ÖEHV Year in Review: Austria writes World Cham­pi­onship history

The year 2024 began with a goal. A historic goal. On 3 January, Theresa Schafzahl scored Boston’s first goal in the newly created Professional Women´s Hockey League. “It’s definitely cool,” said the then 23-year-old.

Since this season, two Austrian flag-bearers have been playing in what is arguably the best women’s league in the world. On 11 June, Anna Meixner was drafted by Ottawa in 32nd position and made the roster in November. Just a few days ago, Schafzahl and Meixner faced each other in the PWHL for the first time, while on 19 December, “Meixi” scored her first PWHL goal for Ottawa Charge.

U18 national teams finish fourth and win bronze

At the start of January, the U18 women finished the Division IA World Championship in Egna, Italy, in 4th place after three wins, one each in overtime and a penalty shootout, as well as two defeats, one of them after a penalty shootout. From 5 January 2025, the team will face Italy, Germany, Norway, France and Hungary at the U18 Division IA World Championship in Budapest (HUN).

Shortly after the women, the U16 men travelled to the 3x3 tournament at the Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon (KOR), where they narrowly missed out on a medal.

The U18 men, meanwhile, won bronze at the Division IA World Championship in Frederikshavn (DEN) in April. Over the course of the tournament, they beat Japan, Hungary (after a penalty shootout) and Denmark, suffering defeats only to Germany and Ukraine.

The U20 men caused a stir in December, ultimately falling just one goal short of promotion to the top division. After victories over France, Norway, Slovenia and Hungary, they lost 4:5 to Denmark in their final game. A draw would have meant winning the tournament and promotion. “The team performed superbly throughout the World Championship and deserved the title. I am very proud of the team and the entire coaching staff. Austria was represented brilliantly here,” said Sports Director Roger Bader afterwards, having achieved something historic with the senior national team seven months earlier.

World Championship 2024: record comeback against Canada

After a ultimately fairly clear 1:5 defeat to Denmark in their opening game, Austria captured the hearts of international ice hockey fans in Prague (CZE). They came close to beating Switzerland in a 5:6 game, then came back from a 1:6 deficit against Canada in the third period to force overtime – the five goals in the final period also set a World Championship record! It was the biggest comeback in the 87-year history of the Ice Hockey World Championship, according to the International Ice Hockey Federation IIHF. Just two days later, Olympic champions Finland were beaten 3:2 thanks to Benjamin Baumgartner’s goal 0,2 seconds before the final buzzer. The 4:1 victory over Norway also secured their place in the top division early, and they ultimately finished in 10th place, their best result since the 2003 World Championship in Finland.

In its annual sports review, ORF dedicated an in-depth feature to this historic World Championship - Direct link to the feature on on.orf.at

Record crowd in Klagenfurt

From 21 to 27 April, Klagenfurt hosted the 2024 IIHF Ice Hockey Women´s World Championship Division IA. In the final game against the Netherlands, a new attendance record for a women’s international match in Austria was set with 2.385 spectators. Anna Meixner & Co. put in a strong overall tournament performance, but suffered narrow defeats against Hungary (after a penalty shootout), France and Norway. After victories over South Korea and the Netherlands, they finished the home tournament in 4th place.

Para national team wins bronze in Thailand

At the Para World Championship Group C in Bangkok, Austria perfectly lived up to their favourites’ tag against Australia on two occasions. They suffered two clear defeats against tournament favourites Finland and hosts Thailand, who have invested heavily in Para ice hockey over the past two years. Having already beaten Australia 15:0 in the group stage, they also delivered a commanding 9:0 win over the men from Down Under in the game for 3rd place.

