Ice hockey year in review and outlook

While the men's U20 team was relegated from the Top Division to Division IA at the beginning of January, the U18 women's team successfully retained its place in Division IA at the World Championship in Italy shortly afterwards. The next age group (U16) finished 5th at the European Youth Olympic Festival, while Philipp Pinter's U18 men's team secured promotion at the Division IB World Championship after victories over Estonia, Slovenia, Italy and South Korea.

In May, the senior national team then travelled to the season highlight, the 2023 World Championship in Tampere (FIN), where it lost 1:2 to France in overtime in the opening game and, following defeats to Sweden, Denmark and the USA, pushed eventual runners-up Germany to the brink of defeat in a 2:4 loss. After having to concede a 1:3 defeat to hosts Finland, the final game against Hungary was all about retaining their place in the division. Head Coach Roger Bader's team kept their nerve in the shoot-out after the score stood at 3:3 following regulation time and overtime. Bernhard Starkbaum did not concede another goal, Manuel Ganahl scored the game-winning goal and Dominique Heinrich added another.

David Reinbacher demonstrated his qualities and his toughness throughout the World Championship. After taking a double check in the game against Sweden, the defenceman was sidelined briefly but returned against Germany. At the end of June, the Vorarlberg native followed up retaining his place in the division with the next career highlight: at the NHL Draft in Nashville, in the US state of Tennessee, Reinbacher was selected fifth overall by the Montreal Canadiens, making him, alongside Thomas Vanek (2003), the highest Austrian NHL Draft pick in history.

Speaking of the draft: Theresa Schafzahl was selected by Boston at 39th overall in the inaugural draft of the newly created Professional Women´s Hockey League last September.

Shortly before that, in August 2023, the women's national team travelled to China for the Division IA World Championship, where the hosts, who had secured the right to stage the tournament for three years, promptly earned promotion. Austria finished the World Championship in 3rd place and, just a few weeks later, did not hesitate for a second to submit a bid to host the following year's Division IA World Championship.

On 6 October, Austria was awarded the right to host the 2024 IIHF Ice Hockey Women´s World Championship Division IA at the IIHF Congress in Portugal. From 21 to 27 April, Klagenfurt will host the team's bid for its first-ever promotion to the Top Division.

The year 2023 was opened by the men's U20 national team. The team of Head Coach Philipp Pinter, who was appointed the new U20 Head Coach in the summer and has since served as head coach of both the U18 and U20 teams, also contested the final major tournament of the year. At the Division IA World Championship in Budapest, it comfortably retained its place in the division with victories over Hungary, Japan and Kazakhstan, who were promoted to the Top Division.

The men's national team won the tournament at the returning Österreich Cup, while the women concluded the year on Friday and Saturday with a double-header against US college side Middlebury Panthers.

New and established partners

Commercially, during the men's World Championship preparations, ÖEHV secured new partners in high-performance energy drink NOCCO and Napoleon, the specialist in gas and charcoal barbecues, outdoor kitchens and barbecue accessories. The long-standing partnerships with Warrior and mobility partner Opel Beyschlag were also extended.

Since 2022, win2day has featured on all jerseys and helmets at home games involving our women's, men's and Para senior national teams. At away games, the slogan “Es lebe Fairplay” is displayed.

In September 2022, in cooperation with Morawa Digital, ÖEHV launchedLIVE.eishockey.at as its own OTT platform. Since then, all games from leagues organised by ÖEHV, national team games not shown on free-to-air television, and tournaments have been streamed live. For selected highlights, it was even possible to secure ORF legend Michael Berger as commentator.

Klagenfurt and Prague in our sights

The major highlights of 2024 are quickly identified: the Women's home World Championship in Klagenfurt, the men's World Championship preparations and the 2024 World Championship. A particular honour awaits Florian Mühlstein's U16 team at the very start of the year. In Korea, it will contest the 3v3 tournament at the 2024 Youth Olympic Games, facing Denmark, Latvia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Great Britain, Spain and Chinese Taipei.

From 21 to 27 April, our women will do everything they can to follow in the men's footsteps and secure promotion to the Top Division for the first time themselves.

Austria's men will undertake a top-class preparation programme from the beginning of April, facing Latvia, Slovenia, Czechia, Germany and, in the final game on 5 May in Vienna, defending champions Canada. Fan trips to the World Championship can be booked HERE!

At the 2024 World Championship, the ÖEHV team will be based in Prague and, from 11 May, will battle Denmark, Switzerland, Canada, Finland, Czechia, Norway and promoted side Great Britain to retain its place in the division.

In August, Austria's men will take on Latvia, France and a qualifier in the qualification tournament for the 2026 Olympic Games.