Point at Freiburg is enough: Salzburg manages CHL promotion
EC Red Bull Salzburg has advanced to the round of 16 in the Champions Hockey League. Austria’s ice hockey champions lost 2:3 nP (1:0,0:2,1:0,0:0) at Fribourg-Gotteron on Wednesday evening, but thanks to winning the point they made it into the knockout stages as second behind the Swiss Phase. The issue will take place on Thursday (4:00 p.m.).
The omens for Salzburg were unfavorable in front of the party. The team travels without convalescent actors such as Thomas Raffl, Peter Schneider, Dominique Heinrich or Ty Loney. There were also sick Mario Huber, Luca Auer, Ali Wukovits and David Kickert. The squad is being filled with some young academy players, with striker Troy Bourke making a comeback.
What Salzburg did well: Friborg was able to conserve energy, the Swiss had already secured the group victory. The guests had already exploited an initial insecurity of the young goalkeeper Loïc Galley after a few seconds. When Freiburg couldn’t clear the disc, Salzburg then struck early through Lucas Thaler (7th). The team of head coach Matt McIlvane also successfully survived two manpower situations in the first third and did not reliably go into the dressing room with the lead.
Salzburg took the momentum and put pressure on them early on. But Friborg managed to turn things around with a double strike. A mistake by the “bull” Dennis Robertson in the Salzburg power play initiated the equalizer by Samuel Walser (26th), before Sandro Schmid (26th) successfully completed a counter-attack alone in front of Atte Tolvanen. The “dragons” acted very efficiently in this phase.
With the Stavanger Oilers beating Ilves Tampere 4-2, Salzburg knew even before the final half that a draw after 60 minutes would be enough. They started ambitiously, but Friborg created a significant chance. Captain Peter Hochkofler managed to get the important equalizer with 8:50 minutes on the clock from an urge phase, but when he fell he shot the ball. Salzburg still had to endure anxious minutes, but in the end they were able to celebrate even before the end of the game. Schmid was the only decisive goal for the home side in the penalty shoot-out.