Austria lose to Latvia in final Deutsch­land Cup game

Austria's players delivered a self-sacrificing performance on the ice. Despite having significantly less recovery time – Latvia had around eight hours more rest – they stood up to the 2023 bronze medallists. The goaltenders were repeatedly the focus at both ends, with Latvia holding a slight edge in shots at 7:4.

The Baltic side had significantly more chances in the second period, but Florian Vorauer produced several fine saves in the Red-White-Red net. In the 32nd minute, the 25-year-old was finally powerless as the puck ended up behind him following a deflected shot. Shortly before the break, Austria pressed for an equaliser, but to no avail.

In the 42nd minute, Vinzenz Rohrer was sent to the penalty box for slashing. Latvia took advantage of the power play to make it 2:0. In a fairly open exchange, the Latvians got to the puck somewhat fortunately in front of the Austrian net in the 50th minute and extended their lead to 3:0. Anyone who thought the game was decided at that point was mistaken.

A double strike from Patrick Söllinger and Peter Schneider within 43 seconds brought Austria back into the game. 63 seconds before the end, Head Coach Roger Bader called a timeout and shortly afterwards took Florian Vorauer off the ice. Instead of an equaliser, Latvia scored into the empty net to make the final score 4:2.

Head Coach Roger Bader: “It should not sound like an excuse, but at the same time it is true that we had significantly less recovery time. Sometimes that cannot be avoided in a tournament like this. As a result, we lacked that final bit of sharpness, the sticks come up, which then leads to penalties that hurt us. I cannot fault the team in terms of their fighting spirit. The fighting spirit, mindset and attitude were there. We simply made mistakes with the puck and played a little too complicatedly, which also led to several turnovers. In the final period, we became more direct again. The fact that we were still scoreless was certainly not deserved. Good character, we came back, and in the end we took the goaltender off, so you have to expect that it can happen like that. Overall, I am positive about the Deutschland Cup 2025. Six of the nine periods in this tournament were good to very good. However, I will analyse all the games again in detail.”

Peter Schneider: “I think that despite the difficult circumstances and limited recovery time, we delivered a relatively good performance. Nevertheless, we also had phases in which we did not have the legs and were unfocused, but I am still proud of our team. Especially Florian Vorauer, who did a great job today and kept us in the game. In the end, we even had the chance to earn a point. The overall assessment of the tournament is mixed. We started very poorly against Slovakia in the first period before playing two very good periods, then there was the incredible win against Germany, the best game in a preparation campaign that I have experienced so far, and now another mixed game against Latvia. I think we can take a lot away from this tournament and have learned a great deal.”

Deutschland Cup 2025 Men

06 – 09 November 2025, Landshut (GER)

Latvia vs. Austria 4:2 (0:0,1:0,3:2)
Sun., 09 November 2025, 11:00
Latvia scorers: Nauris Sējējs (32nd minute), Renārs Krastenbergs (43rd minute/PP1, 60th minute/EN), Miks Indrašis (50th minute)
Austria scorers: Patrick Söllinger (52nd minute), Peter Schneider (53rd minute)

Austria lined up with:

Goaltenders: 1 Vorauer Florian; 30 Kickert David (backup)
Line 1: 32 Wolf Bernd (A) - 8 Nickl Thimo; 16 Zwerger Dominic (A) - 21 Haudum Lukas - 3 Peter Schneider (C)
Line 2: 5 Hackl Dominic - 2 Sablattnig Tobias; 27 Huber Paul - 19 Rohrer Vinzenz - 7 Wallner Leon
Line 3: 4 Schnetzer Ramon - 14 Zündel Kilian; 10 Schwinger Simeon - 23 Thaler Lucas - 28 Huber Mario
Line 4: 24 Stapelfeldt Paul - 8 Söllinger Patrick; 13 Maier Oskar - 26 Achermann Oliver - 15 Kainz Lukas

Already played:

Germany vs. Austria 2:5 (0:1,1:1,1:3)
Sat, 08 November 2025, 18:45
Germany scorers: Moritz Müller (30'), Philipp Preto (59')
Austria scorers: Vinzenz Rohrer (15'/SH1, 52'), Paul Huber (32'), Leon Wallner (41'), Dominic Zwerger (55')

Austria vs. Slovakia 2:6 (0:5,1:0,1:1)
Thu, 06 November 2025, 12:15, VR-Bank Landshut Arena
Austria scorers: Peter Schneider (36'), Lucas Thaler (49')
Slovakia scorers: Maxim Čajkovič (2'), Peter Cehlárik (5'/PP1), Matúš Sukeľ (7', 19'/PP1, 59'/SH1), Viliam Čacho (11')