Salzburg after winning the regular season: “Grown as a team” – winter sports – ice hockey
EC Red Bull Salzburg scooped it all up on Tuesday!
On the one hand, the Mozart city-dwellers beat one of their biggest rivals in the ICE Hockey League, the spusu Vienna Capitals, 5:3. However, all the positive side effects that this victory brings with it shine much brighter.
For example, winning the ICE regular round. Because since Tuesday it has been clear that Salzburg can no longer be pushed out of first place. With this positive news comes other positive news.
By winning the regular season, the “Bulls” not only have the right to be the first team to choose the opponent for the upcoming playoffs, but also get their hands on the ticket for the next season of the Champions Hockey League .
McIlvane: “Where we had to grow, we grew”
Of course, Salzburg’s jubilation after the final siren was correspondingly large. Salzburg’s head coach Matt McIlvane is very happy that they were able to reward themselves against the Vienna Capitals of all places, as the last two meetings of the season with the Caps still have a bad aftertaste.
Salzburg led 2-0 in both games. While they still won at home, they lost 2:3 in Vienna. “We weren’t really happy with the way we played in those games,” McIlvane said.
“But there was a lot of room for improvement. We were better from the start today. I think we grew in the areas where we had to grow. We showed a lot of character,” the head coach continues with satisfaction.
Salzburg hat “showed a lot of character”
In the past few weeks, the “Bulls” have made it clear that first place in the regular season will only go through them. The 2:3 defeat against Fehervar last weekend was therefore only a slip.
“We grew again as a team here and showed a lot of character in the win,” said McIlvane, delighted with his team’s performance, which led the game from the first goal.
The Mozart city-dwellers had to do without a few key players on Tuesday. In addition to the convalescents Paul Huber, Mario Huber, Ali Wukovits, Lucas Thaler, Vincent LoVerde, Florian Baltram and Lukas Schreier, Peter Hochkofler was also injured in the first third.
McIlvane-Shoutout a 17-year-old Auer
Other players had to step into the breach on Tuesday, such as Luca Auer. The 17-year-old put the game out of reach for the hosts from Vienna in the final section with his temporary 5:2. A very special goal, as it was the youngster’s first goal in the ICE Hockey League.
That and much more makes the victory seem sweet for head coach Matt McIlvane: “With a lot of injured players, then one of them got injured in the game, our 17-year-old junior scores his first goal, and a strong manpower game. It was a real win for the team.”
The Salzburg coach would only have liked to have stopped the many penalties: “The only thing is the penalties. I don’t know if that was punishment or not. We’re looking at that, but there were far too many, especially against a team like Vienna. “
“Excitement” is not a problem for Salzburg
The regular season for the regular season winners from Salzburg is not quite over yet. One game each against HC Innsbruck (Friday, 7:15 p.m.) and against VSV (Sunday, 5:30 p.m.) are still on the program for the “Bulls” before they can fully focus on the playoffs.
McIlvane doesn’t feel afraid that this might be taken too lightly: “I think you saw today that it’s not a difficult game to keep up the tension. We have a passionate team that cares about each other think we showed that today.”
Text source: © LAOLA1.at
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