-minute penalty. Salzburg took the lead in the defensive phase of all things. Andrew Rowe made the ideal pass into the path of Mario Huber on a counter-attack and he fired the shot into the corner of the net (12'). David Kickert stood out against a number of dangerous Feldkirch shots, even in numerical disadvantage, keeping the score at zero and Lucas Thaler increased the lead to 2:0 from half-distance shortly before the break.
The home side initially played better in the second period, with nothing happening on either side for a long time. But then the Red Bulls increased the lead to 4:0 with a double strike: Maximilian Wurzer was in the right place in front of goal when Peter Hochkofler shot and skillfully converted the rebound to score his first professional goal (30'). 22 seconds later, Philipp Wimmer took Scott Kosmachuk's pass directly from an acute angle and scored his first goal of the season (31'). The Red Bulls remained focused during the Pioneers' attacks and even made it 5:0 at the break after Andrew Rowe initially failed to put a solo shot on goal (36'). Philipp Krening made the most of his chance from the slot (38'), underlining Salzburg's dominance in the second half of the second period.
The Red Bulls continued like this. They worked hard at the back and intercepted shots with blocks. Up front, Lucas Thaler had the next great chance alone from full stretch in front of Alex Caffi (42'). The Red Bulls were visibly enjoying themselves, letting the ball flow a lot. Feldkirch became more dangerous again from around the 50th minute, but hardly had any chances to score. And then Lucas Thaler scored for the second time (51'), surprising the goalkeeper with a precise shot from an acute angle. The Pioneers then scored two more goals at the end. From a deflected shot from distance by Jakob Lundegard (53') and Julian Metzler scored free from the slot (60'). However, this did not detract from the clear victory of the Red Bulls, who celebrated a dominant 6:2 win against the bottom of the table and remain on course in the ICE Hockey League.