A bitter 0:5 defeat despite a good perfor­mance against Sweden

Head Coach Roger Baderstarted Bernhard Starkbaum in goal for the second World Championship game, with David Madlener serving as the backup goalie. This time, the first line consisted of Ali Wukovits, Lukas Haudum and Lucas Thaler. Bernd Wolf and Thimo Nickl were again paired together on defence. 

The second and third units remained unchanged. Benjamin Nissner centred the second line, with Thomas Raffl and Peter Schneider on the wings, while Dominique Heinrich and Kilian Zündel played on defence. Marco Rossi played centre on the third line, alongside Dominic Zwerger and Mario Huber. Nico Brunner and David Reinbacher formed the defensive pairing. On the fourth line, centre Oliver Achermann played with Paul Huber and Henrik Neubauer. Philipp Wimmer and David Maier were the fourth defensive pairing.

Sweden came out of the dressing room strongly as expected and put Austria under pressure. Goalie Bernhard Starkbaum was in the spotlight from the opening shift, with Tre Kronor quickly taking a 1:0 lead through Par Lindholm (4) after a swift passing move. Following a strong first penalty kill, the ÖEHV team had their best chance on the power play: Benjamin Nissner was denied from close range by Sweden's keeper Jesper Wallstedt after a cross-ice pass from Peter Schneider. Marco Rossi had already tested the Swedish netminder shortly beforehand.

Austria increasingly grew into the game

As the first period wore on, the Red-White-Reds increasingly grew into the game and also made their mark offensively. Just under two minutes before the end of the period, Austria had their best shift, with the third attacking unit led by Marco Rossi establishing itself in the offensive zone and keeping Sweden under pressure.

Austria also delivered a good performance in the second period and forechecked strongly. Sweden did not have any shots on goal at that point, but were more efficient in front of goal: Marcus Sörensen made it 2:0 from point-blank range with the first shot of the second period (27). 

At the halfway point, the ÖEHV team again had a strong shift but were unable to turn it into a goal. Ali Wukovits tested goalie Wallstedt with a good shot following a swift attack. Dominique Heinrich also tested the Swedish keeper with a good shot from the blue line. Shortly before the end of the period, Sweden made it 3:0 through Patrik Nemeth (39) with a powerful shot. There was then a scare: David Reinbacher was caught between Rasmus Sandin and Henrik Tömmernes in a double check and was unable to continue in the final period. 

In the final period, Sweden initially managed their 3:0 lead before striking ruthlessly twice more: first, Leo Carlsson (52) scored from a tight angle following a fine move to make it 4:0, before Dennis Everberg increased Tre Kronor's lead to 5:0 (54). Defenceman Nico Brunner was named Austria's best player.

Head Coach Roger Bader: "We did a great many things very well today; the first two periods were outstanding from our point of view. We were well organised defensively, we competed well and we created chances too. At 0:1, we had some really strong moments. We ran out of energy in the final period, but the fourth and fifth goals need not have happened; in the end, the scoreline was too high."

The head coach was frustrated by the timing of the goals conceded: "The second period was our strongest. At 0:1, we had really good opportunities and good phases, and we were exceptionally well organised defensively. We actually gave up very little, considering that in the first ten minutes of the second period, that strange goal which made it 2:0 was Sweden's only shot on our goal. That shows that we played very, very solidly. And indeed, you can say that the second and third goals came at an unfavourable time!"

Regarding the double check on David Reinbacher, the head coach said: "Before assessing it, I first want to watch the video to see whether it really was a foul or an unfortunate incident. It hurts whenever any player is ruled out, David just as much as anyone else. We will now see exactly what the diagnosis is!"

Goalie Bernhard Starkbaum: "Yes, it was the tough game we expected. We knew that they play very creatively in the offensive zone. You could see that particularly in the first ten minutes. I think we clearly showed signs of life; we played much better than yesterday and were able to put Sweden under pressure at times. That is something we need to build on. We tried to take a point from the game, perhaps, but against top nations like Sweden, that is a very, very difficult task. We need to improve from game to game; from yesterday to today was a real step, and now we want to build on that!"

Forward Dominic Zwerger:"We were not without a chance; we had our opportunities. But that just shows Sweden's world-class quality – they take every chance they get. We were not persistent enough in front of goal to convert our chances. We deserved a goal; we played much better than against France and put in a solid performance. They took advantage of the chances we allowed at the back, while we did not take ours. Personally, I think the scoreline was a little harsh, because we played well in the first period and the first ten minutes of the second period. 0:5 looks tough in the end, but we have to forget that now and focus on the next game against Denmark!"

Defenceman Dominique Heinrich:"At times, we played some quite good ice hockey, but for the most part it was not good enough today, I think. It was not a key game for us, but perhaps points could have been there if we had played a little better today. There were a lot of small mistakes, and now we have to improve. We have a day off tomorrow, when we need to take a close look at everything from the last two games, and then we have enough time to improve. Of course, we had chances, but we have to be honest and say that Sweden were better for large parts of the game, although we had some great spells. But I think there is still room for improvement on our side. The important games are still to come!"

Sweden vs. Austria 5:0 (1:0,2:0,2:0)
Sun, 14 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)
Sweden goalscorers: Par Lindholm (4'), Marcus Sörensen (27'), Patrik Nemeth (39'), Leo Carlsson (52'), Dennis Everberg (54')

Line Ups

Current IIHF World Championship standings

86TH IIHF ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

12 May 2023 - 28 May 2023, Tampere (FIN) and Riga (LAT)
Group A, Tampere: Finland, USA, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, France, Austria, Hungary
Group B, Riga: Canada, Czechia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia, Norway, Kazakhstan, Slovenia

Remaining schedule:
Dates and times refer to our local time zone, with the local time shown in brackets.

Denmark vs. Austria
Tue, 16 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)
LIVE on ORF1 (highlights at 23:15 on ORF SPORT +)

USA vs. Austria
Wed, 17 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)
LIVE on ORF1 (highlights at 22:00 on ORF SPORT +)

Austria vs. Germany
Fri, 19 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)
LIVE on ORF SPORT +

Austria vs. Finland
Sat, 20 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)
LIVE on ORF1 (highlights at 22:15 on ORF SPORT +)

Austria vs. Hungary
Mon, 22 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)
LIVE on ORF SPORT +

Already played:

France vs. Austria 2:1 OT (1:0,0:0,0:1,1:0)
Sat, 13 May 2023, 11:20 (local time: 12:20)
France scorers: Tim Bozon (20./PP1), Sacha Treille (61./PP1)
Austria scorer: Thomas Raffl (47./PP1)

All information and the complete schedule can be found at www.iihf.com