Into the double-header against GER and FIN

"The team is fully intact," the Head Coach states at the outset. All players are fit and available, with the only question remaining being whether David Reinbacher can play with the specially made brace. Bernd Wolf, following his crash into the boards against the USA, and Dominic Zwerger, after blocking a shot with his foot, are also dealing with bruises. "Reinbacher was on the ice for the first time today. Bernd Wolf has a painful bruise, so we have to take it day by day to see whether he can play. After the game, we even had to check whether Zwerger's foot was broken. Fortunately, that is not the case, but it is still unclear whether he can play," reveals Roger Bader.

Germany have confirmed that their NHL star Leon Draisaitl will not be coming to Finland. The 2022 World Championship seventh-placed side currently have zero points, having lost despite strong performances against Sweden 0:1, Finland 3:4 and the USA 2:3. Roger Bader: "The situation is difficult for Germany because they played really well three times and could have picked up points. That would also have been deserved. Now come the games that, from their perspective, they have to win. They will certainly be under a little pressure against Denmark and us. I definitely see chances for us, even though they are favourites. We need an optimal game, then something is possible. We have improved from game to game so far and I hope that we can finally force a bit of luck our way."

In World Championship preparations, they played two warm-up matches against Germany, losing one 0:2 and winning the other 3:2 after a penalty shoot-out. It was the 79th meeting to date, including matches against the GDR and FRG, meaning tomorrow will be an anniversary game.

Less than 24 hours later, they face hosts Finland. They opened with a 1:4 defeat to the USA, beat Germany 4:3, lost to Sweden 1:2 in a penalty shoot-out and most recently defeated France 5:3. "The Finns have the quality of improving as the tournament progresses and getting better from game to game. They tend to be slow starters. In the end, it is entirely possible that they will be back in the final," analyses Roger Bader the World Championship start of the defending champions, who have countless players in their ranks who have contributed to the major successes of two World Championship gold medals (2019 and 2022) and Olympic gold (2022) in recent years.

The last meeting was almost exactly a year ago, on 21 May 2022, here in Tampere at the World Championship. Austria lost 0:3 at the time. As this year, it was also the final game before the decisive clash to stay in the top division against Great Britain. This time, the final opponent is Hungary. The all-time statistics show two draws and 14 defeats in 16 games.

86th IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship

12 May 2023 - 28 May 2023, Tampere (FIN) and Riga (LAT)
Group A, Tampere: Finland, USA, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, France, Austria, Hungary
Group B, Riga: Canada, Czechia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia, Norway, Kazakhstan, Slovenia

Schedule
Dates and times refer to our local time zone, with local time shown in brackets.

Austria vs. Germany
Fri, 19 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)
LIVE on ORF SPORT +

Austria vs. Finland
Sat, 20 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)
LIVE on ORF1 (highlights at 22:15 on ORF SPORT +)

Austria vs. Hungary
Mon, 22 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)
LIVE on ORF SPORT +

Already played:

France vs. Austria 2:1 after overtime (1:0,0:0,0:1,1:0)
Sat, 13 May 2023, 11:20 (12:20 local time)
France goalscorers: Tim Bozon (20th/PP1), Sacha Treille (61st/PP1)
Austria goalscorer: Thomas Raffl (47th/PP1)

Sweden vs. Austria 5:0 (1:0,2:0,2:0)
Sun, 14 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)
Sweden goalscorers: Par Lindholm (4th), Marcus Sörensen (27th), Patrik Nemeth (39th), Leo Carlsson (52nd), Dennis Everberg (54th)

Denmark vs. Austria 6:2 (1:0,1:1,4:1)
Tue, 16 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)
Denmark goalscorers: Nikolaj Ehlers (10th), Niklas Andersen (34th), Jesper Jensen Aabo (47th), Nicklas Jensen (52nd/PP1), Matias Lassen (54th), Patrick Russell (58th)
Austria goalscorers: Thomas Raffl (28 / PP1), Peter Schneider (49)

USA vs. Austria 4:1 (0:0,2:1,2:0)
Wed, 17 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)
USA goalscorers: Rocco Grimaldi (28), Carter Mazur (39), Lane Hutson (44), Nick Perbix (58 / EN)
Austria goalscorer: Thomas Raffl (38 / PP1)

Current IIHF standings

All information and the full schedule can be found at www.iihf.com