Austria lose to Slovakia in the final second after a strong come­back

"The Slovaks came out with tremendous force, driven by a frenzied crowd and by a performance in their last game that was not quite optimal. We knew that and had hoped for an opponent like that," Head Coach Roger Bader summed up the first period after the final siren. 

The hosts were dominant, which was clearly reflected by the 3:0 scoreline. Marco Rossi, Manuel Ganahl, Bernhard Starkbaum, Dominique Heinrich and Henrik Neubauer watched from the stands after being rested for the final World Championship warm-up game.

But after the first break, Austria really found their way into the game, were more effective in their own zone and repeatedly worked their way forward. Lucas Thaler capitalised on a Slovak error in their own defensive zone, firing a powerful shot into the far corner to make it 1:3.

Austria highly effective in front of goal

Although Slovakia continued to have the edge in chances, Austria's efficiency on Saturday afternoon was unmatched. Lukas Haudum was on hand once again on the game's first power play, firing an unstoppable shot into the top corner after being set up by Dominic Zwerger. Suddenly, the game was wide open again, and that was also evident on the ice in the final period.

Having registered a total of five shots on goal in the first 40 minutes of play, they added another five towards the end, and one of them again found the net: in the 58th minute, Mario Huber equalised after a face-off in the offensive zone. Everything looked set for overtime until Mario Grman buried the puck in the Austrian net just under seven-tenths of a second before the siren to seal the 4:3 win. 

Head Coach Roger Bader: "Of course, it would have been nice to go into overtime and see how the game turned out. It was good to see that we showed character and came back. The Slovaks still had the territorial advantage after the first period, but from then on we were better organised. I was very pleased with our penalty kill. Today's game also highlighted a few things that we need to improve before the World Championship, and I am glad that the game showed us that."

Bernd Wolf: "The first period was one to forget. Perhaps we suddenly had too much respect again. But that is what defines us: when we have played a poor period, we go out for the next one and try to do better. It will be no different at the World Championship, where we will have difficult periods at times. But it depends on how we respond. Today, that was character and fighting spirit, and that is exactly our strength."

Warm-up game

Slovakia vs. Austria 4:3 (3:0,0:2,1:1)
Sat., 6 May 2023, 16:00, Trencin (SVK)
Slovakia goalscorers: Róbert Lántoši (2nd), Maroš Jedlička (16th), Miloš Kelemen (17th), Mário Grman (60th)
Austria goalscorers: Lucas Thaler (32nd), Lukas Haudum (39th/PP1), Mario Huber (58th)

Live scoring, line-ups and statistics (Slovak Ice Hockey Federation)

SENIOR MEN'S NATIONAL TEAM DATES AND WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PREPARATION SCHEDULE

Team camp 1
2 - 6 April 2023, Villach

Training Camp 2
9–14 April 2023, Innsbruck

Training Camp 3
17–22 April 2023, Deggendorf (GER)

Training Camp 4
25–29 April 2023, Vienna

Training Camp 5
2–6 May 2023, Kapfenberg

Friendly matches

Austria vs. Slovenia 3:5 (1:2, 2:1, 0:2)
Thu, 6 April 2023, 17:30, Villach
Austria scorers: Emilio Romig (20/PP1), Nico Feldner (25/PP1, 28)

Italy vs. Austria 2:0 (0:0, 1:0, 1:0)
Wed, 12 April 2023, 20:00, Bruneck (ITA)

Austria vs. Italy 3:2 n.P. (2:0, 0:1, 0:1, 0:0, 1:0)
Fri, 14 April 2023, 17:30, Innsbruck
Austria scorers: Felix Maxa (12), Simeon Schwinger (18), Dominic Zwerger (decisive penalty)

Germany vs. Austria 2:0 (2:0, 0:0, 0:0)
Thu, 20 April 2023, 19:30, Deggendorf (GER)

Germany vs. Austria 2:3 n.P. (1:2,0:1,1:0,0:0,0:1)
Sat, 22 April 2023, 17:00, Landshut (GER)
Austria scorers: Lukas Haudum (7th/PP1), Henrik Neubauer (29th/PP1), Lukas Haudum (65th/decisive penalty) – Lukas Haudum, Henrik Neubauer and Dominic Zwerger all scored for Austria in the penalty shootout. Goaltender Bernhard Starkbaum stopped all of Germany’s attempts.

Austria vs. Czech Republic 0:6 (0:3, 0:3, 0:0)
Thu, 27 April 2023, 18:30, Vienna

Czech Republic vs. Austria 2:1 (0:1,1:0,1:0)
Sat, 29 April 2023, 16:00, Brno (CZE)
Czech Republic scorers: Filip Chlapík (28th/PP1), David Tomášek (52th)
Austria scorer: Steven Strong (8th)

Austria vs. Slovakia 6:3 (3:3,3:0,0:0)
Thu, 4 May 2023, 18:30, Kapfenberg
Austria scorers: Mario Huber (2th), Dominique Heinrich (7th/PP1), Lukas Haudum (15th/PP1, 31th/PP1), Benjamin Nissner (22th), Marco Rossi (23th)
Slovakia scorers: Oliver Okuliar (1th/PP1), Andrej Kudrna (9th/SH1), Miloš Kelemen (14th/SH1)

86th IIHF ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

12 May 2023 - 28 May 2023, Tampere (FIN) and Riga (LAT)
Group A, Tampere: Finland, USA, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, France, Austria, Hungary
Group B, Riga: Canada, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia, Norway, Kazakhstan, Slovenia

Schedule
Dates and times refer to our local time zone; local time is shown in brackets.

France vs. Austria
Sat., 13 May 2023, 11:20 (12:20)
LIVE on ORF1 (highlights on 18 May at 22:00 on ORF SPORT +)

Sweden vs. Austria
Sun., 14 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)
LIVE on ORF SPORT +

Denmark vs. Austria
Tue., 16 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)
LIVE on ORF1 (highlights at 23:15 on ORF SPORT +)

USA vs. Austria
Wed., 17 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)
LIVE on ORF1 (highlights at 22:00 on ORF SPORT +)

Austria vs. Germany
Fri., 19 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)
LIVE on ORF SPORT +

Austria vs. Finland
Sat., 20 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)
LIVE on ORF1 (highlights at 22:15 on ORF SPORT +)

Austria vs. Hungary
Mon., 22 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)
LIVE on ORF SPORT +

All information and the full fixture list can be found at www.iihf.com