Austria open Olympic tour­na­ment with emphatic 12:3 victory

Overwhelmed by the opening ceremony, which saw thousands of athletes and support staff take part on Friday, Head Coach Florian Mühlstein’s team finally got underway competitively on Saturday. The start was somewhat sluggish: they found themselves 0:1 behind after five minutes and repeatedly gave the puck away to their opponents through individual errors. Shortly before the end of the first period, they managed to equalise at 1:1. 

It took a few more minutes before the young Austrians had truly settled into both the game and the format. Within two minutes, they not only took the lead for the first time but also made it 3:1. Great Britain battled valiantly, but after a total of 30 minutes played, they found themselves 3:5 behind. 

In the final period, the Austrians played as one unit, now virtually overwhelming the Britons and taking confidence from the 12:3 result for the upcoming games.

Head Coach Florian Mühlstein: “At the beginning, the boys were quite nervous and initially tried far too many individual plays. But they quickly realised that it is easier as a team. After a while, we got into the game and controlled it as well. It was important to see what is actually happening on the ice here. Now it is the coaching staff’s job to analyse the game and explain to the team that they can succeed together and that individual stick-handling plays achieve little.”

SCHEDULE

Austria vs. Great Britain 12:3 (1:1, 4:2, 8:0)
Sat, 20 January 2024, 04:00 (12:00 local time)

Austria vs. Kazakhstan
Sun, 21 January 2024, 02:30 (10:30 local time)

Austria vs. Chinese Taipei
Sun, 21 January 2024, 09:30 (17:30 local time)

Austria vs. Spain
Mon, 22 January 2024, 01:00 (09:00 local time)

Austria vs. Latvia
Mon, 22 January 2024, 08:00 (16:00 local time)

Austria vs. Denmark
Tue, 23 January 2024, 02:30 (10:30 local time)

Austria vs. Poland
Tue, 23 January 2024, 09:30 (17:30 local time)

24 and 25 January: crossover games and final