U20 Men beat Slovenia 4:2 in World Championship warm-up

The first of two warm-up games ahead of the U20 World Championship Division IA is “in the books” for Austria, as Head Coach Philipp Pinter put it. And it ended in victory. Thanks to strong special teams, including four power-play goals, Austria beat Slovenia 4:2 (1:1,1:0,2:1) in Budapest (HUN) on Thursday afternoon. They will face Hungary on Friday at 16:00, before travelling to Bled (SLO) for the World Championship on Saturday, where their opening game against France awaits on Monday.

05 December 20242 min read

“The performance was OK,” said Head Coach Philipp Pinter after the final buzzer, while also indicating that there is still room for improvement: “The special teams were very, very good today. We scored four power-play goals and were aggressive on the penalty kill. With Benedikt Oschgan, we had a very good goalie in net, who also made the important saves at the right time.”

Nevertheless, Oschgan had to retrieve the puck from the net twice. After seven minutes, Zan Spari Leben opened the scoring for Slovenia, hosts of the upcoming U20 World Championship, to give his team a 1:0 lead. Time and again, Slovenia created dangerous chances in front of Austria’s net after winning the puck. Overall, however, the two teams were evenly matched. Shortly before the end of the first period, Ian Scherzer converted the first power play, assisted by Thomas Klassek, to level the score deservedly.

Towards the end of the second period, another two-minute penalty against Slovenia gave Austria the lead in a game played at a high tempo. This time, Vasily Zelenov scored from a Klassek assist to make it 2:1.

In the 49th minute, the youngest player on the ice also registered an assist: Paul Sintschnig set up Leon Kolarik’s 3:1 and was also involved in Felix Haiböck’s 4:2 in the 51st minute. That goal was the perfect response to Slovenia’s goal to reduce the deficit 57 seconds earlier and also sealed the final score.

Head Coach Philipp Pinter: “At five-on-five, we delivered an average performance. On the one hand, it was clear that we had too many turnovers and that our forechecking did not apply enough pressure at times. Those unnecessary turnovers repeatedly allowed Slovenia to create dangerous chances in front of our net. Slovenia showed that they have a very good team. We still have a great deal of work ahead of us. The team knows that we need to play more compactly and with greater discipline at the World Championship tournament. We took too many penalties today and did not always stick to the game plan tactically. There is certainly still room for improvement.”

World Championship preparation

Slovenia vs. Austria 2:4 (1:1, 0:1, 1:2)
Thu, 5 December 2024, 16:15, Budapest (HUN)
Austria scorers: Ian Scherzer (20th/PP1), Vasily Zelenov (40th/PP1), Leon Kolarik (49th/PP1), Felix Haiböck (51st/PP1)
Slovenia scorers: Zan Spari Leben (8th), Nik Christian Petrovic (50th)

Austria vs. Hungary
Fri, 6 December 2024, 16:00, Budapest (HUN)

2025 IIHF ICE HOCKEY U20 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION IA

9 December 2024 - 15 December 2024, Bled (SLO)
Participants: Norway, France, Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia

Austria vs. France
Mon, 09 December 2024, Ledena dvorana Bled, 12:30

Norway vs. Austria
Tue, 10 December 2024, Ledena dvorana Bled, 16:00

Slovenia vs. Austria
Thu, 12 December 2024, Ledena dvorana Bled, 16:00

Austria vs. Hungary
Fri, 13 December 2024, Ledena dvorana Bled, 12:30

Denmark vs. Austria
Sun, 15 December 2024, Ledena dvorana Bled, 12:30

All information on the official IIHF website: https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2025/wm20ia

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