Red Bull Salzburg is only one win away from their eighth title in the cross-border ice hockey league. The defending champion defeated HCB Südtirol 3-0 (1-0, 1-0, 1-0) in their home Volksgarten on Friday and took a 3-1 lead in the “best of seven” series. Salzburg can thus win the final series on Sunday (5.30 p.m.) in Bolzano.
The South Tyrolean, who had only scored two goals in the first three games, started with a lot of energy and good chances. But once again they couldn’t defeat Atte Tolvanen in the Salzburg goal despite 16 shots on target in the first period. Contrary to the course of the game, the home team took the lead in the 4-on-4 game. Former Bolzano striker Dennis Robertson scored after a one-two with Martin Stajnoch (11th). A similar picture in the middle third. The South Tyroleans fought for the equalizer in what was probably their best offensive game in this series so far, but they didn’t succeed. And Salzburg struck again. Benjamin Nissner made it 2-0 in his own third (33rd minute) after losing a goal in Bozen. In the final third, Matt McIlvane’s team once again survived shorthanded games, which means that they still have not scored a power play goal in the entire series of finals. On the counter, Salzburg even had great chances of scoring the third goal through Ali Wukovits outnumbered (47′) and Andrew MacWilliam coming straight from the penalty box (48′). Mario Huber finally made everything clear with the goal into the empty goal (59th). After the defeat at the beginning, the Austrian champions celebrated their third win in a row. Now everything indicates that Salzburg will be victorious for the first time in the third final duel with Bozen after 2014 and 2018.
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