Olympic qual­i­fi­ca­tion in Bratislava: Austria narrowly lose to hosts Slovakia

"Naturally, the disappointment is very great so soon after the game because, of course, it was a key game. It was a close game, but that does not help us at all," said Dominique Heinrich, whose frustration at the narrow defeat was evident, although he also stressed that it was a superb performance from the entire team.

The importance of this opening game was evident from the first face-off. Both teams registered a shot on goal in the opening seconds. Slovakia then took a degree of control, aided by three Austrian penalties. The hosts tested Austria's goalkeeper David Kickert 14 times, and he delivered a top performance throughout all 60 minutes, deservedly being named Player of the Game. As was his opposite number Samuel Hlavaj.

Marco Rossi's Minnesota Wild teammate in the NHL increasingly took centre stage as the game progressed. Initially, however, it was Slovakia who opened the scoring. Immediately after Benjamin Nissner returned to the ice following his two-minute penalty, the hosts took a 1:0 lead (33.). Shortly afterwards, Kickert denied the 0:2 with a brilliant save, but seconds later he was beaten after a shot by Milos Kelemen slipped underneath his pad.

Before the momentum finally swung Austria's way, the 30-year-old prevented the 0:3. In the 38th minute, Austria went on their first power play. With seven seconds remaining on the penalty, they even had a two-man advantage and capitalised on it. Dominique Heinrich fired the puck towards goal and Marco Kasper deflected it unstoppably into the top corner – 1:2.

In the final period, the Red-White-Reds now had the upper hand and created several good chances. Only Samuel Hlavaj proved a spoilsport. With 2:16 remaining, Head Coach Roger Bader pulled David Kickert from the ice. Austria hemmed Slovakia into their own zone, but it remained 1:2.

Despite the bitter defeat, in which they deserved to earn a point, the tournament is far from over. Kazakhstan, who won their opening game against Hungary 5:2, await first on Friday at 14:00. The final game against Hungary follows on Sunday at 14:00.

Head Coach Roger Bader: "It is a shame in terms of the result, but Austria can be proud of the performance. We were very strong in the final period and had chances to equalise. You have to consider that we are playing against the No. 9 team in the world rankings, in their arena in front of 10.000 fans, and their goalkeeper is named Best Player. That shows they were happy to come through this game. Now it is about recovering quickly and quickly refocusing on the next game."

Dominique Heinrich: "For long stretches towards the end, we were the better team and had many good scoring chances. David Kickert kept us in the game throughout. In the end, we were missing a goal, or two. Naturally, that is hard to take so soon after the game. But we do not have much time, as we are back in action tomorrow. We have to put the game behind us as quickly as possible and take the positives with us. The chance is still alive; we will not give up under any circumstances."

David Kickert: "I think we perhaps showed them a little too much respect at the beginning. But we had the upper hand in the third period. Unfortunately, the puck did not go in. In the first and second periods, they had a lot of zone time, also due to our penalties. But in the third period, we were the better team. It hurts a lot. A point would have helped us greatly."

The top 8 teams in the world rankings – Canada, Russia, Finland, Czechia, Switzerland, the USA, Sweden and Germany – as well as hosts Italy, have qualified automatically for the Olympic Winter Games. In the three final qualification tournaments in Bratislava (SVK), Riga (LAT) and Aalborg (DEN), the respective group winners will secure an Olympic berth.

According to official IIHF information, it additionally states: “Should any qualified team ultimately not play at the Olympic Games, then they will be replaced by the best 2nd ranked team from the Combined Ranking of the three Final Olympic Qualification Groups played this week”. According to the IIHF, a decision on Russia's participation in the 2026 Olympic Winter Games is to be made in February 2025.

2024 OLYMPIC MEN'S ICE HOCKEY FINAL QUALIFICATION, GROUP D

Slovakia vs. Austria 2:1 (0:0,2:1,0:0)

Thu, 29 August 2024, 18:00, Bratislava, Ondrej Nepela Arena, 8.670

Slovakia goalscorers: Martin Gernát (33.), Miloš Kelemen (35.)

Austria goalscorer: Marco Kasper (40./PP2) 

Austria lined up with:

Goaltenders: 30 Kickert David; 29 Höneckl Thomas (backup) 

Line 1: 19 Heinrich Dominique - 4 Reinbacher David; 16 Zwerger Dominic - 10 Kasper Marco - 3 Schneider Peter

Line 2: 25 Unterweger Clemens - 12 Maier David; 21 Haudum Lukas - 18 Baumgartner Benjamin -  28 Huber Mario

Line 3: 32 Wolf Bernd - 8 Nickl Thimo; 9 Wukovits Ali - 7 Nissner Benjamin - 23 Bischofberger Johannes

Line 4: 26 Stapelfeldt Paul - 27 Huber Paul; 17 Ganahl Manuel - 22 Herburger Raphael - 13 Rohrer Vinzenz

Further fixtures: 

Kazakhstan v Austria

Fri, 30 August 2024, 14:00, Bratislava, Ondrej Nepela Arena - >> Live on ORF SPORT +

Austria v Hungary

Sun, 01 September 2024, 14:00, Bratislava, Ondrej Nepela Arena - >> Live on ORF SPORT +

All information on the official IIHF website