Salzburg takes the lead

Game 1: Red Bull Salzburg - Vienna Capitals 6:1 (1:0, 1:1, 4:0), series 1-0

Both teams began quite cautious and so it took 7 minutes till the first real scoring chance. Ken Magowan, on a good pass by Rotter, could not score for Vienna and 3 minutes later John Hughes only hit the post for Salzburg. The Caps got stronger as the period went along and had some good chances with Foucault and Nödl, but it was the Red Bulls to find the first goal of the series with 31 seconds to go in the first period. Trattnig gave the puck back to Thomas Raffl, who beat Zaba on the five-hole.

Also in the second period the Capitals had the majority of the chances. Ferland created the best one sending Foucault alone against Luka Gracnar, but the Slovenian netminder denied the Canadian forward with a beautiful pad save. If you don’t score, you will get scored on and so the puck was behind Zaba’s back in the 38^th minute. Salzburg used a doubtful non-call to create a rush and the puck took a fortunate bounce to make it 2:0.

Rafael Rotter found the immediate response with a gorgeous assist to Magowan, who brought the Caps within one. John Hughes almost gave the home team the 2-goal-lead again in the last seconds of the period, but Matt Zaba was ready.

Salzburg could start the third period on the man advantage and did not wait long to capitalize, as John Hughes tipped in Heinrich’s shot from the blue line. In the 50^th minute Brian Fahey decided the game on the 5 one 3 PP-situation. Beach and Sterling would add two more to make it 6:1 for Salzburg.

Even though 6:1 seems like a large margin, the score does not reflect all the chances the Capitals had in this game. If they can improve their scoring efficiency and take less unnecessary penalties, this series will not be a short one.

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