After the brilliant end of the year, the next test awaits on New Year’s Day. The Black Wings Linz are visiting the in-form EC Red Bull Salzburg.
The people of Stahlstadt once again set off real fireworks at the end of the year. With a clear 7-0 win, the Linzers said goodbye to their own fans and were able to look forward to a special premiere: 17-year-old homegrown player Jonathan Oschgan scored his first two Bundesliga goals. However, there isn’t much time to enjoy. The focus is already on the next challenge, and it could hardly be bigger. On New Year’s Day, the Upper Austrians will be playing at EC Red Bull Salzburg, with the clear goal of finally leaving the Salzburg Volksgarten as winners. In the previous three duels of the season, the Mozartstadt team had a bit of a lead and prevailed twice against Brian Lebler and Co.
The Red Bulls are currently in impressive form and have won their last eight games. This puts them in fifth place in the table with 58 points. However, one of Salzburg’s weaknesses is still the power play. With a percentage of 15%, they are in 10th place in the league-wide ranking. When outnumbered, however, the Bulls present themselves strongly and have two strong goalkeepers between the posts in David Kickert, who leads the league’s goalie ranking, and Atte Tolvannen. On offense, Michael Raffl, Peter Schneider, Travis St. Denis and so on provide a goal threat. Salzburg have already scored 102 goals this season.
Locker room update
Head coach Philipp Lukas’ team showed a convincing performance over the entire 60 minutes in the last game. Offensively, Linz repeatedly combined strongly through the Hungarian lines and acted extremely efficiently in front of the goal. At the same time, the defense was compact and almost error-free. As pleasing as the clear home win was, the focus is now clearly on Salzburg. The Upper Austrians have already defeated the Mozartstadt team once this season. However, the people of Linz have been waiting for success in the Salzburg Volksgarten since November 27th, 2022. There are no personnel changes planned for today’s game. As always, the Upper Austrians can also rely on their fans, who are making their way to Salzburg in fan buses today to loudly support their team.
Things will continue for Linz on Saturday, January 3rd, 2026 and they will host the Adler from Villach in the first home game of the new year. Tickets are available online at www.tickets.blackwings.at or at the box office.
Voices:
Head Coach Philipp Lukas: “I had a good feeling with all four lines and I’m very happy about the win. It’s always difficult to keep up the momentum, we have to put the game behind us and tackle the next challenge. But it definitely feels good that we were able to end 2025 like this and hopefully we can build on that.”
EC Red Bull Salzburg – Steinbach Black Wings Linz
📅 Basic round 35: Thursday, January 1st, 4:30 p.m., Salzburg Eisarena
📺 Live stream: sporteurope.tv
blackwings.at , Image: Black Wings Linz/Eisenbauer
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