Austria’s champions Salzburg have won their second win in their third appearance in the Champions Hockey League. In the away game at the Stavanger Oilers on Friday, Salzburg again had to go into overtime, in the penalty shootout the 3:2 (1:0,1:2,0:0;0:0) was finally fixed. Head coach Matt McIlvane’s team continues on Sunday at Ilves Tampere in Finland.
Thomas Raffl (8th) brought Salzburg, who started without the sick Dominique Heinrich, early on in Norway with a dust-off in the power play. The guests’ captain had the 2-0 in mind at the end of the first period, but shot just wide of the goal. Salzburg still seemed to be on course after Peter Hochkofler used a rebound after a face-off to make it 2-0 (23rd minute). But Stavanger knew how to counter. The 40-year-old Greg Mauldin used the first mistake in the Austrians’ defensive behavior to score the goal (28th), in the 36th minute the American was completely free in the game four against four in the center and defeated David Kickert again. The Norwegians around ex-Graz coach Todd Bjorkstrand were then closer to the third goal in the third period. It shouldn’t fall in extra time either, with both teams finding opportunities to make the decision. Peter Schneider first hit metal, then Kickert was under constant fire in a 4:3 majority situation. Salzburg finally showed efficiency in overtime. With Ali Wukovits, Troy Bourke and Benjamin Nissner all three shooters scored, the Norwegians got nothing.
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