ET: Shootout drama takes Red Bull to the final

18 Dec 2011 | Henrik Lundqvist

Red Bull Salzburg qualified for the European Trophy final after a win against Linköping. There they will face Finnish Jokerit who beat Luleå in overtime in the other semi final.

Jokerit -

Luleå Hockey 3-2 (OT)
The first semi final of the European Trophy saw Finnish Jokerit beat Swedish Luleå in overtime. At 62:29 Luleå took a bench penalty for too many players on the ice and Jokerit used the man advantage. Markus Nordlund scored from the blue line.

"Our goal is to win the tournament, nothing else is good enough", says the game-winning goal scorer to Hufvudstadsbladet.

Luleå took the lead in the first period when Simon Hjalmarsson took a shot that beat Frans Tuohimaa in the net. Jokerit scored two goals in the final minutes of the second period to gain the lead. First Ossi Väänänen tied it at 36:40 with a beautiful power play goal and at 39:12 Jani Rita beat Johan Gustafsson in the Luleå net again. Ville Viitaluoma tied the game at two for Luleå at 7:04 of the third period.

"We started well in the first period, but in the second we were a bit cautious", says Luleå defenseman Jan Sandström to NSD. "Then they felt the smell of blood and took over. Then we were good in the third again, but we did not have the margins with us. But you should know that it's really good team we faced."

Linköpings HC -

EC Red Bull Salzburg 3-4 (SO)
The host Red Bull made it all the way to the final after beating Swedish Linköping in a shootout game in Salzburg. Scott Barney was the hero with the deciding goal.

All six goals in regulation were scored on the power play. Linköping took the lead when Pär Arlbrandt scored on an extended 2-man advantage.

Red Bull scored two quick goals in the second period; Brent Aubin made it 1-1 at 24:04 and Danny Bois got the 2-1 goal at 25:16. Johan Åkerman tied the game again at 29:19. Two minutes before the end Scott Barney took Salzburg to the lead again.

Erik Andersson picked up a rebound and tied the game at 53:46. The game didn't see any more goals until the shootout.

"It was hard. We had a bad first third, the second was incredible and in the third we lacked discipline", says Salzburg's coach Pierre Pagé to Red Bull's site. "But we are in the final."

Frölunda Indians -

HC ČSOB Pojišťovna Pardubice 4-5
Pardubice beat Frölunda 5-4 in Salzburg to qualify for the game for the 5th place. Frölunda was down 5-2 after two periods , managed to score twice in the third but Pardubice refused to allow an equalizer.

HC Mountfield České Budějovice -

HC Plzeň 1929 4-5 (SO)
Ceske Budjovice appeared to have control of this game for place 5-8, but Plzen scored twice during the last period to get the game to overtime and shootout. In the shootout Vaclav Pletka got the winner for Plzen.

Last days schedule:
Vienna
17:15 Third place game Luleå-Linköping
20:30 Final Jokerit-Salzburg

Salzburg
14:00 Seventh place game Frölunda-Mountfield
17:15 Fifth place game Pardubice-Plzen

Interesting observation that the two countries with one participant in the playoffs, Austria and Finland, made it to the final, while Sweden and Czech Republic that had three teams each failed.