In this tale of two cities, two sides will have a Round of 16 rematch when the Rouen Dragons line-up against Red Bull Salzburg.

In their first series during the 2018/19 campaign, Salzburg bested the French side by an aggregate score of 8:4. After their first meeting ended in a 3:3 tie, Salzburg went on to net five tallies in front of their home crowd to top Rouen in a 5:1 decision as they eventually made their way to the Semi-Finals. Now, the French have a chance at retribution but a difficult test lies before them.

If Rouen hope to hold off Salzburg and avenge their 2018 exit, they’ll have to improve in a number of key areas, specifically scoring and powerplays. As of now, Salzburg are ahead in both categories, having scored eight more total goals and sporting a 36% powerplay compared to Rouen’s 12%. While the French have a slight edge in PK% - 88.46% to 82.35% - the Austrians hold a considerable advantage in all-around play and are ranked #2 in overall statistics just behind Fribourg-Gottéron, giving them the advantage heading into this home-at-home series.

As they did in 2018, Salzburg will be the first to travel the 1134 km distance to begin things. But being the away team shouldn’t be an issue for the Austrian side, as they’ve been able to compile an excellent 3-0 road record. One reason they’ve been so dominant is the fact that they’ve managed to find the net more often as the visitors, scoring 13 goals on the road to their ten on home ice.

On the other hand, Rouen, with the exception of a 4:0 defeat at the hands of KAC Klagenfurt, have had things go their way on home ice, scoring nine goals compared to their six away from Patinoire Nathalie Péchalat. Rouen will be hoping their matchup with Klagenfurt was nothing but an outlier performance as they look to continue on in their 2021/22 campaign.