World Cham­pi­onship 2023: Austria lose 1:2 to France in over­time

Head Coach Roger Bader put his faith in netminder David Kickert for the start of the World Championship, with Bernhard Starkbaum serving as the backup goaltender. The first line comprised Manuel Ganahl, centre Lukas Haudum and Henrik Neubauer. Bernd Wolf and Thimo Nickl were paired together on defence. 

Benjamin Nissner centred the second forward line, with Thomas Raffl and Peter Schneider on the wings, while Dominique Heinrich and Kilian Zündel played on defence. Marco Rossi took to the ice as centre on the third line, alongside Dominic Zwerger and Mario Huber. Nico Brunner and David Reinbacher operated at the back. On the fourth line, centre Oliver Achermann played with Ali Wukovits and Paul Huber. Steven Strong and David Maier formed the fourth defensive pairing.

Both teams needed a few shifts to shake off their opening nerves. Austria had an early power play but were unable to make their numerical advantage count. The French played aggressively and were strong defensively, creating the better chances. Goaltender David Kickert kept a clean sheet with some fine saves.

Towards the end of the first period, the ÖEHV side faced their first penalty kill, with David Reinbacher sent to the penalty box. Bernd Wolf joined him, leaving Austria facing a 3:5 disadvantage. When Reinbacher returned to the ice, Les Bleus combined quickly and Tim Bozon made it 1:0 with 31 seconds remaining in the period. Moments before the first siren, Dominique Heinrich had the equaliser on his stick from close range following a cross-ice pass.

As the second period progressed, Austria grew into the game minute by minute. First, Dominic Zwerger intercepted the puck, but his shot was placed too centrally at the French goal. Mario Huber then had the next good opportunity but was denied by France netminder Sebastian Ylonen. 

On the next penalty kill, Red-White-Red had the best chance with just under five minutes remaining in the second period: Ali Wukovits entered the offensive zone down the left, but Manuel Ganahl was unable to control his cross-ice pass cleanly.

Thomas Raffl scores Austria’s first goal at the 2023 World Championship

Austria now had to play more offensively in the final period and improved with every shift. When Alexandre Texier checked Dominique Heinrich into the boards after tripping him and while he was still on the ice, the officiating team, following a video review, sent the Frenchman to the dressing room with a five-minute major and game misconduct.

Austria made the most of this lengthy numerical advantage to equalise at 1:1 in the 47th minute: Peter Schneider set up Thomas Raffl, who lifted the puck under the crossbar with his backhand. Austria then enjoyed their best spell. Following a superb pass from Mario Huber, Marco Rossi had a great chance to score the go-ahead goal, but the centre was denied from close range. 

High drama at the end: Austria faced a penalty kill with a minute and a half remaining, as Marco Rossi was sent off for slashing. Then Manuel Ganahl also had to go. Austria had to survive a 3:5 disadvantage, but they held on as a team to secure a point after 60 minutes.

The game went to overtime, where Austria initially still had to play two men down. France first hit the post, before Sacha Treille scored after just 39 seconds with a 4:3 advantage to seal a 2:1 victory for Head Coach Philippe Bozon’s team. Austria captain Thomas Raffl was named his team’s best player.

Head Coach Roger Bader: "A point is always a point. This point was certainly well deserved. At the moment, the disappointment at not taking all three points still prevails. We did not start the first period optimally, but then improved and were able to make the second period even. We dominated the third period. We should have scored the winning goal there. The final two minutes were of course bitter with those penalties; ultimately, they cost us the game. The positive was that the players improved as the game went on. We also made a small tactical adjustment from the second to the third period, which had a positive effect on our structure. We have definitely arrived now. I was not satisfied with the first period, but from the second period onwards, you can say that we have now arrived at the World Championship!"

The ÖEHV side are back in action as early as Sunday at 19:20, LIVE on ORF SPORT +. Their opponents will be Sweden, who claimed a narrow 1:0 win over Germany on Friday.

The head coach is already looking ahead: "Two games in two days is always tough, especially against a world-class team. We had the lunchtime game today and have the evening game on Sunday. The players have the day off today, there is no more programme and we will not have another meeting with them. We coaches will analyse the game again and also analyse Sweden as opponents. Tomorrow, Sunday, the players who did not play today will take to the ice, while the others will do a short workout in the gym. Then we will have one or two meetings to finalise the line-up. We already have an idea of how we want to play against nations such as Finland or Sweden. Sweden will play differently to France. The French have a very physically strong team that played very physically, and one or two of our players had problems with that. Sweden, on the other hand, are naturally at a different level to France, and to us, in terms of skating and technique. It will be about being even better organised defensively in order to close down the space for them. Above all, we will try to be compact in the neutral zone and then take advantage of the counter-attacking opportunities that we will certainly get!"

Goaltender David Kickert: "We took too many penalties, especially towards the end. That really takes its toll on the penalty killers. We battled superbly, but unfortunately the French picked up the extra point in overtime. We improved from period to period. The first period was very tough, we had a lot of turnovers and made a lot of mistakes. And we could not put our straightforward game together. That improved in the second period and even more so in the third, when I actually had very little to do. Sweden are at another level again compared to France, but we approach every game with the aim of picking up points, even if it is now a world-class opponent. But now it is time to recover!"

Defenceman David Reinbacher: "We went into the game aiming to take all three points. Unfortunately, we slept through the first period. Clearly, France were the better team today. We now have to take out the positives and look ahead. We grew into the game as it went on, played fast and hard, got shots on goal, followed up, and the simple game then worked very well. We have to take that into the game against Sweden. There are still so many games to come and there is still so much possible. Against Sweden, we have to be solid defensively, make simple chips out, follow up and play hard!"

France vs. Austria 2:1 after overtime (1:0,0:0,0:1,1:0)
Sat, 13 May 2023, 11:20 (12:20 local time)
France goalscorers: Tim Bozon (20th minute/PP1), Sacha Treille (61st minute/PP1)
Austria goalscorer: Thomas Raffl (47th minute/PP1)

The current IIHF standings

86TH IIHF ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

12 May 2023 - 28 May 2023, Tampere (FIN) and Riga (LAT)
Group A, Tampere: Finland, USA, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, France, Austria, Hungary
Group B, Riga: Canada, Czechia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia, Norway, Kazakhstan, Slovenia

Remaining schedule:
Dates and times refer to our local time zone, with the local time shown in brackets.

Sweden vs. Austria
Sun, 14 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)
LIVE on ORF SPORT +

Denmark vs. Austria
Tue, 16 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)
LIVE on ORF1 (highlights at 23:15 on ORF SPORT +)

USA vs. Austria
Wed, 17 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)
LIVE on ORF1 (highlights at 22:00 on ORF SPORT +)

Austria vs. Germany
Fri, 19 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)
LIVE on ORF SPORT +

Austria vs. Finland
Sat, 20 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)
LIVE on ORF1 (highlights at 22:15 on ORF SPORT +)

Austria vs. Hungary
Mon, 22 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)
LIVE on ORF SPORT +

All information and the full schedule can be found at www.iihf.com