U20 World Cham­pi­onship: Austria follow up with 4:2 win over France

Austria got off to the perfect start at the 2026 IIHF U20 World Championship Division IA. They secured their second win in as many games. Against France, Konstantin Hutzinger scored his second and third goals of the World Championship to give Austria a 2:0 lead after just under 14 minutes. However, they then handed some of the initiative to their opponents and also took two penalties in quick succession. France converted their second power play to pull one back shortly before the end of the first period.

But, as against Slovenia, the ÖEHV side again took a significant step towards victory in the middle period. Jonathan Oschgan shortly after the restart and Leon Kolarik in the 33rd minute put them firmly on course for another win. France threw everything at it again in the final period and reduced the deficit to 2:4 in the 50th minute.

After Gregor Biber was sent to the penalty box in the 58th minute, Les Bleus even pulled their goaltender. However, Austria came through this difficult phase unscathed and saw out the 4:2 win. Following a rest day, Norway await on Wednesday – one of the favourites for gold and promotion.

Head Coach Philipp Pinter: "The most important thing is that we have picked up three points again. At times, we made the game too complicated. In spells, we put their defencemen under good pressure and got the puck and traffic in front of the opposition net. But not consistently enough. In those moments, we gave away too much and were careless with our lead. That is complaining at a high level, but the boys have set themselves high targets. Now the tournament starts anew. We will analyse the first two games in depth and prepare the game plan for the match against Norway. We will need a better team performance there."

2026 IIHF U20 World Championship Division IA

7 - 13 December 2025, Bled (SLO)
All Austria matches will be streamed live on streaming.krone.at live
Schedule, results, standings

Austria vs. France 4:2 (2:1,2:0,0:1)
Mon, 8 December 2025, 12:30
Austria goalscorers: Konstantin Hutzinger (7th, 14th), Jonathan Oschgan (22nd), Leon Kolarik (33rd)
France goalscorers: Alexandre Monarque (19th), Paul le Lem (50th)
Game Summary

Austria vs. Norway
Wed, 10 December 2025, 12:30

Austria vs. Ukraine
Thu, 11 December 2025, 12:30

Kazakhstan vs. Austria
Sat, 13 December 2025, 16:00

Already played:

Slovenia vs. Austria 2:5 (1:3,0:2,1:0)
Sun, 7 December 2025, 16:00
Austria scorers: Jonathan Oschgan (9), Johannes Neumann (14), Vasily Zelenov (18), Paul Oberhauser (37), Konstantin Hutzinger (38)
Slovenia scorers: Ian Petronijevic Lepsa (2), Aljaz Hrobat Plemelj (57)
Game Summary