Goal Fest and Anniver­sary

Ahead of the third game at the "Beat Covid-19 Tournament" in Ljubljana, Austria captain Manuel Ganahl was honoured for his 100th international appearance in the red-and-white jersey. His team-mates then put on a show on the ice and claimed a 9:3 victory over Ukraine.

As in the previous games, Austria took the lead fairly early on, with captain Ganahl himself making it 1:0. "I had really been looking forward to this game. We started very well and finally managed to score goals as well. Celebrating this anniversary with a win is particularly nice," said the captain.

Despite numerous scoring chances and power-play opportunities, there were no further goals in the opening 20 minutes. Only then did Roger Bader's side step up a gear and utterly dominate Ukraine. On the way to a resounding victory, Lukas Haudum and Lucas Thaler each scored three times, while Marco Richter and Peter Schneider also added one goal apiece.

"I was given the chance to play on the third line. I took advantage of it, and three goals feels good. We simply have to keep going like this in the next two games," said hat-trick scorer Thaler. Alongside Ganahl's anniversary, 19-year-old defenceman Thimo Nickl made his national-team debut.

"We put a lot of what we had planned into practice. We put Ukraine under pressure with high tempo. We had plenty of attacking moves and also many power plays. This time, we managed to score more goals," said head coach Bader. This emphatic win keeps Austria's chances of winning the "Beat Covid-19 Tournament" in Ljubljana alive. The fourth tournament game against Romania follows on Thursday at 16:30, with ORF Sport+ and LAOLA1.at again broadcasting LIVE.