All Red Bulls Salute teams known
04 Sep 2011 | Henrik Lundqvist
Two games remain of the European Trophy but it is already known which eight teams qualify for the playoffs – the Red Bulls Salute in Salzburg in December. Three Czech, three Swedish and one Finnish team will join the Austrian host in the playoffs.
The German teams were both unlucky not to make it. Last year’s winner Eisbären Berlin finished ahead of Salzburg with a second place of the West Division but still didn’t make it to the next round as they were the worst second-placed team across all divisions. Instead Linköping, who today beat TPS 4-1, took the last spot thanks to better goal difference. Adler Mannheim lost at home to Slavia Praha today to fail to finish ahead of Linköping in the South Division.
Frölunda scored the most goals (32) of all teams so far but two players of is on top of the scoring leaders list. Ilari Filppula got 3 goals and 9 assists while Ben Eaves scored 6 goals and assisted to 5.
The games Mountfield-Sparta Praha and Plzen-Pardubice remain and will be played on Tuesday but those results won’t affect who qualifies and not.
The eight teams that qualified for the Red Bulls Salute were:
From Czech Republic: Pardubice, Mountfield and Plzen.
From Sweden: Frölunda, Luleå and Linköping
From Finland: Jokerit
From Austria: Salzburg