Red Bull with huge win in Vienna

Both teams came out for Game 2 with a lot of firepower and had some good scoring chances in the first few minutes. Ryan Duncan and Marco Bruckner were denied by Caps-goalkeeper Matt Zaba, while on the other side Luka Gracnar prevented Dustin Sylvester and Rafael Rotter from finding the lead. After Kristler hit the post, his team had to kill of a penalty, but in the 7^th minute Magowan’s shot trickled through Gracnar and Sylvester did not waste this chance. A goal the young Slovenian goalkeeper would have for sure liked to get back, but not even a minute later he could redeem himself against Watkins.

In the 13^th minute the Red Bulls had a great opportunity to score thanks to a great combination between Kristler, Beach and Walter. Walter missed and on the other side Vienna’s Peter MacArthur showed how to score. The 29 year old US-Boy took the puck from midair, prepared a wrist shot and sniped it perfectly placed over Gracnar’s shoulder. Salzburg did not want to go into the first intermission down by two and so Sterling, deflecting Hughes’ shot, scored the first goal of the game for Red Bull.

Be warned: The second period would be a crazy one. The Caps had the first chance on a 2-on-1 situation, but Salzburg-captain Matthias Trattnig sacrificed his body blocking the shot. Shortly after nobody was in the way though and Matt Watkins, assisted by Magowan, beat Gracnar to reestablish the two-goal-lead. The Red Bulls preferred being down by only one goal and achieved this, as Dominique Heinrich trickled through Zaba for Salzburg’s second goal. The Bulls had not enough and in the 28^th minute the puck took some weird bounces to land on Sterling’s stick, who had no problem scoring the equalizer.

The Caps did not capitalize on 5 minutes of man advantage and Salzburg gained momentum from this. On the odd man rush Sterling gave the puck over to Duncan, who gave the visitors the first lead of the game. Dominique Heinrich would add one more on the Power Play to give Salzburg even a two-goal-lead. The Caps tried to find a response, but their tanks seemed empty after giving up 4 unanswered goals.

4 minutes played in the third period and Ferland had a great opportunity in front of Gracnar. He did not score, but forced a penalty to make Vienna hope again. Salzburg had the biggest chance though, as Manuel Latusa was only denied by Zaba. With 6 minutes to play, the Capitals started to believe again. On a 5 on 3 situation, Vienna offered a gorgeous passing display, finished by Ferland.

Rotter and Bois had two good chances, but were both denied by Gracnar. Foucault had the 7000 fans in the ‘Albert Schulz Halle’ on their feet, but he only hit the right post. With ten seconds to go, Red Bull had a faceoff in the offensive zone and created one more chance, but it was not enough.

With this 5:4 win Red Bull Salzburg now has a 2:0 lead in the final series and the chance on home ice to really put the Caps under pressure.

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