Slovan crash out of the Red Bulls Salute

HC SLOVAN Bratislava - Färjestad BK 1:4 (0:2, 1:2, 0:0)

Goals: 39. Vondrka (Preisinger) - 7. Hillding (Wallin, Berglund), 10. Lund (Grundel, Aaslund), 21. Aaslund (Lund), 25. Wallin (Holtet, Berglund)

Rosters:
HC SLOVAN Bratislava: Konrád - Sigalet, Ďatelinka, Vondrka, Bližňák, Miklík - Sersen, Sekera, Hudáček, Lipiansky, Bartovič - Mihálik, Ďatelinka, Bakoš, Kytnár, Kukumberg - Kudrna, Dravecký - Ölvecký, Šťastný, Preisinger
Färjestad BK: Pettersson-Wentzel - Westlund, Tollefsen, Nygren, Lee, Grundel, Lajunen, C. Andersson, Olofsson - Holtet, Wallin, Berglund - Lund, Hillding, Aaslund - Thorell, Fröberg, Görtz - Röymark, Bastiansen, Nygaard

Penalties: 7:1 (2 min), powerplay goals: 1:0, shorthanded goals: 0:0, officials:  Koch (Swi.), Schukies (Ger.) - Korba, Rovenský (both Svk.), attendance: 5029

From the beginning of the game, Färjestad were the better team and played the more active hockey. Their players were skating well and putting lots of effort on goal. In the 6th minute, after Bakoš had gone close to giving HC SLOVAN the lead, it was their opponents from the north who made the counter attack, and a perfect pass from Rickard Wallin went onto the tape of Joakim Hilding who fired past Konrad. Three minutes later and HC SLOVAN were already faced with a two goal deficit, as despite the first save by Konrad, Patrick Lund was able to score to make it 0:2. Both teams tried to create chances through forward combinations, but Färjestad were ruthless in their punishing of defensive errors.

In the first minute of the second period, Färjestad jumped out to a three goal lead after an odd man rush resulted in a Per Aaslund goal. HC SLOVAN were leading an almost never ending charge to the penalty box during the game, and eventually they were made to pay by their opponents, as Wallin turned from provider to scorer, as he put the puck away on the powerplay in the 25th minute. The different style of play from the Scandinavian opponents was completely different to how many KHL teams play, and the home side was struggling to adapt to their opponents style of play. However, the fans were given something to cheer in the 39th minute, as Michal Vondrka received the pass from Miroslav Preisinger and made a fancy deke to score, to make it 1:4.

In the final period Färjestad sat back and took a stranglehold of the game, making it almost impossible for HC SLOVAN to create chances. Head coach Rostislav Čada tried to motivate his team to get them back into the game, but it just was not happening for HC SLOVAN on this night. A disappointing performance nonetheless, as despite putting out a strong roster, the Slovak Champions bowed out of the Red Bulls Salute at the quarter final stage.