New generation makes its mark

In the 2023/2024 season, Marco Rossi made his definitive breakthrough in the NHL with Minnesota Wild. In the current campaign, the Vorarlberg native has 12 goals and 15 assists after 34 games. Following 18 goals and 24 assists, including the playoffs, for the Grand Rapids Griffins in the AHL, Marco Kasper was called up from the farm team to the Detroit Red Wings’ NHL roster in the autumn after a number of injuries had hit the team. On 15 November, Kasper scored his first NHL goal against the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

Shortly before his potential debut in the best league in the world, David Reinbacher suffered a knee injury in a pre-season game for his Montreal Canadiens against the Toronto Maple Leafs and has been working on his comeback ever since.

Vinzenz Rohrer headed into the summer break last season with championship honours. In his very first season with the ZSC Lions in Switzerland, the 20-year-old won the title. With his carefree and aggressive style of play, Rohrer became a fan favourite among Lions supporters last season. Unless the NHL comes calling sooner – the Canadiens secured the rights to the forward in the 2022 draft – Rohrer remains under contract in Zurich for the 2025/2026 season.

Three more Austrians are also in the shop window: Gregor Biber and Vasily Zelenov were drafted by Utah (Biber) and Buffalo (Zelenov) respectively at the end of June and most recently enjoyed a strong U20 World Championship in Bled (SLO). As did goaltender Benedikt Oschgan, who moved from Steinbach Black Wings Linz to Swedish top club Växjö Lakers in the summer and has already had a taste of Champions Hockey League action there. 

New women's league gets underway

At the end of the Women's Home World Championship, the win2day Austrian Women´s Hockey League was launched, bringing together four key stakeholders in European ice hockey: ÖEHV, HIHF (Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation), the win2day ICE Hockey League and win2day. win2day took on title sponsorship, thereby expanding its commitment to women's ice hockey.

With the Equal Play Day concept in mind, win2day's commitment is designed for the long term and plays a key role in rolling out and developing the league. The aim is to increase general interest in women's ice hockey and attract more women to the sport, make more players available for the respective national teams through improved training, and offer more top-level games.

Established and new partnerships

Win2day is an integral part of Austrian ice hockey and the national teams. win2day also appeared as the main sponsor at the Women's World Championship Division IA in Klagenfurt. The successful partnership was only extended last May.

With ORF, one of the most important partners will remain on board in the future and will continue to provide excellent coverage of selected national-team games.

The successful and positive partnership with Opel & Beyschlag as mobility partner was also extended.

With RED+, there is a new cooperation partner in the area of livestreaming, which has been streaming all leagues organised by ÖEHV in the women's, men's, para and youth sectors since the start of the 2024/2025 season.

Comprehensive media partnerships with Radio 88.6 and krone.at were concluded in the autumn. 88.6 will not only promote national-team games, but above all turn home games into a rock temple. At all home games of the women's and men's national teams, a 88.6 DJ creates the right atmosphere in the arena. Mario Batka, live reporter at 88.6, will bring our stars to the microphone in his unmistakable style at selected games.

Austria's games at the men's U20 World Championship found a high-reach home on krone.at in December. This partnership, which had already begun during the IIHF's November break with the youth teams and the women's senior team, is not intended to be limited to the World Championship but will also be used for future events.

Executive Board confirmed in office

At the 79th General Assembly of the Austrian Ice Hockey Federation in Villach on 22 June 2024, the incumbent Executive Board led by President Dr Klaus Hartmann was confirmed in office by a clear majority and re-elected for a further four years. After the Executive Board's start in the summer of 2020 was initially still marked by the COVID19 pandemic, it quickly set about delivering on the election promises made at the time. With the new squad regulations, the new training-cost compensation system, the return of youth leagues to ÖEHV responsibility, the launch of the in-house OTT platform, the creation of the Head of Youth Training and Development position, the new "Rot-Weiß-Rote Faden" training concept and, above all, the sporting successes, the assessment of the first term of office was correspondingly positive.

For the next four years, the objectives are to refine what has been achieved, implement a Head of Goalkeeper-Development role and increase revenues in marketing and sponsorship.