Return to Jönköping was "a fun game all around" for Salzburg's Brett Sterling

It's always special for a player to return back to play against his former team in his former home rink, but it's not such a common occurrence when the player changes leagues. Thanks to the Champions Hockey League, though, Red Bull Salzburg's Brett Sterling had a chance to play as a visiting player at Kinnarps Arena in Jönköping last Sunday.

by Marcus Vilson

JÖNKÖPING - After seven years of playing in the NHL and AHL, Brett Sterling came overseas and joined the Swedish Hockey League's HV71 Jönköping for the 2013-14 season. After recording 20 points in 43 games, the 30-year-old American winger signed this past summer with the EBEL's Red Bull Salzburg.

After dropping their first Group I game 3-2 against JYP Jyväskylä, in which Sterling recorded an assist, Red Bull evened their record with a 5-3 win over HV71. For Sterling, the win made the return all the more special.

Brett, how was it to come back to Jönköping and Kinnarps Arena?
It was fun and great to be back in this building. It’s a great atmosphere and obviously I know almost the whole team. It’s fun to play against your friends, but as you could see we were not friends on the ice tonight. It was a physical game but this was great hockey.

You could see this wasn’t a game where nobody cares. There was passion, there was great hockey, there was a little greediness and there was a fun game all around. It was a big win for us.

How was it to play against your old teammates?
It was fun. I know how these guys play and I know they've got a great team. Last year the way HV finished indicates how good we were or how good they’re gonna be this year. It’s gonna be a great and very skilled team over there. We played a great game against them and it went back and forth, I loved it.

What do you think about the game overall?
We came out, we played well. With their skill and their speed, they were moving around a lot and we had to kind of settle in and continue to play our game. We got to them when we started to play a little more physical. We took over stretches of their game and in the end we were able to pull out a victory.

To come in to this building and beat a team like that, is a huge win to us. Especially after our loss against Jyväskylä. We could easily have won that game. It was another great game from us, Two in a row against two great teams.