EC Red Bull Salzburg crowned champions for the fourth consecutive time with a sweep against KAC!
EC Red Bull Salzburg have been crowned champions of the win2day ICE Hockey League season 2024/25, celebrating a double anniversary: in the 25th season since the league was re-established, the Red Bulls lifted the Karl Nedwed Trophy for the tenth time overall – their fourth in a row – and were crowned Austrian champions for the twelfth time. Salzburg prevailed 4:0 at home on Friday evening, comprehensively defeating EC-KAC 4:0 in the best-of-seven final series. Goaltender Atte Tolvanen was voted Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the 2025 playoffs by the specialist journalists.
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For the first time since 2019, a win2day ICE Hockey League team has been able to be crowned champions on home ice. For EC Red Bull Salzburg, it was only the second time in their ten league titles that they could celebrate with the trophy directly in front of their home fans.
The Red Bulls last lifted the trophy following a home win in 2007, when they claimed their first title. After eight further titles away from home, Salzburg were now able to celebrate their anniversary triumph in their home ice arena once again.
For only the fifth time in the league's 25-year history, a championship team swept their final opponent in a best-of-seven series – Salzburg have now achieved this feat for the third time. EC-KAC, meanwhile, have had to settle for runners-up honours in back-to-back seasons. For the second time since the league was re-established, Klagenfurt failed to record a single win in the final series.
On Friday, it took less than three minutes for emotions to boil over for the first time as Ali Wukovits and David Maier dropped the gloves. While Lucas Thaler narrowly missed from a good position early on, KAC had two power-play opportunities but failed to capitalise. The Red Bulls were more efficient on their first power play, with captain Thomas Raffl finishing superbly in front of goaltender Dahm.
It remained 1:0 until the first intermission. Just 45 seconds after the restart, Tyler Lewington beat Dahm from close range. Shortly afterwards, Nash Nienhuis had the next big opportunity, but the KAC netminder prevented another goal.
Nick Pastujov had the best chance to pull one back, but was denied by the impressive Tolvanen after a 2-on-1 counterattack. In the 38th minute, Lucas Thaler's third goal effectively decided the contest. Tolvanen then made two further excellent saves before the second intermission. The hosts managed the score in the third period, with Troy Bourke eventually sealing the 4:0 final score with an empty-net goal.
EC Red Bull Salzburg vs. EC-KAC 4:0 (1:0,2:0,1:0)
>> Goalscorers and statistics
Final score in the best-of-7 series: 4:0
