Austria makes ice hockey history at the World Cham­pi­onship! 3:2 win over Olympic cham­pions Finland

Austria head coach Roger Bader opted for David Kickert in goal against Finland, with Thomas Höneckl named as the backup in the line-up. The Finns started with intensity and quickly took a 1:0 lead, with Saku Mäenalanen scoring from close range with a backhander (3.).

Peter Schneider then fired one shot at the Finnish goal. The team coached by Jukka Jalonen continued to play with efficiency and dominance. Oliver Kapanen stole the puck from Manuel Ganahl and made it 2:0 from the slot (9.). Shortly afterwards, Red-White-Red successfully killed off their first penalty.

The Austrians were repeatedly able to create attacking opportunities, although the clear-cut chances initially failed to materialise until Peter Schneider again tested Finland netminder Harri Säteri with a good shot. Just under three minutes before the end of the first period, Austria had a very strong shift and the fans in the Prague Arena immediately created an atmosphere.

The Austrians also kept pace very well with the Olympic champions in the second period. A deserved goal to pull one back followed a world-class move. Austria launched a fine combination, with Thomas Raffl sending a quick cross-ice pass to Mario Huber, who brilliantly roofed the puck for 1:2 (24.).

Buoyed by the goal, Austria now played with great confidence, consistently implemented the coaching staff's instructions and delivered a strong performance in the second period. With five and a half minutes remaining in the middle period, the ÖEHV side had their first power-play opportunity, with Marco Rossi having the equaliser on his stick. Another man advantage followed immediately afterwards. The special teams applied enormous pressure, and while an equaliser was in the air, it did not come.

Winner for Austria 0,2 seconds before the final siren

At the start of the final period, Austria had their third power play, during which Dominic Zwerger scored what appeared to be the equaliser. The officiating team disallowed the goal because Thomas Raffl was in the crease. Head coach Roger Bader used his coach's challenge, and following video review the goal was not awarded. Austria then survived the resulting penalty kill, with netminder David Kickert making some good saves and the penalty killing also working well.

The Austrians were not discouraged and continued to push forward. Thimo Nickl fired from the blue line and scored the 2:2 equaliser (50.). It was crunch time in the final ten minutes. Both teams had chances to score the winner. Just under three and a half minutes from the end, Austria had to kill another penalty but survived this delicate phase. David Kickert then made a sensational save to preserve the 2:2.

And then the unbelievable happened: Austria were on the attack and Benjamin Baumgartner sent the puck into the net for the 3:2 winner 0,2 seconds before the end (60.). There were no holding back in the Prague Arena. Austria had just recorded their first-ever win over Finland, and at a World Championship no less, securing three points in regulation time.

Head coach Roger Bader analysed the historic success against the Finns: "The first thing is that we said before the game that we wanted to win. It is not as though we go into a game against a top nation with this team intending to give the game away and somehow save energy. Of course, we knew it would be extremely difficult and that they have very high quality, which they showed in the first period. But we have the spirit within the team to come back even after difficult moments; it is not the first time at this World Championship, and that is already a good sign from us. They were clearly better in the first period, our tactical approach was right, but they prevailed and also had the better shot ratio. We then adjusted two or three little things and had them under better control. The longer the game went on, the better we got into it, created chances, played very strongly on the penalty kill and had a very good goaltender in David Kickert – today everything clicked!"

Asked whether the team is on a roll, Bader, whose thoughts were already on Friday's match against Czechia, replied: "It seems that way. But we need to come back down again; the motto after every game is 'Recover' and then 'Refocus'. We now need to recover quickly, as we already have our next game on Friday in front of a sold-out arena!"

Match-winner Benjamin Baumgartner knows the strength of the ÖEHV side: "We have a lot of potential up front, on defence, and we have goalies who save games for us – David Madlener and David Kickert. We fight for one another, we give everything and it pays off in the end. The Finns gave everything too; they played very well as well. Luck was on our side, we tried to block everything and play strongly defensively. It was fortunate that the winner came in the final second, but we will take it. Beating Finland today felt even better than taking Canada to overtime!"

Blockbuster clash against World Championship hosts Czechia on Friday

Red-White-Red continue their campaign on Friday, 17 May, with a blockbuster clash against hosts Czechia from 20:20. The match will be shown live on ORF SPORT +.

2024 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship

Finland vs. Austria 2:3 (2:0,0:1,0:2)
Thu, 16 May 2024, 16:20, Prague Arena, 15.387
Finland goalscorers: Saku Mäenalanen (3 min), Oliver Kapanen (9 min)
Austria goalscorers: Mario Huber (24 min), Thimo Nickl (50 min), Benjamin Baumgartner (60 min)

Austria lined up with:

Goaltenders: 30 Kickert David; 29 Höneckl Thomas (backup)
Line 1: 91 Heinrich Dominique - 78 Thimo Nickl; 5 Raffl Thomas - 70 Nissner Benjamin - 96 Huber Mario
Line 2: 92 Unterweger Clemens - 32 Wolf Bernd; 16 Zwerger Dominic - 23 Rossi Marco - 3 Schneider Peter
Line 3: 24 Strong Steven - 12 Maier David; 17 Ganahl Manuel - 98 Baumgartner Benjamin - 21 Haudum Lukas
Line 4: 18 Stapelfeldt Paul - 14 Zündel Kilian; 52 Huber Paul - 48 Thaler Lucas - 19 Rohrer Vinzenz

Further fixtures:

Czechia vs. Austria
Fri, 17 May 2024, 20:20, live on ORF SPORT +

Norway vs. Austria
Sun, 19 May 2024, 16:20, live on ORF SPORT +

Austria vs. Great Britain
Tue, 21 May 2024, 12:20, live on ORF 1

Already played:

Canada vs. Austria 7:6 after overtime (3:1,3:0,0:5,1:0)
Tue, 14 May 2024, 20:20, Prague Arena, 14.704
Canada goalscorers: Dylan Cozens (7'), Kaiden Guhle (10'), Bowen Byram (14'), Jared McCann (23'), Connor Bedard (30'), Pierre-Luc Dubois (38'). John Taveres (61')
Austria goalscorers: Benjamin Nissner (11'), Benjamin Baumgartner (44'), Peter Schneider (45', 56'), Dominic Zwerger (51'), Marco Rossi (60')

Austria v Switzerland 5:6 (2:1,2:3,1:2)
Sun, 12 May 2024, 20:20, Prague Arena, 13.512
Austria goalscorers: Clemens Unterweger (5'), Paul Huber (15'), Lukas Haudum (22'/PP1, 35'/PP1), Benjamin Baumgartner (53')
Switzerland goalscorers: Roman Josi (16'/PP2, 30'/PP2), Nico Hischier (23', 41'/PP1, 60'/PP1), Ken Jäger (30'/PP1)

Austria v Denmark 1:5 (1:2,0:1,0:2)
Sat, 11 May 2024, 16:20, Prague Arena, 15.719
Austria goalscorer: Manuel Ganahl (20')
Denmark goalscorers: Markus Lauridsen (14'), Frederik Storm (17'/SH1), Joachim Blichfeld (39', 59'/PP1), Felix Scheel (54')