Austria lose 2–5 to Finland

Overall, Finland lived up to its role as favorite. After the first ten minutes, the four-time world champions took control and at times established himself in the offensive zone. An unpunished foul on Tim Harnsich in the 12th minute led to loud boos in the arena, which was largely red-white-red cheering.

As in previous games, Austria threw themselves into every shot, defended courageously and also found chances themselves, like the one from Lucas Thaler in the 16th minute, which narrowly missed the goal. A little later, Benjamin Nissner was put on the penalty box, accompanied by loud boos against the referees' decision. Every action by the Finns in this power play was greeted with whistles, but they were unimpressed and capitalised on the power play to make it 1-0.

Shortly after the start of the second period, Walteri Merela fed his teammate Saku Maenalanen from behind the goal, who scored the goal to make it 2-0. In the 32nd minute, luck was on the Finns' side when they made it 3-0. Less than a minute later, Sakari Manninen used a rebound to make it 4-0.

Before the final period, everyone in the dressing room vowed again and put the four goals out of their minds. Successfully. Benjamin Nissner broke the spell in the 44th minute and scored after a pass from Dominic Zwerger to make it 1:4. After a poke in front of the goal by David Kickert, Finland restored the old distance in the 48th minute. Leon Wallner finally made the final score 2:5 in the 59th minute.

At this point, Vinzenz Rohrer was no longer on the ice and was rested from the middle of the final period.

Head coach Roger Bader: "Finland has a high quality with twelve NHL players, eight players who are active in Switzerland and two more who play in Sweden. It was to be expected that the majority of them defend. I'm very happy with my team. We defended well. We couldn't use our transition game to score goals in the first 40 minutes, which was a shame. We were able to improve that significantly in the last third. We definitely wanted to win the last third to build up our morale for the game Tuesday against the USA.”

Mario Huber: "The Finns are a great team. We showed good ice hockey for over 60 minutes, it was an improvement on yesterday. The way we presented ourselves in the final period was once again very positive for us, especially with a view to Tuesday. We can take a lot from there. You get into the situation of playing defensively against nations like that. It's important to stay cool, stick to your positions and play our system. We'll recover well on the day off tomorrow and we'll see that we clear our heads “We have the deciding game on Tuesday in the back of our minds. You don’t have something like that every day and it’s something special that we’re still playing for the quarter-finals.”

2026 IIHF ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

May 15, 2026 - May 31, 2026, Zurich and Fribourg (SUI)
Defending champions: USA
Group A, Zurich: USA, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Austria, Hungary, Great Britain
Group B, Fribourg: Canada, Sweden, Czech Republic, Denmark, Slovakia, Norway, Slovenia, Italy

Schedule
Finland vs. Austria 5:2 (1:0, 3:0, 1:2)
Sun., May 24, 2026, 8:20 p.m., Swiss Life Arena
Goalscorers Finland: Mikael Granlund (19th/PP), Saku Maenalanen (24th), Jesse Puljujarvi (32nd), Sakari Manninen (33rd), Patrik Puistola (48th) 
Goalscorers Austria: Benjamin Nissner (44th), Leon Wallner (59th)
Game sheet

USA vs. Austria
Tuesday, May 26, 2026, 4:20 p.m., Swiss Life Arena
Live on ORF 1

Already played
Great Britain vs. Austria 2:5 (2:3, 0:2, 0:0)
Sat., May 16, 2026, 12:20 p.m., Swiss Life Arena, 7,974 spectators
Goalscorers Great Britain: David Clements (16th), Liam Kirk (17th)
Goalscorers Austria: Benjamin Nissner (3rd), Peter Schneider (7th, 27th), Paul Huber (10th), Leon Wallner (34th)
Game sheet

Austria vs. Hungary 4:2 (1:1, 0:0, 3:1)
Sun., May 17, 2026, 4:20 p.m., Swiss Life Arena
Goalscorers Austria: Vinzenz Rohrer (6th/PP), Dominic Zwerger (47th/PP), Thimo Nickl (48th, 60th)
Goalscorers Hungary: Istvan Sofron (12./PP), Peter Vincze (54./PP)
Game sheet

Latvia vs. Austria 1:3 (0:0, 0:1, 1:2)
Tuesday, May 19, 2026, 4:20 p.m., Swiss Life Arena
Goalscorer Latvia: Rudolfs Balcers (41.)
Goalscorers Austria: Tim Harnisch (28th), Benjamin Nissner (45th/PP), Vinzenz Rohrer (60th/EN)
Game sheet

Austria vs. Switzerland 0:9 (0:4, 0:3, 0:2)
Wed., May 20, 2026, 4:20 p.m., Swiss Life Arena
Goalscorers Switzerland: Theo Rochette (6th, 33rd), Timo Meier (10th), Nico Hischier (12th, 30th/PP), Damien Riat (14th/PP, 51st/PP), Calvin Thurkauf (31st), Christoph Bertschy (57th)
Game sheet

Austria vs. Germany 2:6 (0:0, 1:2, 1:4)
Sat., May 23, 2026, 8:20 p.m., Swiss Life Arena
Goalscorers Austria: Leon Wallner (23rd), Vinzenz Rohrer (49th).
Goalscorers Germany: Lukas Reichel (24th, 46th/PP, 52nd/PP), Joshua Samanski (34th), Manuel Wiederer (49th), Alexander Ehl (55th/EN)
Game sheet

Ticketing
Information about World Championship ticket sales 2026.iihfworlds.com
Link to World Championship tickets for Zurich and Fribourg 
Link to individual games with Austria 
Link to World Championship packages with the Austria games