Junior players make the differ­ence

Following Saturday's narrow 1:0 win, Kazakhstan made the better start in Sunday's return fixture at the Kagran Ice Sports Centre in Vienna. Kendra Broad gave the visitors the lead after ten minutes of play. In an evenly matched opening period, the Austrians were unable to convert their chances.

As the game wore on, the Austrians’ superiority became increasingly clear, but as in the first encounter, the goals were still slow to come. Following an error in the Kazakh defence, Monika Vlcek was in the right place at the right time, reacted quickest and fired home the deserved equaliser from close range (36th minute).

That broke Kazakhstan's resistance, and the Austrians took command in the final period. The ÖEHV side created numerous scoring opportunities, with two of them converted by junior players. Emma Hofbauer, the youngest player in the Austrian squad at 16 years of age, put her side in front (42nd minute), before 17-year-old Lena Dauböck extended the lead to the final score of 3:1 ten minutes later. For Head Coach Jari Risku, the second training camp of the season therefore ended with a third win in four games.

A different generation took centre stage after the game. On 31 March, Austrian women's ice hockey celebrates its 20th anniversary. Representing all the women who have taken up ice hockey and come to love the fastest team sport in the world (more photos from the game), long-standing team captain and pioneer Esther Väärälä was honoured by ÖEHV Vice-President Mag. Yasmin Stepina.

NATIONAL TEAM FIXTURES 2020/21

(CANCELLED) 04. - 07.11.2020: Training camp and international matches
Venue: Budapest, Hungary
Participants: Hungary, Austria

05.11.2020, 16:30: Austria - Hungary
06.11.2020, 16:30: Hungary - Austria

16. - 20.12.2020: Training camp and international matches
Venue: Villach
Participants: Austria, Slovakia

16.-18.12.2020: Training days

Both matches LIVE on LAOLA1.at, match one LIVE on ORF Sport+
19.12.2020, 16:00: Austria - Slovakia 3:1 (0:0,1:1,2:0)
Goals: Wittich (31/PP), Meixner (47, 58) and Kubekova (33) respectively
Penalty minutes: 6 and 4 respectively

20.12.2020, 12:30: Austria - Slovakia 1:2 (1:0,0:2,0:0)
Goals: Trummer (8/PP) and Istocyova (31/PP), Kubekova (38) respectively
Penalty minutes: 2 and 4 respectively

10. - 14.02.2021: Training camp and internationals
Venue: Vienna
Participants: Austria, Kazakhstan

10.-12.02.2021: Training days

Both matches LIVE on LAOLA1.at, match one LIVE on ORF Sport+
13.02.2021, 18:00: Austria - Kazakhstan 1:0 (0:0,1:0,0:0)
Goal: Granitz (33)
Penalty minutes: 14 and 8 respectively

14.02.2021, 15:00: Austria - Kazakhstan 3:1 (0:1,1:0,2:0)
Goals: Vlcek (36), Hofbauer (42), Dauböck (52) and Broad (10) respectively
Penalty minutes: 4 and 8 respectively