Victory over Hungary

Goal fest in Austria

In the first of two friendly matches, the Austrians immediately displayed their aggressive style of play.
Schneider had the first good chance in the slot (5.) Just two minutes later, Mario
Huber had the opening goal on his stick. (7.) The hosts then received
a penalty and Hungary were immediately clinical. Istvan Sofron beat team goalkeeper
Bernhard Starkbaum with a powerful shot. (9.) Just a few minutes later, it was
another power play for the Hungarians. And once again, Sofron was on hand to
fire home for 0:2. The entertaining match continued at pace. Bader's men
were able to establish themselves in the offensive zone with an extra man, but the puck still would not
go into the net. That changed at 17, when the impressive Schneider scored on the rebound to make it 1:2.
Before the end of the period, Kilian Zündel levelled at __OEHV_NUM_N_A__ with his first goal for the
the national team scored a deserved 2:2 equaliser.

The Austrians' high-pressure style of play remained highly effective in the second period. Lukas
Haudum rewarded his team on the power play. The 24-year-old poked the puck over the line for 3:2
(25.) It was almost exclusively Team Austria playing. Dominik Heinrich was
set up perfectly by captain Thomas Raffl, but the narrow
lead initially remained. (30.) After 34 minutes, the fans at the Erste Bank Arena were able to
celebrate the first two-goal performance. Zündel finished off a fine attack. However,
the opponents were largely unfazed. Csanad Erdely and Austria's
well-known Janos Harri equalised before the buzzer.
Everything was level again ahead of the final period. It took only a few
moments before Schneider found himself alone in front of visiting goalkeeper Miklos Rajna.
The speedy forward finished superbly with a backhand shot from the turn. The
Roger Bader team looked fresher and could have wrapped up the game early.
However, it was not until 47 that the puck found the back of the Hungarian net again.
Heinrich made it 4:2 with a fine shot. Coach Sean Simpson's team once again
responded immediately. Bence Sziranyi gave his team renewed hope.

This time, however, the Austrians defended more intelligently and Manuel Ganahl put the
finishing touch on the 7:5 win. (60.)

As early as tomorrow at 16:30 (live on ORF Sport Plus), the national team will host their
next opponents from Italy.

Austria Player of the Game: Peter Schneider

Hungary Player of the Game: Janos Hari

Team Austria without: Spannring, Hackl, Obrist, Baltram, Wolf R., Wraneschitz, Schmidt.

Head Coach Roger Bader:
“Overall, I am pleased with the entire team. We had the game mostly under
control. After two periods, we had 35:11 shots and the score was 4:4 – of
course, it must not happen that we concede two goals after going 4:2 up and bring the
opponents back into the game. But it is better for it to happen in a friendly than next
week in Olympic qualification.”

Friendly:
Austria - Hungary 7:5 (2:2/2:2/3:1)
Schneider (17./41. PP1), Zündel (20./35.), Haudum (25. PP1), Heinrich (47.), Ganahl (60.
EN) while Sofron (9. PP1/13. PP1) Erdely (26.) Hari (40. SH)