Austria suffer 0:6 defeat to Czechia in first test

“The pace and intensity were, as expected, higher than in the previous test matches. The level in the games against Czechia is higher than it was against Germany last week. We are No. 15 in the world rankings and, even though we enjoyed a great success at last year’s World Championship, we could not expect to beat them again. We want to take the next step and we are now being forced to do so,” reflected Head Coach Roger Bader immediately after the match.

Following an initial spell of pressure from the visitors, Austria created several chances on their first power play and continued to put up a good fight, although they had to chase the game early on after Jan Košťálek gave Czechia a 1:0 lead in the 6th minute. San Jose Sharks (NHL) forward Martin Kaut extended the lead to 2:0 in the 17th minute, before Vladimir Sobotka made it 3:0 just a minute later. At that point, the scoreline was somewhat misleading, as Austria could easily have scored one or two goals themselves.

Austria struggled from the outset against the six-time world champions in the middle period and were virtually hemmed into their own zone. They eventually conceded 0:4 while shorthanded and found themselves 0:6 behind after a total of 40 minutes of play. In the final period, they once again withstood Czechia’s relentless attacks and worked hard going forward themselves, but were ultimately not rewarded. Czechia won 6:0 to make it five wins from five World Championship warm-up matches. In the all-time record, it was their 20th win in the 21st game.

Captain Manuel Ganahl: “At this level, you cannot afford to make any mistakes. It was a lesson, but that is a good thing. We need opponents like this to improve and we will learn from it. The important thing is that we embrace the pace and intensity. It actually felt good at the start, but then we made too many mistakes. You cannot do that against a team as good as Czechia. It is part of the process. The important thing is that we draw the right conclusions.”

Simeon Schwinger, Man of the Match: “The first 15 minutes were really good. We kept up with them, but unfortunately conceded the goals. We deserved to score one or two goals in the first period. We did not start the second period well and conceded silly goals. We know that we can keep up with Czechia if we play at 100 per cent for 60 minutes.”

Senior national team dates and World Championship warm-up schedule

Team Camp 1
2–6 April 2023, Villach

Team Camp 2
9–14 April 2023, Innsbruck

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

Team Camp 4
25–29 April 2023, Vienna

Team Camp 5
2–6 May 2023, Kapfenberg

Test matches

(subject to change)

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

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 goalscorers: Felix Maxa (12th), Simeon Schwinger (18th), Dominic Zwerger (decisive penalty shot)

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 goalscorers: Lukas Haudum (7th/PP1), Henrik Neubauer (29th/PP1), Lukas Haudum (65th/decisive penalty shot) - Lukas Haudum, Henrik Neubauer and Dominic Zwerger all scored for Austria in the penalty shoot-out. Goalie Bernhard Starkbaum saved all of Germany's attempts.

Austria vs. Czechia 0:6 (0:3, 0:3, 0:0)
Thu, 27 April 2023, 18:30, Vienna
Czechia goalscorers: Jan Košťálek (6th), Martin Kaut (17th), Vladimír Sobotka (18th), Michael Špaček (26th/PP1, 38th), Roman Červenka (32th)

Czechia vs. Austria
Sat, 29 April 2023, 16:00, Brno (CZE)
Live on ORF Sport+

Austria vs. Slovakia
Thu, 4 May 2023, 18:30, Kapfenberg
Live on ORF Sport+

Slovakia vs. Austria
Sat, 6 May 2023, 16:00, Trencin (SVK)
Live on ORF Sport+

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, Czechia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia, Norway, Kazakhstan, Slovenia

Schedule
Dates and times are given in our local time zone, with the local time shown in brackets.

France vs. Austria
Sat, 13 May 2023, 11:20 (12:20 local time)

Sweden vs. Austria
Sun, 14 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20 local time)

Denmark vs. Austria
Tue, 16 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20 local time)

USA vs. Austria
Wed, 17 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20 local time)

Austria vs. Germany
Fri, 19 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)

Austria vs. Finland
Sat, 20 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)

Austria vs. Hungary
Mon, 22 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)

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