Tough blow: Austria lose 2–6 to Germany after hard-fought battle

"In the first 30 minutes we were absolutely on track. The first period was very solid, balanced, then we took the lead, which wasn't undeserved. When Germany's first goal, we struggled a bit with the offside being canceled. In the end, we clearly took too many penalties. I'll have to see whether they were justified or unjustified. At three against five, Germany had the NHL players who could take advantage of that," summed up Head coach Roger Bader after the end of the game.

We fought a long, equal battle with our neighbors, with good chances on both sides. They started the second period with a lot of momentum and had the chance to make it 1-0 through Vinzenz Rohrer, who was also voted best player. That was to happen just a little later through Leon Wallner, who scored the first goal of the game after an ideal pass from Tim Harnisch.

The celebration was short-lived, however, as Lukas Reichel equalized with a powerful shot over Atte Tolvanen's left shoulder. Shortly afterwards, Maximilian Rebernig found two good chances, but just then the momentum changed. In the 34th minute, Germany’s top line, led by NHL star Moritz Seider, outplayed Austria and took a 2-1 lead through Joshua Samanski. In the final period, after a penalty against Rohrer, our neighbors used the power play to increase the score to 3:1 and shortly afterwards were lucky with the 4:1 goal, which was deflected into the goal by David Maier's skate.

Vinzenz Rohrer had the answer, who stormed into the attacking zone with a solo from his defensive zone and made it 2:4 with a powerful shot under the crossbar in the 49th minute. Austria fought doggedly, threw themselves into every shot, and was lucky twice with shots off the post. But being twice outnumbered after a 2+2 penalty first against Peter Schneider and another against Thimo Nickl, whose breakaway shot from his own zone landed in the opposite net and he was sent off due to delay of game, they found themselves behind 2:5.

Head coach Roger Bader risked everything 5:34 minutes before the end of the game and took Tolvanen out of the goal. But Germany captured the puck in their own zone and made the final score 6-2 in an empty net. The penultimate group game for Austria against Finland follows on Sunday evening, and on Tuesday they finally face defending champions USA.

Head coach Roger Bader: "In the first 30 minutes we were absolutely on track, everything went as we imagined. It was also fine in terms of tactics, structure, combat and play. We now have to be realistic against Finland. They are still unbeaten and have 15 NHL players in their squad. Expecting a win would be presumptuous. But we will do our best, no question about it."

Simeon Schwinger: "We are all disappointed, we had big plans, we really wanted to win or get points. We can't let our heads down, we still have two important games ahead of us. Anything is still possible. Now it's time to recover well, make sure we can sleep and concentrate on Finland. Finland is favorite in this group with Switzerland, so we have to play smart, play our system and play compactly."

2026 IIHF ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

May 15, 2026 - May 31, 2026, Zurich and Fribourg (SUI)
Defending champions: USA
Group A, Zurich: USA, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Austria, Hungary, Great Britain
Group B, Fribourg: Canada, Sweden, Czech Republic, Denmark, Slovakia, Norway, Slovenia, Italy

Schedule
Austria vs. Germany 2:6 (0:0, 1:2, 1:4)
Sat., May 23, 2026, 8:20 p.m., Swiss Life Arena
Goalscorers Austria: Leon Wallner (23rd), Vinzenz Rohrer (49th).
Goalscorers Germany: Lukas Reichel (24th, 46th/PP, 52nd/PP), Joshua Samanski (34th), Manuel Wiederer (49th), Alexander Ehl (55th/EN)
Game sheet

Finland vs. Austria
Sun., May 24, 2026, 8:20 p.m., Swiss Life Arena
Live on ORF SPORT+

USA vs. Austria
Tuesday, May 26, 2026, 4:20 p.m., Swiss Life Arena
Live on ORF 1

Already played
Great Britain vs. Austria 2:5 (2:3, 0:2, 0:0)
Sat., May 16, 2026, 12:20 p.m., Swiss Life Arena, 7,974 spectators
Goalscorers Great Britain: David Clements (16th), Liam Kirk (17th)
Goalscorers Austria: Benjamin Nissner (3rd), Peter Schneider (7th, 27th), Paul Huber (10th), Leon Wallner (34th)
Game sheet

Austria vs. Hungary 4:2 (1:1, 0:0, 3:1)
Sun., May 17, 2026, 4:20 p.m., Swiss Life Arena
Goalscorers Austria: Vinzenz Rohrer (6th/PP), Dominic Zwerger (47th/PP), Thimo Nickl (48th, 60th)
Goalscorers Hungary: Istvan Sofron (12./PP), Peter Vincze (54./PP)
Game sheet

Latvia vs. Austria 1:3 (0:0, 0:1, 1:2)
Tuesday, May 19, 2026, 4:20 p.m., Swiss Life Arena
Goalscorer Latvia: Rudolfs Balcers (41.)
Goalscorers Austria: Tim Harnisch (28th), Benjamin Nissner (45th/PP), Vinzenz Rohrer (60th/EN)
Game sheet

Austria vs. Switzerland 0:9 (0:4, 0:3, 0:2)
Wed., May 20, 2026, 4:20 p.m., Swiss Life Arena
Goalscorers Switzerland: Theo Rochette (6th, 33rd), Timo Meier (10th), Nico Hischier (12th, 30th/PP), Damien Riat (14th/PP, 51st/PP), Calvin Thurkauf (31st), Christoph Bertschy (57th)
Game sheet

Ticketing
Information about World Championship ticket sales 2026.iihfworlds.com
Link to World Championship tickets for Zurich and Fribourg 
Link to individual games with Austria 
Link to World Championship packages with the Austria games