U18 Women’s World Cham­pi­onship: promo­tion dream dashed after 0:2 defeat to Germany

It was a bitter defeat in many respects. Austria were superior to Germany at times, particularly in the second period, when they pushed for the lead. Shortly before the interval, luck also turned against them when Anstasia Gruss’s shot virtually fell into the net in the 39th minute.

This visibly gave their neighbours confidence and put Head Coach Mario Bellina’s team under pressure. They tried everything to equalise, even taking the goalkeeper off the ice, which led to an empty-net goal 63 seconds before the end of the game. 

There was a worrying moment midway through the third period after Anna Billa collided with a German player and remained on the ice. She, like Zoey Hobitsch, who crashed into the boards, is now being assessed.

For Austria’s U18 women, the dream of promotion has been dashed, as Germany now have nine points following this victory and won the head-to-head encounter with Austria. The World Championship concludes on Friday and Sunday against Hungary and Norway, both of whom have yet to pick up a point and face each other on Thursday at 20:00.

Head Coach Mario Bellina: "Unfortunate. We had too few shots on goal in the first period. Even though it looked as though we had the upper hand, we were not effective enough. We were unlucky with the 0:1 and were under pressure afterwards. We cannot accuse ourselves of not having tried everything. Congratulations to Germany, whose goalkeeper delivered a very good performance today. We need to continue working on our effectiveness in front of goal and now look ahead."

2023 IIHF ICE HOCKEY U18 WOMEN´S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION I, GROUP A

9–15 January 2023, Ritten/Italy

Schedule and results 

Germany vs. AUSTRIA 2:0 (0:0,1:0,1:0) 
Thu, 12 January 2023, 13:00

Hungary vs. AUSTRIA
Fri, 13 January 2023, 20:00 >> to the livestream

AUSTRIA vs. Norway
Sun, 15 January 2023, 13:00 >> to the livestream

Already played:

France vs. AUSTRIA 2:3 n.P. (1:1,1:0,0:1,0:0,0:1)
Tue, 10 January 2023, 16:30
Austria goalscorers: Lena Artner (12:06 min./PP1), Zoey Hobitsch (42:32 min.); in the shoot-out: Anna Billa (65:00 min.), Leonie Kutzer (65:00 min.)

AUSTRIA vs. Italy 0:1 n.V. (0:0,0:0,0:0,0:1)
Mon, 9 January 2023, 20:00

Standings

All information on the World Championship on the official IIHF website