February Break Call-Up: Youth and Expe­ri­ence Head to Copen­hagen

Thomas Raffl, Manuel Ganahl, Peter Schneider, Erik Kirchschläger and Ali Wukovits will play their first internationals in Copenhagen since the 2022 World Championship. Steven Strong and Raphael Herburger return to the national team after recently missing out through injury. They are joined by fellow World Championship players Dominic Hackl, Clemens Unterweger, Bernd Wolf, Kilian Zündel, David Maier, Paul Huber and Marco Kasper. From the younger generation, Thimo Nickl, Paul Stapelfeldt, debutant Fabian Hochegger and Lucas Thaler will once again have the opportunity to prove themselves. Not to be forgotten are Stefan Gaffal, Mario Huber and Patrick Obrist, who have a combined 90 international appearances.

Bernhard Starkbaum, David Madlener and Florian Vorauer will feature in goal.

“We have put together a good mix for the February Break. It includes players with World Championship experience who were absent in November, players who were recently unavailable due to injuries and other reasons, and many young players who have already gained national-team experience and for whom these matches are important to their development,” summarises Head Coach Roger Bader.

The February Break is the final training camp before World Championship preparation begins in April. Scouting for Tampere is virtually a round-the-clock process, as Roger Bader explains: “Everyone is competing for a World Championship place by showing their best side. The impression we coaches gain of the players feeds into our decision on the World Championship squad. Every team camp is an opportunity to scout, because we want to see how players perform with us in the national team, under our conditions and with the way we play ice hockey and manage the team.”

The players will head directly to Copenhagen on Monday, where a total of five on-ice sessions are scheduled before they face Norway on Friday, 10 February, at 19:00. The Four Nations Tournament featuring Norway, France, hosts Denmark and Austria will be played in a semi-final and final format. The winners of the AUT vs. NOR and DEN vs. FRA matches will compete for the tournament title on Saturday, while the losers will play for 3rd place.

February Break Squad

February break

6–12 February 2023, Four Nations Tournament, Copenhagen/DEN

Semi-final, Fri. 10.02.
DEN vs. FRA
NOR vs. AUT, 19:00

Final, Sat. 11.02.
Winner of DEN vs. FRA vs. winner of NOR vs. AUT

Game for 3rd place, Sat. 11.02.
Loser of DEN vs. FRA vs. loser of NOR vs. AUT