A strong showing in the return leg

Following Thursday's home defeat, the Austrian national team travelled to Jindrichuv Hradec on Saturday evening for the return leg against Czechia. Having led twice, Austria, who were without the injured Thomas Raffl and Stefan Gaffal, were beaten 2:7 despite a strong performance over 55 minutes.

With their first shot of the game in their first power play, the visitors took the lead as early as the second minute through Benjamin Baumgartner's first international goal. Czechia subsequently increased the tempo, but without creating any tangible success. The hosts only levelled the score somewhat fortunately in the final minute of the first period.

Little changed in the second period: Czechia tried to put Austria under pressure, but rarely threatened in front of goal. At the other end, Austria, who had adapted better to their opponents than in the first encounter a few days earlier, waited for their chances. Baumgartner, who was named Austria's best player, once again capitalised on a good position in front of the opposing goal to give the red-white-red national team the lead for a second time.

Following this second setback, Czechia became more aggressive again, but goalkeeper Alexander Schmidt always had the answer. However, the Austrian netminder had no chance against a shot on the power play, and the teams went into the second break at 2:2. Austria began the final period with plenty of energy and kept the game open. Another power-play goal, however, put Czechia on the road to victory.

Patrick Spannring still had 3:3 on his stick, but the equaliser did not come. Instead, Czechia ruthlessly capitalised on Austrian errors in the final four and a half minutes to secure a clear, albeit somewhat flattering, victory.

"We played really very well for 50 to 55 minutes and improved enormously compared to the first encounter. We started the final period strongly, certainly producing our best passages of play in the matches so far. Unfortunately, the final minutes of the game cost us a good result. But we will learn from it and face another very good opponent in Slovakia next week," said head coach Roger Bader.

The national team will travel to Piestany, Slovakia, next Wednesday. Goalkeeper David Kickert, defenceman Bernd Wolf and the recovered forward Felix Maxa will join the squad. The matches against Slovakia will take place on 1 and 2 May.