Team spirit and prepa­ra­tion: Two corner­stones of success

Image information: Relief and joy for Roger Bader after securing top-division status, pictured here with his assistant coach Markus Peintner - Copyright: GEPA pictures/Daniel Goetzhaber

With their 5:3 victory over Great Britain on Monday evening, Austria’s men’s national ice hockey team wrote an early summer fairytale for the winter sport of ice hockey. Outstanding results against all the major ice hockey nations, the first-ever win over the Czech Republic and, in the end, securing top-division status in a genuine thriller against Great Britain.

Roger, shortly before the Great Britain game, you said that your 100th international match would only mean something to you if you won that game. What does this milestone mean to you now?
Roger Bader: “Now that we have won, I am delighted about the number 100. It is a sign of continuity when you can play 100 international matches, whether as a player or a coach. That is very special.”

What is your assessment of this World Championship? How has the team developed since the first team camp in Linz at the beginning of April?
Roger Bader: “The team has developed incredibly well. We worked with the squad for several weeks and it made progress week after week. That was already evident against the top opponents we faced before this World Championship: the Sweden game in Vienna, then the Ostrava tournament, but also the Germany game, and the way the team played with confidence, even against superior opponents. We carried that into the World Championship itself. I can remember World Championships where we lost 0:7, 0:8 to Sweden and did not have the slightest chance. This time, the team always believed in its chance. It was a process over several weeks in which the players made enormous progress, both individually and as a group.”

Nothing but outstanding results, including the historic 2:1 win over the Czech Republic and securing top-division status thanks to the 5:3 victory over Great Britain. What was the secret formula?
Roger Bader: “Several things, of course. First of all, we had time in preparation to develop a team. It certainly helped us that Salzburg became champions in a short period of time and the players were able to join us early in the whole process. That helped. Apart from Marco Kasper, we had almost the entire World Championship team together from the third camp onwards. The second factor was certainly the selection of players, who are not simply good ice hockey players and physically capable of playing at this level, but are also very good people with strong characters. We had incredibly good team spirit and I think you could see that against Great Britain too. Without that team spirit, we might not have turned that game around. But because the cohesion within the team was so strong, that is certainly one of the secrets of this success.”

How will this success be celebrated?
Roger Bader: “I am sure the players did not only drink coffee. They should celebrate; they have earned it. We had such a demanding schedule, with the players only having one or two days off between camps, and even at the World Championship itself, with seven games in ten days, we had about the toughest schedule possible. We did not have many opportunities to give the players the chance to properly recover for a longer period, so they absolutely deserve to celebrate this success.”

13–29 May 2022
Hosts: Finland (Tampere & Helsinki)
Defending champions: Canada

Austria schedule

Sweden vs. Austria 3:1 (2:1,1:0,0:0)
Saturday, 14 May 2022, 11:20, Nokia Arena Tampere
Sweden goalscorers: Joel Kellman (3rd), Max Friberg (17th), Joakim Nordström (33rd)
Austria goalscorer: Peter Schneider (20')

Austria vs. USA 2:3 after overtime (1:0,1:1,0:1,0:1)
Sun, 15 May 2022, 15:20, Nokia Arena Tampere
Austria goalscorers: Benjamin Nissner (15'), Paul Huber (35')
USA goalscorers: Kieffer Bellows (35'), Adam Gaudette (49'/PP1), Luke Hughes (63')

Czech Republic vs. Austria 1:2 after a shoot-out (1:0,0:0,0:1,0:0,0:1)
Tue, 17 May 2022, 15:20, Nokia Arena Tampere
Czech Republic goalscorer: Roman Červenka (18')
Austria goalscorers: Brian Lebler (60'), Peter Schneider, decisive penalty (65')

Norway vs. Austria 5:3 (1:1,2:1,2:1)
Wed, 18 May 2022, 15:20, Nokia Arena Tampere
Norway goalscorers: Mats Rosseli Olsen (8'/SH, 48'/PP2), Andreas Martinsen (21'), Martin Røymark (32'), Martin Rønnild (60'/EN)
Austria goalscorers: Dominique Heinrich (7'/PP1), Lukas Haudum (27'/PP1), Peter Schneider (57'/PP)

Latvia vs. Austria 4:3 after a shoot-out (0:0,3:2,0:1,0:0,1:0)
Fri, 20 May 2022, 19:20, Nokia Arena Tampere
Latvia goalscorers: Rudolfs Balcers (26', 36'), Rihards Bukarts (30'/PP1); Nikolajs Jelisejevs and Roberts Bukarts (shoot-out)
Austria goalscorers:Benjamin Nissner (22nd), Dominique Heinrich (32nd/PP2), Thomas Raffl (47th); Dominique Heinrich (penalty shootout)

Austria vs. Finland 0:3 (0:1,0:1,0:1)
Sat, 21 May 2022, 15:20, Nokia Arena Tampere
Finland goalscorers: Valtteri Filippula (2), Mikael Granlund (25), Toni Rajala (48)

Austria vs. Great Britain 5:3 (0:1,0:1,5:1)
Mon, 23 May 2022, 19:20, Nokia Arena Tampere
Austria goalscorers: Ali Wukovits (45), Dominique Heinrich (48), Benjamin Nissner (52), Thomas Raffl (59), Peter Schneider (60)
Great Britain goalscorers: Matthew Myers (19), Robert Dowd (22), Cade Neilson (47)