U20 National Team suffer heavy defeat against Denmark at the St. Pölten Cup

The team led by Head Coach Philipp Pinter endured a disastrous first period against Denmark, who will also be Austria's opponents at the World Championship in Bled in December. Everything went Denmark's way as they scored five unanswered goals through Daniel Olsson, Anton Linde, Albert Schioldan, Tobias Ebener – the latter two struck twice within 16 seconds – and Oliver Dejbjerg Larsen.

There was virtually no way back in the second period, with Denmark taking the pace out of the game. Austria were able to make the period more even. However, the Danes were again the ones to score: Mads Kongsbak Klyvø and Hjalte Kruse Thomsen made it 7:0 with another double strike within 44 seconds. Shortly before the end of the second period, Luca Kogler scored a consolation goal on the power play to make it 1:7 (39 min.), and there were no further goals in the final period. 

Head Coach Philipp Pinter analysed after the game: "We had no chance today; we had a catastrophic start. We were clearly inferior in terms of skating and physically today. We did not look ready and were overrun. We made too many mistakes defensively. We were not compact enough on the forecheck; we were picked apart from front to back, at least for the first 40 minutes. The final period was clearly much better. We now need to look at our defensive zone and make a few tactical adjustments. Latvia are a strong opponent on Saturday. I hope we learn from today's game; we have to be mentally ready to deliver the right response. But it is a good learning process for the boys, because this is also a typical situation in a World Championship tournament: you can have a very good game, but also a catastrophic one. The important thing is to give the right response in the next game. I hope the boys are ready. We will prepare them well!"

The final game against Latvia follows on Saturday at 15:30. This encounter will once again be available via the Krone.at live stream.

U20 Men's National Team - St. Pölten Cup 2024

Austria vs. Denmark 1:7 (0:5,1:2,0:0)
Fri, 08 November 2024, 19:30, Sportzentrum Niederösterreich
Austria scorer: Luca Kogler (39 min.)

Remaining game:

Austria vs. Latvia
Sat, 09 November 2024, 15:30, Sportzentrum Niederösterreich >> to the Krone.at live stream

Already played:

Norway vs. Austria 2:3 after penalties (1:0,1:0,0:2,0:0,0:1)
Thu, 07 November 2024, 19:30, Sportzentrum Niederösterreich
Austria scorers: Maximilian Kirchebner (49 min./PP1), Thomas Klassek (55 min.), Johannes Neumann (65 min./decisive penalty)

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 2025, Ledena dvorana Bled, 12:30
 
Norway vs. Austria
Tue, 10 December 2025, Ledena dvorana Bled, 16:00
 
Slovenia vs. Austria
Thu, 12 December 2025, Ledena dvorana Bled, 16:00

Austria vs. Hungary
Fri, 13 December 2025, Ledena dvorana Bled, 12:30

Denmark vs. Austria
Sun, 15 December 2025, Ledena dvorana Bled, 12:30

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