Release from 01.04.2024

Showdown for a spot in the finals

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EC Red Bull Salzburg and HCB Südtirol Alperia will face each other on Tuesday in the decisive showdown for a place in the finals. While the EC-KAC has already qualified for the 2024 finals, the Red Bulls and Foxes are each just one win away - but a defeat would mean the immediate end of the season. Decisive matches are already a tradition in series between Salzburg and Bolzano.

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Tue. 02.04.2024, 19:30: EC Red Bull Salzburg - HCB Südtirol Alperia
Referees: STERNAT, ZRNIC, Nothegger, Riecken. >> PULS 24 and JOYN <<
Standings in the "best-of-7" series: 3:3

For the fourth time in the history of the multinational league, EC Red Bull Salzburg and HCB Südtirol Alperia are meeting in a playoffseries. Each time they have met, the series has gone the full distance. However, the duels have so far only taken place in the final. Now, for the first time, there will be a showdown for a place in the final. In the three previous play-off meetings (2014, 2018, 2023), the away team prevailed in the decisive game (2014 and 2018 Bolzano, 2023 Salzburg), with all of these games being decided by one goal difference. In the previous series between Salzburg and Bolzano, one game was always decided in overtime. The current semi-final series has yet to be decided in overtime.

The first deciding game between the two teams in 2014 did not produce a winner after 60 minutes. In the fifth match of 2014, when the game was still played in best-of-five mode, Žiga Pance scored the decisive goal in the 72nd minute to secure the championship title for Bolzano in its debut season. Two players who still play for their clubs today were already on the ice in the decisive game ten years ago: Thomas Raffl (RBS) and Enrico Miglioranzi (HCB). However, the latter was injured in the second quarter-final game against Villach in the current campaign and had to end his season prematurely.

Several players from the 2018 Game Seven, which was also won by Bolzano, are still active for their clubs. In Luca Frigo, Bolzano can even count on the scorer of that game-winning goal. Mike Halmo, Angelo Miceli and Daniel Frank also played for HCB back then, as they do today. Back then, the Red Bulls' "perennial favorites" Raffl, Mario Huber and Peter Hochkofler were all involved in the 3-2 defeat.

In last season's final, EC Red Bull Salzburg won for the first time in a seventh game against HCB Südtirol Alperia. Once again, the visiting team came out on top. A total of 25 field players - as well as the two goalkeepers - were also on the ice in Game Seven almost a year ago: 14 field players from EC Red Bull Salzburg and eleven field players from HCB Südtirol Alperia, who are also expected to play on Tuesday. Nothing has changed between the goalposts since April 21, 2023 - the day Salzburg won the title. In February 2024, the Red Bulls once again secured the services of Nicolai Meyer, the scorer of the decisive goal in the seventh game against the Foxes last year.

On Tuesday night, the history of the deciding games in the RBS-HCB series will be enriched by another chapter. The game will be broadcast live on PULS 24 and JOYN starting at 7:05 p.m. (faceoff 7:30 p.m.).