Deutsch­land Cup: Austria forced to accept defeat against Denmark

“We played excellently against Germany yesterday. Today against Denmark and on Thursday against Slovakia, we were overwhelmed. The squad was too severely weakened following the absences due to illness and injury,” reflected Head Coach Roger Bader after the final whistle.

Less than 15 hours after the end of Saturday evening's game against Germany, the red-white-red players were back on the ice against Denmark. Their legs appeared heavy, while the Danes looked lively. Austria at times struggled to get out of their own zone and were also prone to errors with the puck.

The Scandinavians made the most of their superiority on their first powerplay, taking a 1:0 lead in the 3rd minute. The 2:0 ten minutes later was preceded by a turnover in their own zone. They initially got the puck over the blue line, but the Danes drove purposefully towards Florian Vorauer's net to make it 2:0.

As in the opening game against Slovakia, Austria showed a clear improvement in performance in the second period. But just as they were repeatedly able to establish themselves in the offensive zone, Denmark scored on the counter-attack to make it 3:0.

There was also a little bad luck, as when Vinzenz Rohrer unleashed a shot from a good position but his stick broke. Shortly before the end of the second period, Denmark capitalised on their next powerplay situation to take a 4:0 lead into the break.

The red-white-red side battled fiercely for every inch in the final 20 minutes, but another setback came right at the start of the final period as Denmark made it 0:5. Lucas Andersen then extended the lead to 6:0 in the 50th minute, before David Maier scored Austria's consolation goal in the 57th minute.

Head Coach Roger Bader: “The Danish team was very strong at this tournament. They were not missing many players from their World Championship team. I am unhappy with the first period, when we again had those turnovers that led to counter-attacks, and the Danes are strong enough to take advantage of them. We improved as the game went on, and our battling display in the final period was also very good. It was a good experience for all the players to see that turnovers are punished quickly at this level. We need to learn from that. I would also like to stress that the game against Germany was one of our best in the November break in recent years. We want to build on that in December.”

Nico Feldner, Man of the Match: “You certainly do not go home with a good feeling. We played a maximum of two and a half to three good periods at this tournament. Now we have to make sure we learn as much as possible from it. Everyone has to learn to keep up with the speed and deal with the pressure. It is also good for the league if we come back strong. We need to be ready from the start at the next tournament. Unfortunately, we always needed a certain wake-up call at this tournament. We never came out really well from the start. The second period was OK, then came the goal; that can certainly take away a bit of the mojo, but it is up to us to find it again and battle our way back into the game. There were quite a few players here at a high level. Perhaps you can learn something from them. And we have to make sure we get used to the speed.”

Deutschland Cup 2023

Denmark vs. Austria 6:1 (2:0,2:0,2:1)
Sun, 12th November 2023, 11:00, Landshut
Denmark scorers: Phillip Bruggisser (3rd minute/PP1), Christopher Frederiksen (13th minute), Mathias From (23rd minute), Patrick Russell (40th minute/PP1), Oliver Larsen (42nd minute), Lucas Andersen (50th minute)
Austria scorer: David Maier (57th minute)

Already played: 

Germany vs. Austria 5:3 (0:1,1:1,4:1)
Sat, 11th November 2023, 18:00, Landshut
Germany scorers: Marc Michaelis (32nd, 44th), Filip Varejcka (45th), Yasin Ehliz (47th), Daniel Pfaffengut (60th/EN)
Austria scorers: Benjamin Baumgartner (10th, 28th, 53rd/PP1)

Austria vs. Slovakia 1:7 (0:4, 1:2, 0:1)
Thu, 9 November 2023, 12:30
Austria scorer: Nico Feldner (25th) 
Slovakia scorers: Samuel Takáč (8th/PP1), Jozef Baláž (13th, 15th), Oliver Okuliar (15th, 34th), Lukáš Cingel (34th/PP1), Martin Faško-Rudáš (42nd)