Austria lose their final World Championship test against Germany 1:3

Austria's men's national ice hockey team had to accept a 1:3 defeat against Germany in Schwenningen despite a strong performance and a 1:0 lead. After a day off on Monday, the team will travel via Zurich to the World Championship in Finland on Tuesday.

09 May 20227 min readSource: Eishockey.at

Image information: Austria faced Germany in Schwenningen in their final World Championship test. Photo: ÖEHV/Ferdinand Perktold

Austria's final test before the World Championship took them to the German ice hockey stronghold of Schwenningen, on the edge of the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg. In the attractive, sold-out Helios Arena, with 5.200 fans in attendance – home of the Schwenninger Wild Wings in the DEL and also generally known among ice hockey fans as the Eisstadion am Bauchenberg – the red-white-red selection faced Germany in their World Championship dress rehearsal. Head Coach Roger Bader had stressed the importance of the encounter before the Mother's Day match: "Germany are the perfect opponents for us to conclude our World Championship preparations. Germany are an established top-flight nation and are ranked above us. Challenging them always has a special appeal."

Austria started the game with goalkeeper Bernhard Starkbaum. Manuel Ganahl, Lukas Haudum and Marco Kasper took to the ice on the first forward line, while Thomas Raffl, Benjamin Nissner and Peter Schneider formed the second attacking unit. Dominic Zwerger, Benjamin Baumgartner and Brian Lebler made up the third line. Ali Wukovits, Oliver Achermann and Paul Huber played on the fourth line.

On defence, Dominic Hackl was paired with David Maier, while Dominique Heinrich lined up alongside Kilian Zündel. Bernd Wolf formed a defensive pairing with Erik Kirchschläger. Nico Brunner defended alongside Philipp Wimmer. Germany added the trio of Philipp Grubauer (Seattle Kraken), Moritz Seider (Detroit Red Wings) and Tim Stützle (Ottawa Senators) from the NHL, as well as Marc Michaelis (Toronto Marlies) from the American Hockey League, for their final preparation camp. The German team were still without the players from the two DEL finalists, Eisbären Berlin and Red Bull München.

After a disjointed start, Austria had to kill off two penalties and four consecutive minutes short-handed, with Manuel Ganahl and Peter Schneider each sent to the penalty box for hooking. The game then swung from end to end, but without any clear-cut scoring chances. In the twelfth minute, Lukas Haudum was sent to the penalty box for delay of game. Once again, the ÖEHV selection emerged unscathed while short-handed and showed disciplined penalty killing. Daniel Fischbuch broke through on Bernhard Starkbaum following a quick attack, but the goalkeeper confidently stopped the puck with his glove.

With two and a half minutes remaining in the period, Austria had their first power play, during which Benjamin Baumgartner had the lead on his stick after an ideal cross-ice pass. Germany goalkeeper Grubauer was still moving towards the other corner, but Baumgartner's shot rebounded off the post and back into play with the net half empty (20.).

Lebler gave Austria the lead

Austria played with great confidence in the opening minutes of the second period and displayed good forechecking. The red-white-red side looked sharper in launching their attacks and controlled the game. Germany had their best scoring opportunity on the counter through Taro Jentzsch, who was denied by goalkeeper Bernhard Starkbaum and the post (26.). After just under 28 minutes, Finnish DEB national coach Toni Söderholm took goalkeeper Grubauer off the ice and brought on Dustin Strahlmeier.

Just 18 seconds later, the very first shot beat the new netminder. Erik Kirchschläger fired from the blue line and Brian Lebler deflected the puck to give Austria a 1:0 lead (29.). Goalkeeper Bernhard Starkbaum made a save with his stick against the onrushing Samuel Soramies. Just under two minutes after taking the lead, Lebler sent the puck off the post. Austria continued to play strongly and repeatedly created good attacking opportunities.

With 30 seconds remaining in the period, Germany equalised out of nowhere. Local favourite Alexander Karachun of the Schwenninger Wild Wings poked the puck over the line from behind the goal to make it 1:1 (40.), after Starkbaum was unable to control the puck and the Austrian defenders did not challenge Karachun forcefully enough.

Head Coach Roger Bader's team also started the third period strongly. However, the hosts now produced better-constructed attacking moves too. Austria survived their fifth penalty kill, with Lukas Haudum sent off for hooking. Brian Lebler then had a good chance to restore the lead. When Matthias Plachta fired without hesitation for Germany, Starkbaum made the save with his glove (48.).

As a result of the scoreline, the test increasingly took on the character of a playoff game. With just under ten minutes remaining, emotions flared for the first time, resulting in four-on-four play after Lukas Haudum and Moritz Seider were each sent to the penalty box for roughing.

