Red Bull Salzburg won 2-1 over HV71 in Jonkoping to secure a spot in the Round of 32. Read more in Gamecentre. 

After taking a 5-2 in Salzburg, HV71 hosted the Red Bulls in Jonkoping assured of winning their group already. For the visitors, they again just needed a point to confirm their place in the next round and they did better than that with a 2-1 win.

Salzburg got off to the best possible start, going ahead thanks to Tommy Raffl with just 1:24 played – and they held that lead into the first intermission. The middle period saw the visitors kill off a host of penalties as HV71 looked to get back in the game. However, Salzburg held firm and saw out the period, before start the third in perfect style again – Brett Olson, scorer of a sensational goal earlier in the week, hit another at 44:02 to double the Red Bulls' lead.

With the clock ticking down at the end of the game, HV71 pulled netminder Pettersson-Wentzel to go with the extra skater, and it worked to a degree with Martin Thornberg adding to his Top Scorer tally at 59:50. That was however all the home side could manage as they went down 2-1.

"It felt that we weren't ready to play the game," thought HV71 forward Teemu Laine. "Red Bull wanted to win more than us. They played the game well and had a couple of good shifts immidiately off the start, which set the tone for this game, I think. Our power play didn't work like it had in recent games, but I think it's more coincidence that the puck missed the net. We should have scored on the PP when you consider all the chances we got."

HV71 were already secure in the next stage, and losing by one goal means that nonetheless they have the aggregate win over Salzburg 6-4. With the win, however, Salzburg have qualified for the next round, and the Sheffield Steelers are eliminated with one game to play.

"It's nice to know we playing in the CHL playoffs and we want to win as long as we are in this tournament," Laine concluded.