Red Bulls’ dreams of a successful defence of ice hockey’s European Trophy are over after they were defeated by Swedish champions HV71 Jönköping at the Red Bulls Salute in Salzburg on Friday.
Hangar-7 hosted a welcome party for the eight participating teams the day before and for a while it seemed like the Red Bulls’ party would continue long into this weekend.
Seeking to avenge a 4-3 defeat against HV71 in the regulation round, Salzburg took a two-goal lead but their defence was ultimately unable to resist the Swedish side’s raids in a 5-4 reverse.
“We had a good plan, we were ready. But unfortunately it was only good enough for 40 minutes, we went off the boil in the final period, especially in defence,” said a frustrated head coach Pierre Pagé.
GEPA Pictures
The Swedes reduced the arrears before the end of the second period, though, and by the start of the final period were on level terms.
Red Bulls’ defence fell away in the closing stages and, although the home team scored late on to reduce the deficit, HV71 eventually ran out deserved 5-4 winners.
“Our dream of a successful title defence is now over, unfortunately. At this high level, you pay dearly for errors in defence. Now we have to regroup, put it all behind us and play better against Kärpät on Saturday.”
Red Bulls face a Kärpät Oulun team who also tasted defeat against Färjestads BK.
One of Saturday's semi finals will be an all-Swedish affair, therefore, while Eisbären Berlin take on SC Bern in the other European Trophy match.
For more information about the competition, visit our dedicated event page...
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