Para World Cham­pi­onship: Austria lose 0:7 to Great Britain

Austria played their second game against Great Britain at the 2022 World Para Ice Hockey Championships at the Thailand International Ice Hockey Arena in Bangkok. The British have impressed so far at the World Championship and recorded convincing victories. Head Coach Ian Offers’ team beat hosts Thailand 11:0 and defeated France 7:0.

ÖEHV Head Coach Lucas Herrnegger had called for his players to improve their play in the battles following the opening 1:3 defeat against France ahead of their second World Championship appearance. Great Britain were on top from the outset, while Austria’s netminder Michael Ossimitz initially kept a clean sheet with several good saves.

He was powerless to stop Nathan Stephens’ placed shot in the seventh minute, which made it 0:1. The red-white-red selection battled hard in the first period to gain a foothold against the dominant British side. Two further goals in the tenth and eleventh minutes saw the table leaders take a 3:0 lead after the opening 15 minutes. The 3:0 in particular was worth watching, as Karl Nicholson had found himself one-on-one with Ossimitz and fired the puck under the crossbar.

Hard-fought contest

Little changed in the second period. Great Britain remained on top in a hard-fought contest and were also clinical in front of goal. After a spell of pressure in which the British pinned Austria in their own defensive zone, Tyler Christopher swept the puck over the line from close range for 4:0 in the 19th minute. With 29 seconds remaining in the period, Christopher struck again to make it 5:0. 

Just under four minutes from time, Christopher completed his hat-trick to make it 6:0, beating netminder Michael Ladstätter, who guarded Austria’s goal for the final minutes, from close range.

Gary Farmer rounded off the scoring with a superb shot to make it 7:0. Forward Timo Ropp was named Austria’s best player. The ÖEHV team return to action against Kazakhstan on Saturday, 10 December at 08:30, before hosts Thailand await at noon on Sunday.

Lucas Herrnegger, Austria Head Coach: "Great Britain are one or two steps ahead of us; they play competitive hockey all winter. But we are working well on it, and my players have great ambition. We look at every game individually, want to give our best in every game, and then we will see what comes out after 45 minutes against Kazakhstan on Saturday!"  

Michael Sauer, Austria captain: "That was certainly the most exhausting and toughest game today. We played well, especially in the first and third periods. We need to work even harder on ourselves and communicate even better with one another. We need to look after each other better. We defended very well today; now we need to get the puck out of our own zone, play well going forward and play more openly going forward, with more courage, more determination and more strength!"

PARA ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP GROUP C

6–11 December, Bangkok/Thailand

All of Austria’s games at the Para World Championship Group C will be streamed on LIVE.eishockey.at !

Schedule

Great Britain vs. Austria 7:0 (3:0,2:0,2:0)
Thu, 8 December 2022, 12:00 (18:00 local time)

Further fixtures:

Austria vs. Kazakhstan
Sat, 10 December 2022, 08:30 (14:30 local time)

Thailand vs. Austria
Sun, 11 December 2022, 12:00 (18:00 local time)

Already played:

Austria vs. France 1:3 (1:0,0:1,2:0)
Tue, 6 December 2022, 08:30 (14:30 local time)
Austria goalscorer: Kai Habeler (18 minutes)

PARA ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP GROUP C STANDINGS

Team Austria squad