Deutsch­land Cup 2024: Narrow defeat despite a strong perfor­mance against Slovakia

Austria’s players made a promising start against Slovakia. They put Slovakia under pressure straight from the opening face-off and pushed forward. After the puck went into the stands during a clearance attempt, Austria had their first power play in the 2nd minute and created their first good chances.

In the 7th minute, they even had a 5:3 power play for almost a minute and a half. However, they were unable to score. As the penalty expired, Austria had David Kickert to thank for not falling behind. The 30-year-old kept a clean sheet with a superb save against the onrushing Samuel Takac.

Slovakia had now settled into the game. In the 14th minute, Peter Cehlarik was on hand after a rebound to score for 1:0.

Austria continued to play with pressure in the second period, repeatedly creating good chances, but once again failed to capitalise on a power play.

At the start of the third period, a passing error by captain Clemens Unterweger almost led to 0:2. At the other end, Thimo Nickl almost equalised with a fierce shot following a pass from Benjamin Baumgartner.

However, it remained 0:1 until the final whistle. Fittingly, both goaltenders were named Best Players.

Head Coach Roger Bader: “It was a very good, very evenly matched game with chances at both ends. It is a shame that we did not score on the power play. I am very happy with the performance. All four lines and the goaltender played very well. It was a good international game with high intensity.”

Benjamin Baumgartner: “I think it was a very good game from us. It is a shame that we lost, but we had our chances. Over the course of the entire game, we created a lot and could have scored several goals. Perhaps we need to review that again and play tougher defensively. Then there will be two more good games against Denmark and Germany.”

David Kickert: “It was the first game of the tournament, and at an unusual time too. We did well under the circumstances. We had chances to equalise. All in all, it was a good game. I think we got enough shots on goal. Perhaps a little more traffic in front of the opposition goal would have helped us. The important thing is that we adapt well to this pace and the physical play. It is different ice hockey from the league. We have to improve day by day.”

Deutschland Cup 2024

Austria vs. Slovakia 0:1 (0:1,0:0,0:0)
Thu, 07 November 2024, 12:30, Landshut, Fanatec Arena
Slovakia goalscorer: Peter Cehlárik (14th)

Austria lined up with:

Goaltenders: 30 Kickert David; 29 Wraneschitz Sebastian (backup) 

Line 1: 5 Biber Gregor - 25 Unterweger Clemens;  9 Wukovits Ali - 21 Haudum Lukas - 15 Thaler Lucas

Line 2: 32 Wolf Bernd - 8 Nickl Thimo; 27 Huber Paul - 18 Baumgartner Benjamin - 22 Rohrer Vinzenz

Line 3: 20 Schnetzer Ramon - 17 Wimmer Philipp; 28 Richter Marco - 13 Obrist Patrick - 7 Feldner Nico

Line 4: 26 Stapelfeldt Paul - 14 Würschl Niklas; 16 Schwinger Simeon - 2 Obersteiner Daniel - 11 Neubauer Henrik

Further matches:

Austria vs. Denmark
Sat, 09 November 2024, 11:00, Landshut, Fanatec Arena >> live on ORF SPORT + and ORF ON

Germany vs. Austria
Sun, 10 November 2024, 15:00, Landshut, Fanatec Arena >> live on ORF SPORT + and ORF ON