Red Bull Salzburg will end the Group Stage on the road as they travel to Switzerland to battle Fribourg-Gottéron. The Austrians suffered a disappointing 1-0 loss the last time these two clubs met and are looking to even the score against the Swiss.

Last time, the Swiss were outshot by Salzburg but their star netminder Connor Hughes played his part well and kept the Austrians from getting on the board for the entire 60 minutes. Despite being outplayed in the offensive zone for large stretches, it was Fribourg who enjoyed more high-danger opportunities (4) than Salzburg (1) and were the ones who ultimately ended up scoring the only goal of the night off of Janne Kuokkanen’s stick for his third of the season.

Entering Wednesday’s tilt, Fribourg and Salzburg sport almost identical numbers in several areas, including penalty kill percentage with the Swiss operating at a 93.75% compared to Salzburg’s 95.65%. The scales tip slightly in Fribourg’s favour, however, when it comes to powerplay conversion with the hosts clicking at 28.57% while the Austrians are succeeding at 23.08%. Maintaining their strong play on the man-advantage will help to ensure Fribourg skate away with their second victory in as many games against the visiting side.

Salzburg had several chances to get back into the game against Fribourg first time around, but their inability to finish saw them admit defeat for a second time this season. The Austrians fired 57 shots, but only 27 of them found their way on net and more still only seven of them were mid- to high-danger opportunities. If they hope to secure their advancement to the Playoffs, Salzburg will need to address their play in the offensive zone and figure out how to solve Fribourg’s netminders. Hughes has already shown what he can do when he’s dialed in, so disrupting him early should be the key to Salzburg’s success.

To that effect, Peter Schneider and Ali Wukovits, Salzburg’s two top scorers, should be looked upon to guide the offence that is currently ranked 20th in goals per game with 2.00.