Women’s World Cham­pi­onship Divi­sion IA: Austria narrowly lose to Norway in opener

“Very disappointing. This is not the start we had expected,” said Anna Meixner honestly after the game. Norway were more dangerous at times and repeatedly got the puck in front of Selma Luggin’s net, but she was not caught out.

The Austrians had the better scoring chances. Annika Fazokas rang the crossbar in the 10 minute, before the breakthrough came in the second period.

Fazokas fired the puck from the back into the far corner to give Austria a deserved 1:0 lead. Shortly afterwards, the sound of metal was heard again when Charlotte Wittich hit the post on the power play. Norway took several penalties overall, but could rely on their netminder Ena Nystrom, who was also named Best Player for the Scandinavians.

Shortly after the start of the third period, Millie Rose Sirum equalised with a powerful shot from the blue line. Soon afterwards, Selma Luggin made a mistake behind the net, which Josefine Engmann capitalised on to take the lead. Austria then also conceded the 1:3 goal while shorthanded.

Austria rallied again, but were unable to make the most of their numerous power plays. Only a 5:3 player advantage resulted in the long-overdue goal to pull one back, which unfortunately also proved to be the final score in front of around 1.800 fans.

Anna Meixner: “Overall, we were OK. Special teams are and have always been a major factor at a World Championship. If we have that much power-play time, we have to score one or two.”

Head Coach Alexander Bröms: “It took us a little while to get into the game at the start. The second period was then really good. In the third period, we conceded an extremely unfortunate goal, especially with the 1:2 goal. I am very proud of how the team fought back again. This is not the end. We are taking it game by game.”

Annika Fazokas: “It is a real pity. Good chances are no use if you do not score them. The positive is that we created so many, but they have to go in in future.”

2024 IIHF Ice Hockey Women´s World Championship 2024

Norway vs. Austria 3:2 (0:0,0:1,3:1)
Sun, 21 April 2024, 18:30, Klagenfurt, Heidi Horten Arena, 1.758 
Norway goalscorers: Millie Rose Sirum (42 minutes/PP1, 48 minutes), Josefine Biseth Engmann (46 minutes)
Austria goalscorer: Annika Fazokas (24 minutes, 57 minutes/PP2) 

Official line-ups

Further matches:

Austria vs. South Korea
Mon, 22 April 2024, 19:30, Klagenfurt, live on ORF SPORT +

France vs. Austria
Wed, 24 April 2024, 19:30, Klagenfurt, live on ORF SPORT +

Austria vs. Hungary
Fri, 26 April 2024, 20:25, Klagenfurt, live on ORF SPORT +

Austria vs. the Netherlands
Sat, 27 April 2024, 20:25, Klagenfurt, live on ORF SPORT +

The full schedule is available HERE!

Day and weekly tickets for the World Championship are available from ÖEHV partner Ö-Ticket.

Ticket prices
Day tickets € 10.-
Weekly tickets € 20.-