Matt McIlvane: “Can take confidence after yesterday’s win”
© Sports report
Tomorrow, Sunday, EC Red Bull Salzburg will play the away game of the bet-at-home ICE Hockey League against HK SŽ Olimpija (Ljubljana, 6 p.m.). After a good four and a half years, the Red Bulls are returning for the first time in Hala Tivoli, at that time still the home of HDD Olimpija Ljubljana.
Exactly on January 13, 2017, the Red Bulls played the last basic game against the then HDD Olimpija Ljubljana and won there 4: 3. After the 2016/17 season it was over, the Slovenes got out of the then Erste Bank Eishockey Liga for economic reasons. Now the Red Bulls are playing again in the venerable Hala Tivoli, which was newly renovated last year and has space for 4,100 spectators, but against HK SŽ Olimpija, which was newly formed in the past from the former Slovenian Bundesliga club.
The new head coach Mitja Sivic has built a team in which you can see many familiar faces; from past times in Ljubljana or from other former league clubs of the Erste Bank Ice Hockey League. Names like Ales Music, Ziga Pance, Anze Ropret or Miha Zajc are still well known. With Mark Cepon, Miha Logar, Luka Kalan and Gregor Koblar, there are also four players in the squad.
The two current top scorers of the team, however, come from France and Canada and are called Guillaume Leclerc and Murphy Wade. The two have so far provided half of all points (goals and assists) in Ljubljana. And the Slovenes die with it being shot to second place in the table, which is warning enough for the league competitors. HK SŽ Olimpija won among others in Bolzano at the end of September. Yesterday the Slovenes prevailed at home against Pustertal 5: 3.
The party should be particularly exciting for Salzburg striker Aljaž Predan. The 21-year-old Slovenian has never played with Ljubljana and has grown up in Austria since he was 14 – a year with the Graz99ers, from 2015 at the Red Bull Ice Hockey Academy – but is still looking forward to a short return home. Predan has won the Austrian AHL championship twice with the Red Bull Hockey Juniors. In spring 2020, the Slovenian with an Austrian ice hockey license made his debut with the professionals of the Red Bulls, has recently played 20 games and is now playing for the first time in the ICE Hockey League against Ljubljana.
Salzburg’s convalescent players JP Lamoureux, Ty Loney, Lukas Schreier, Thomas Raffl, Alexander Pallestrang, Dominique Heinrich and Ali Wukovits cannot help with this difficult away task. Peter Hochkofler is also ailing after yesterday’s game (upper body) and will not be there tomorrow.
Salzburg’s Head Coach Matt McIlvane: “When you’ve done a job well [wie beim gestrigen Heimsieg gegen Villach], of course you get self-confidence. We are constantly working to build such confidence for both the individual player and the team as a whole. Our young team made it against Villach yesterday and can take this self-confidence with us to Ljubljana. ”The Red Bulls are two points behind the Slovenes in third place in the table. Departure for Ljubljana is this afternoon.
bet-at-home ICE Hockey League
HK SŽ Olimpija – EC Red Bull Salzburg
So, 10/10/2021; Ljubljana, 6:00 p.m.
Media information Red Bull Salzburg
10/09/2021