“EC Red Bull Salzburg seeks match point against HCB Südtirol Alperia in Game 4 of ICEHL final series”

EC Red Bull Salzburg has been “halfway there” since Tuesday evening. The defending champion won the third final game 4:1 – and needs two more wins to get his eighth league championship. A strong defensive performance and once again an outstanding performance by goalie Atte Tolvanen were decisive for the first away win in this series of finals. The “Red Bulls” have only conceded two goals in the previous three games, both of which HCB Südtirol Alperia had to work hard for. Tolvanen – whose goal suspension lasted over 151 minutes – has saved 78 of his 80 shots on goal so far (97.5% save rate). The Finn already excelled in last year’s final series and was Salzburg’s difference-maker in the 4-0 win over Hydro Fehérvár AV19.

In addition, Matt McIlvane’s team impresses with a compact and almost insurmountable penalty kill: The “Red Bulls” screwed the already strong 83.0% from the regular season to a great 91.2% in the postseason. During the playoffs, Salzburg only conceded three goals in 34 box plays. None in the final series. In general, no goals have been scored in the power play in the previous series of finals between these two teams. The last time there was no PP goal in the first three finals was in 2006 between Salzburg and Villach.

On the other hand, Bozen is weakening offensively: While the “Foxes” scored 2.83 goals per game in the quarter- and semi-finals, they are only 0.66 in the current series of finals. In the regular season it was 3.65.

Game three in Salzburg has been sold out since Wednesday. Almost 200 Bolzano fans will accompany their team to Salzburg. A total of 15,421 spectators have already attended the final series in the win2day ICE Hockey League.