The Salzburg run ends abruptly

The European adventure ended with a nightmare for Red Bull Salzburg. After their 3-1 win two weeks ago, the Austrian champions lost the second leg at Swedish champions Färjestad 0-6 and were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Champions Hockey League with an overall score of 3-7.

Captain Thomas Raffl had to admit: “Färjestad was better than us today. They were already very strong in Salzburg, but we were still able to take advantage of our chances there.”

Good start to the game

The Swedes started off like an attack. From the face-off and after ten seconds, Lindqvist moved towards Salzburg keeper Tolvanen’s goal and was denied by the future Austrian team goalie. Salzburg fought its way into the game against the runners-up in the Swedish league and had chances that were not used. Salzburg fell behind in the second third of all times, when the game was on equal terms. First Raffl missed a good chance to give Salzburg the lead, then Forsell scored after a dream pass from his own third to make it 1-0 for Färjestad (22nd). Murphy missed Salzburg’s best opportunity, his shot missed inches past the far corner, and in return Westfält increased the lead to 2-0 (26′).

Now the 1:3 from the first leg was made up. Färjestad became safer and better. Bergkvist’s 3-0 win was a textbook example of passing and positional play. The puck came to the shooter over three stations, and he hit it directly into the near corner (32′). Salzburg had big problems in the second third with the long route to the bench, as the Swedes skillfully kept the puck in their ranks and in the attacking third for a long time.

In the end the defeat was too great

The final decision was only made in the final third. Salzburg pressed the power play to equalize the overall score, but immediately after being outnumbered, Ljungkrantz came out of the penalty box and increased the score to 4-0 in the game and 5-3 overall (49′). Tomasek scored in the power play to make it 5-0 (50th), and even without Tolvanen in goal, Salzburg conceded 0-6 (57th).

Thomas Raffl was nevertheless positive: “Of course it hurts now after the game, but you still have to see it positively. We played a strong CHL season and can be proud of it.”