Ice hockey: Compensation! Red Bull Salzburg wins second final against HC Bolzano

Red Bull Salzburg set 1:1 in the final series of the EBEL on Monday. The “Bulls” celebrated a 3-0 (0:0,1:0,2:0) victory against South Tyrol on their own ice with goals from Peter Mueller (32nd), Bobby Raymond (45th) and John Hughes (59th) and returned the revenge for the 1:2 home defeat the day before. The third game of the “best of seven” series will take place on Thursday in Bolzano.

The initial phase was clearly dominated by the hosts. The six-time EBEL champion Salzburg pushed the South Tyroleans onto the defensive, but initially found no recipe against the strong defensive of the capital opponent, as usual. Only after about ten minutes did the Bolzans find their way into the game, but they were rarely able to show real danger.

This changed soon after the beginning of the second third. Suddenly, South Tyrol hit the lead and Michael Angelidis shot the ball in the 31st minute. It was precisely at this stage that Salzburg set the score 1-0: Mueller outsmarted the otherwise strong HCB goalie Pekka Tuokkola in the 32nd minute with the “peasant trick”.

After that, the Mozart townsmen got their grip on the game again and were unlucky in the 40th minute – Robert Schremp only hit the crossbar after a nice solo. In the 45th minute, however, the “cops” finally set the course for victory. When both teams had only four players on the ice, Bobby Raymond appeared alone in front of the Bolzano goal and scored dryly 2-0.

In terms of finish, the 2014 EBEL champion, then final winner against Salzburg, could no longer improve, quite the opposite. While the South Tyroleans fought for the goal with unsuitable means, the “cops” failed to score twice before John Hughes made everything clear with an Empty Net goal in the 59th minute. This was the first defeat of the guests after five victories en suite.