Game Summary
As in the last two games, the Red Bulls immediately went on the offensive and were rewarded early this time. A pass from Michael Raffl into the left face-off circle found Troy Bourke, who made no mistake with a one-timer (3rd minute). This sparked the visitors' offensive onslaught, with end-to-end action keeping Salzburg's goaltender, Atte Tolvanen, busy. Mario Huber had the next opportunity on the power play at the near post (12th minute), but instead, the visitors equalized. Cole Bardreau was set up right in front of Tolvanen and slotted the puck home to make it 1-1 (14th minute). Shortly after, Mario Huber received a five-minute major penalty plus a game misconduct (16th minute). The Red Bulls defended the penalty kill, interrupted by two minutes of 4-on-4 play, effectively. After 20 minutes, the score remained 1-1 at the first intermission.
The visitors came out of the locker room with renewed vigor and promptly took the lead. Mats Frycklund fired a low shot into the far corner with a clever backhand (22nd minute). They continued to create dangerous situations on the power play in front of Salzburg's net, and the Red Bulls struggled to prevent another goal. Salzburg then turned up the heat again, and Nash Nienhuis, after several good shots, scored from distance to tie the game (28th minute). The game had become wide open, with good scoring chances coming thick and fast for both sides. Then the goals started coming thick and fast. Pustertal's Markus Lauridsen scored from mid-range at full speed (36th minute). Two minutes later, Luca Auer equalized – deflecting Cole Krygier's shot (38th minute) – and in the same minute, Jonathan Blum fired another shot from mid-range to give the visitors a 4-3 lead after 40 minutes.
After the intermission, the Red Bulls threw everything forward, and Peter Schneider had a golden opportunity to tie the game at the left post (44th minute). This gave the visitors space for counterattacks, but Salzburg remained dominant and looked for scoring opportunities. From the 50th minute onward, the puck was almost constantly in the offensive zone, interrupted only by occasional clearance attempts from the visitors. Thomas Raffl fired a one-timer over the net from close range (51st minute), and Benjamin Nissner hammered the puck against the post from distance (56th minute). In the end, they tried everything with six skaters, creating some chaotic scenes in front of the net, but the Red Bulls ultimately couldn't equalize and thus lost by one goal against Pustertal for the third time.
