Middle period costs victory

Austria made the better start against Belarus, their second opponent in the Olympic qualification tournament. Brian Lebler had the first notable chance as early as the fourth minute. The previous day's goalscorer was denied by a shot stopped by opposing goaltender Taylor. The crucial opening goal then came on the second power play of the afternoon. Raphael Herburger fired his team into the lead. (9th minute) Bader's side gave little away at the back and remained active in the opposition zone. The national team subsequently killed off two power plays and even extended their lead to 2:0 shortly before the buzzer. Lebler scored after fine build-up play from Dominic Zwerger and Marco Rossi. That was also the score at the first interval.

The wounded Belarusians emerged from the dressing room with plenty of momentum. Andrei Stas beat Austrian goaltender Bernhard Starkbaum, who started in goal today. (21st minute) Buoyed by their flying start, the opposition now played more offensively – Team Austria completely lost their way. The equaliser came in the 26th minute. Yegor Sharangovich was the goalscorer. The New Jersey Devils forward decisively turned the game around a few minutes later with a powerful wrist shot. (33rd minute) The momentum was clearly with the opposition. Shane Prince on the power play and Geoff Platt added further goals to make it 5:2.

The more physical approach of the strong Belarusians also took its toll on the Austrian line-up. Stefan Ulmer (broken nose) and Dominik Heinrich (head injury) had to remain in the dressing room for the final period. Bader's charges tried everything – the fighting spirit was there – but in the end it remained a bitter 2:5 defeat. It is therefore also confirmed that the ice hockey national team will not take part in the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Statement from head coach Roger Bader:
“The first twelve minutes were probably the best the Austrian national team has put on the ice in years. I still need to analyse more closely what happened in the second period. Did we play poorly and therefore concede the goals, or did we concede the goals and then continue to play poorly? Both are possible. After the third goal, the whole team had a blackout. In the end, it was alright again and we saved face.”

Statement from captain Thomas Raffl:
“It was the difficult game we expected. At the beginning, we competed superbly and played a strong first period. Because we took a lot of penalties in the second period, Belarus were able to swing the momentum in their favour. Afterwards, we found it difficult to get back into the game. If you want to beat a nation like that, you have to perform for 60 minutes – unfortunately, we did not manage that.”

Statement from defenceman Alex Pallestrang:
“We started the game really well. After going 2:0 up, perhaps we felt a little too secure. After that, we simply were not good enough; we were always one step too late. Although things improved again afterwards, unfortunately we were unable to turn the game around.”


Olympic Qualification Game 1 in Bratislava
AUT – SVK 1:2 (0:1/0:1/1:0)
Lebler (53th minute) and Hudacek (2nd minute), Gernat (29th minute) respectively
Olympic Qualification Game 2 in Bratislava
AUT - BLR 2:5 (2:0/0:5/0:0)
Herburger (9th minute, PP1) Lebler (19th minute) and Stas (21st minute, PP1), Yegor Sharangovich (26th and 33rd minutes), Prince (37th minute, PP1) and Platt (40th minute) respectively
Olympic Qualification Game 3 in Bratislava
AUT-POL
29.08.2021 13:30 (live on ORF Sport +)