Prepa­ra­tions under way

From Wednesday, two women's national teams have an eventful week of internationals ahead. The senior national team will meet in Vienna for its second training camp of the season and conclude it with two internationals against Kazakhstan, which will be broadcast live by ORF Sport+ and LAOLA1.at on 13 and 14 February.

The U17 team, led by interim coaches Florian Mühlstein and Benedikt Schennach, will hold its first get-together of the season in Villach, where games against Switzerland are scheduled for Friday and Saturday (live streams on https://sport-fan.at/). “We will implement our effective prevention concepts at both locations and act responsibly with regard to the health of everyone involved,” said General Manager Martin Kogler.

With regard to the senior national team, Head Coach Jari Risku is looking forward to his second training camp with the players. The Finn, who celebrated numerous successes with Finnish national teams before taking up his role in Austria, explains his next steps with the Austrian women in the interview.

The first games of the year against Slovakia took place in December. What can be expected from the next two against Kazakhstan this week?

Risku: The games against Slovakia showed us where our strengths lie and brought to light things that we still need to work on in the upcoming training camps. Goaltending coach Thomas Dechel has done a good job compiling videos. Games at the end of a camp always show how good our training has actually been in the various areas and how the players can put it into practice on the ice.

What is the main focus of the camp in Vienna now?

Risku: In training, the main focus is on solving defensive tasks better. Offensively, we need to be ready for our attacks and execute them quickly. Personally, it is about getting to know the players and the processes surrounding the Austrian national team better, and strengthening our cooperation.

The IIHF World Championship has been cancelled again. What are you still working towards as a team?

Risku: Of course, it is not easy to have a similar goal to a World Championship. However, there are still events and objectives that we are working towards. Firstly, we will draw up a plan for the final stage of Olympic qualification, which we want to complete successfully in November against Germany, Denmark and a qualifier. That is our short-term goal. In the long term, we are thinking about the development of the players themselves. As coaches and management, we try to support the players as best we can in their everyday lives so that they can thrive in ice hockey. The aim is to combine studies, work, leisure time, training and performance-oriented ice hockey. When the current pandemic is added to that, it can be overwhelming for an individual. We want to address this so that the players can take a step forward every day in our camps.

Women's senior national team
10–14.02.2021: Training camp and internationals
Venue: Vienna
Participants: Austria, Kazakhstan

10–12.02.2021: Training days
13.02.2021, 18:00: Austria v Kazakhstan (LIVE on ORF Sport+ and LAOLA1.at)
14.02.2021, 15:00: Austria v Kazakhstan (LIVE on LAOLA1.at)

Austria Women's Under-17 National Team
10–13.02.2021: Training camp and international matches
Venue: Villach
Participants: Austria, Switzerland

10–11.02.2021: Training days
12.02.2021, 17:15: Austria v Switzerland
13.02.2021, 12:00: Austria v Switzerland
Both matches will be available as a livestream on https://sport-fan.at/livestream.