On Friday, FTC-Telekom Budapest will be visiting the Eisarena Salzburg for the first time in the win2day ICE Hockey League and will face reigning champion EC Red Bull Salzburg (7:15 p.m., Ladies Night, Sporteurope.tv).
Initial situation
After a truly mammoth program with eight games in 17 days, the Red Bulls regained their strength with two days off at the beginning of the week and are ready for FTC-Telekom Budapest. The Salzburg team is only familiar with the team from video analysis so far and so they are concentrating primarily on their own game in order to quickly get back on the road to success. In the last eight games they were only able to win three times – although two defeats were only determined after overtime – and struggled with converting their chances. They paid close attention when preparing for the new league participant, because the Hungarians found their way around the new stage quite quickly and recently scored heavily with three wins (against Graz, Feldkirch and Linz) from four games. Places 8th in the interim rankings with 16 points in one game less than the Red Bulls, who are in 5th place with 21 points.
Scandinavian-influenced ice hockey
With Timo Saarikoski there is a Finnish head coach on the coaching bench in Budapest. The 56-year-old came to the Danube from the DEL2 from EHC Freiburg in the summer and already has a Slovakian championship title with HC Kosice (2022/23) on his resume as an assistant coach. The team combines young and older players and is right in the middle of the league in terms of average age. The imports – 17 Hungarians are supported by five Finns and three each from Swedes and Canadians – also come from all age groups. The current best point collectors are Jussi Tammala (FIN/11) as well as Brady Shaw (CAN/11), Tyler Coulter (CAN/9) and István Sofron (HUN/7), all of whom already have ICE League experience. | Info FTC Telekom Budapest
Devante Stephens out longer
The Red Bulls are still not spared from bad luck with injuries. Defender Devante Stephens, who left the last game in Ljubljana with an injury (lower body), will miss several weeks. There are also Ali Wukovits, Peter Hochkofler and Philipp Wimmer, who have been convalescing for a long time. However, there is a ray of hope: Defender Lukas Hörl is making his comeback against Budapest tomorrow after a three-week break and Michael Raffl is also fit again.
Statement by Peter Schneider
“It’s always exciting to play against a new team. We have already analyzed some of them and have been warned. In general, there is no team in the league that can be taken lightly. We will go into the game fully focused and continue to work on making better use of our chances.”
ecrbs.redbulls.com Image: EC Red Bull Salzburg