Germany sealed the win in the end

The match remained thrilling and completely open. With four and a half minutes remaining, Stefan Loibl caught goalkeeper Starkbaum out with a saveable shot to give Germany a 2:1 lead (56.). Paul Huber and Korbinian Holzer then clashed. Huber was sent off for two minutes, Holzer for four. On the power play, Head Coach Roger Bader threw everything forward and took Bernhard Starkbaum off the ice. Dominik Bittner lofted the puck from his own goal line over the boards out of his own zone and, with this billiard-style trick, found the empty net for the final score of 3:1 (58.).

Head Coach Roger Bader again saw a very good performance from his team: "We were on a par with the Germans in every respect today, from the first to the final minute, and that is not something to be taken for granted. I think we certainly showed some good signs, but today was completely different to usual; the rink was extremely small, it had NHL dimensions, the angles are completely different there and it is simply difficult. We gave the Germans an even game; you can forget about the third goal, the empty-netter. A lucky shot off the boards into the net – essentially, it was a 1:2 defeat and we could just as easily have won 2:1, so the performance was very good!"

Goaltender Bernhard Starkbaum analysed the final World Championship warm-up game after the final buzzer: "I think we kept up very well in the first period. The Germans came out very strongly and very hard. But by the second period at the latest, we really kept the game open, created a few really good scoring chances and took the lead. Yes, unfortunately it was an unlucky ending; it should not happen, but better now than later during the World Championship!"

Starkbaum knows what still needs to improve: "They are simply little things; we need to take fewer penalties. That is definitely very important, as it is punished very quickly at international level. But I think we played the penalty kill very well. We need to get to the net and score goals."

Following the game against Germany, the players and coaching staff were given a day off. On Tuesday, 10 May, the team will travel by bus to Zurich, from where the ÖEHV delegation will move on to Helsinki. On Wednesday, 11 May, the final journey by bus from Helsinki to Tampere will take place, where Austria will face Sweden in their opening World Championship game on 14 May from 11:20 (12:20 local time). All of Austria's World Championship games will be broadcast live on ORF Sport+.

Camp V, Schwenningen, from 5 to 8 May 2022

Germany vs. Austria 3:1 (0:0,1:1,2:0)
Sun, 8 May 2022, 17:00, Schwenningen
Germany goalscorers:Alexander Karachun (40 min), Stefan Loibl (56 min), Dominik Bittner (58 min/EN)
Austria goalscorer:Brian Lebler (29 min)

Already played:
Camp IV Vienna/Ostrava - Euro Hockey Tour from 26 April to 1 May

Czech Republic vs. Austria 4:1 (1:0,2:1,1:0)
Sun, 01 May 2022, 16:00, Ostravar Aréna
Czech Republic goalscorers:David Sklenička (5 min), David Jiříček (31 min/PP1), Jiří Černoch (34 min/PP1), Vojtěch Budík (52 min)
Austria goalscorer:Benjamin Nissner (32 min)

Austria vs. Finland 2:4 (0:2,2:1,0:1)
Sat, 30 April 2022, 12:00, Ostravar Aréna
Austria goalscorers:Dominic Zwerger (29 min), Brian Lebler (34 min)
Finland goalscorers: Jere Innala (14th minute/power play 1, 22nd minute), Harri Pesonen (16th minute), Niko Ojamäki (50th minute)

Austria vs. Sweden 0:1 (0:0,0:0,0:1)
Thu, 28 April 2022, 19:00, STEFFL Arena Vienna
Sweden goalscorer: Linus Karlsson (46th minute/power play 1)
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Camp III, Innsbruck, from 20 to 25 April 2022

Italy vs. Austria 2:1 (0:1/1:0/1:0)
23 April 2022, 17:30, Bruneck
Austria goalscorer: Ali Wukovits (20th minute)

Austria vs. Italy 5:0 (2:0/1:0/2:0)
24 April 2022, 14:30, Innsbruck
Austria goalscorers: Nico Feldner (2nd minute), Benjamin Nissner (18th minute), Benjamin Baumgartner (36th minute), Dominic Zwerger (54th minute), Thomas Raffl (59th minute)
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Camp II, Graz, from 11 to 16 April 2022

Austria vs. Poland 1:0 (0:0,1:0,0:0)
Sat, 16 April 2022, 16:00, Graz Merkur Eisstadion
Austria goalscorer: Philipp Pöschmann (30th minute)

Austria vs. Poland 4:1 (1:0,0:0,3:1)
Thu, 14 April 2022, 19:00, Graz Merkur Eisstadion
Austria scorers: David Maier (7'), Simeon Schwinger (49'), Oliver Achermann (PP/57'), Sam Antonitsch (58')
Poland scorers: Filip Starzynski (47')
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Camp I, Linz, from 2 to 8 April 2022

Austria vs. Czechia 1:4 (1:1,0:1,0:2)
Fri., 08 April 2022, 17:30, LINZ AG Eisarena, 1.850
Austria scorer: Erik Kirchschläger (12')

Czechia vs. Austria 5:1 (3:0, 2:0, 0:1)
Wed., 06 April 2022, 17.30, Znojmo
Austria scorer: Nico Feldner (48')