Hard-fought game against Poland

Austria's national team went into their second game of the "Beat Covid-19 Tournament" in Ljubljana on Monday without Benjamin Baumgartner. The forward sustained an upper-body injury against Slovenia and had to return home on Sunday. However, defenceman Thimo Nickl will still join the team and make his debut for the red-white-red national team in the coming days.

As they had against Slovenia two days earlier, Austria opened the game with an early lead. Marco Richter pounced on a rebound to score his first international goal and make it 1:0 in the 5th minute. Austria, who started with Bernhard Starkbaum in goal this time, controlled their opponents but were unable to convert their superiority into further goals. The result was an open game in which Poland waited for Austrian mistakes and knew how to exploit them.

The equaliser was the logical consequence, but Tim Harnisch made amends shortly afterwards with his first international goal. After a fine power-play combination, Austria deservedly led 2:1 in the 18th minute. Little changed in the second period: Austria applied pressure but could not create any clear-cut scoring chances. Poland capitalised on counter-attacks and Austrian lapses in concentration, and surprisingly equalised again.

The final period began with the score at 2:2, and it was to become a real test of patience for Austria. Kilian Zündel and Lukas Haudum both hit the post. Just as overtime seemed inevitable, captain Manuel Ganahl was handed a two-minute penalty. Only seven seconds into the penalty kill, Mario Huber launched a quick counter-attack and coolly converted to make it 3:2 in the 58th minute.

"We should have scored more goals in the opening minutes of the second period and could have forced an early decision. That would certainly have made this game easier," said head coach Roger Bader. "The win was deserved, but converting our chances is still our biggest problem."

This means Austria's chances of securing a good end to the season at this tournament remain intact. Their third tournament game against Ukraine follows on Tuesday at 13 o'clock, with ORF Sport+ and LAOLA1.at once again broadcasting LIVE.