A positive World Championship finish – Austria beat Slovakia 2:1
Following defeats to the Netherlands and China, Austria’s women’s national ice hockey team’s hopes of promotion had already been dashed ahead of their final game against Slovakia. They leave China with a 2:1 victory over their neighbours, who are relegated to Group B after five defeats in five games. Annika Fazokas at 35 and Tamara Grascher at 45 scored for Austria.
2 min read
As in the previous games, Austria started with Selma Luggin in goal, while Head Coach Alexander Bröms made no other changes to the line-up. Just 21 seconds had been played when Charlotte Wittich was sent to the penalty box for hooking. Austria came through Slovakia’s power play unscathed, but failed to find their rhythm throughout the first period. At times, Slovakia penned Austria in. It was thanks to goaltender Luggin that the score remained 0:0 after the opening 20 minutes. Slovakia led 17:2 in shots on goal.
Austria’s neighbours created significantly more chances in the second period as well, but Austria were more clinical. Annika Fazokas made it 1:0 at 35 after an assist from Anna Meixner. Less than five minutes into the final period, Tamara Grascher extended the lead to 2:0. Slovakia threw everything they had at Austria and reduced the deficit to 1:2 at 57.
Seconds later, Charlotte Wittich was sent to the penalty box, setting up a tense finish in which Slovakia also pulled their goaltender. Austria held on and celebrated a positive World Championship finish with the 2:1 victory. Austria finish the 2023 World Championship in 3rd place.
If Denmark beat Norway today and the Netherlands lose to China, Denmark will overtake both Austria and the Netherlands in the standings and join China in earning promotion to the Top Division. If Denmark lose or the Netherlands win, the Netherlands will be promoted alongside China.
Head Coach Alexander Bröms: "That was not our best game today. We battled for 60 minutes and tried to find our way into the game. We are happy to have won the game. Our objective throughout the World Championship was to control the things we can control. Against the Netherlands, we did not perform at the level we are actually capable of. Sometimes one point is enough to throw things off. We have to learn and grow from this World Championship, and we will come back even better prepared next year."
2023 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship Division IA
20 August 2023 – 26 August 2023, Shenzhen (CHN)
Schedule
Dates and times refer to our local time zone, with local time shown in brackets.
Slovakia vs. Austria 1:2 (0:0, 0:1, 1:1)
Sat, 26 August 2023, 07:00 (13:00 local time)
Slovakia scorer: Nikola Rumanova (57')
Austria scorers: Annika Fazokas (35'), Tamara Grascher (45')
Already played:
Austria vs. China 0:2 (0:0,0:1,0:1)
Thu, 24 August 2023, 14:00 (20:00 local time), Shenzhen
China scorers: Qiqi Lin (35'/PP1), Yuting Wang (60'/EN)
Netherlands vs. Austria 2:1 (0:0,1:1,1:0)
Wed, 23 August 2023, 10:30 (16:30 local time), Shenzhen
Netherlands scorers: Savine Wielenga (28'), Bieke van Nes (56'/PP1)
Austria scorer: Charlotte Wittich (36')
Denmark vs. Austria 0:1 (0:0,0:1,0:0)
Mon, 21 August 2023, 07:00 (13:00 local time), Shenzhen
Austria scorer: Anna Meixner (22')
Austria vs. Norway 4:0 (2:0,2:0,0:0)
Sun, 20 August 2023, 10:30 (16:30), Shenzhen
Austria scorers: Tamara Grascher (8'/PP1, 20'), Anna Meixner (32', 40'/PP1)
Further information and statistics are available on the official IIHF website
