Red Bull Salzburg have maintained their chances of entering the final eight of the Champions Hockey League (CHL) for the first time in the first round of the round of 16. The Salzburg team scored a 3:3 victory at the French champions Rouen Dragons on Tuesday. The return match in the Volksgarten will take place on 20 November.
The Salzburgers made a brisk start in Normandy, but were left empty-handed in the first printing phase. In the 14th minute, a defensive mistake by Martin Stajnoch favoured the ever better coming French 1:0, but the bulls beat back shortly afterwards with a double pack within 43 seconds from Peter Hochkofler (15th) and Christopher Vandevelde (16th).
However, one goal each about one and a half minutes before and after the first period in which the team was outnumbered caused the game to tilt back towards the dragons. In the further course of the middle section, the Salzburgers survived a bad phase unscathed, but later had bad luck with a shot at the pole and a shot at the crossbar. In the final minute of the third Stajnoch managed 3:3. In the last section both teams played with much less risk. Despite some chances on both sides it remained however with the performance-fair draw.