World Cham­pi­onship 2023: Austria narrowly lose 2:4 to Germany

Head Coach Roger Bader opted for David Kickert as the starting goaltender in the fifth World Championship game, with David Madlener serving as backup. Manuel Ganahl, Lukas Haudum and Mario Huber formed the first line on this occasion. Steven Strong and David Maier were paired together in defence. 

The second and third five-man units remained unchanged from the USA game. Benjamin Nissner centred the second line, flanked by Thomas Raffl and Lucas Thaler. Dominique Heinrich and Kilian Zündel played in defence. Marco Rossi lined up at centre on the third line, alongside Dominic Zwerger and Peter Schneider. Bernd Wolf and Thimo Nickl played on defence. 

Oliver Achermann played at centre on the fourth line, with Ali Wukovits and Paul Huber on his wings. Philipp Wimmer and Nico Brunner formed the fourth defensive pairing.

Germany began the game at a high tempo and quickly took control. Austria were initially occupied solely with defensive duties. The opening goal came early: Nico Sturm could not be stopped as he accelerated, burst through the ÖEHV defence and fired the puck home for 1:0 (5.). 

Austria then grew into the game through a strong first power play. Shortly after the power play expired, they had their first major chance when Manuel Ganahl set up Lukas Haudum perfectly, but Haudum was denied from close range. Marco Rossi then went in alone on goal but was unable to beat Germany goaltender Mathias Niederberger. The Vorarlberg native followed up with determination, the puck fell to Bernd Wolf, who clinically fired home the equaliser for 1:1 (12.). 

Three and a half minutes before the end of the period, the ÖEHV side were 1:2 behind after Benjamin Nissner unfortunately deflected a pass from Parker Tuomi into his own net (17.). 

A minute before the first buzzer, Benjamin Nissner had the equaliser on his stick from the slot, but dragged his shot wide.

The two teams engaged in an open end-to-end contest in the early stages of the second period. Thomas Raffl had the best chance but could not convert a pass from Lucas Thaler. Austria were strong on their next power play, but could not find the equaliser. 

Lukas Haudum then squandered another good opportunity when he appeared alone in front of Mathias Niederberger. At the halfway point of the game, Austria once again enjoyed a good spell in the offensive zone. Almost out of nowhere, Germany made it 1:3: Wojciech Stachowiak charged through the defence and beat goaltender David Kickert (34.). In the final minute of the middle period, Austria applied pressure once more and moved the puck around in the offensive zone, but failed to create a major chance to pull one back.

Haudum makes the game exciting again

In the opening minutes of the final period, the team coached by Head Coach Harold Kreis initially managed their two-goal lead and allowed Austria to press forward. Germany ran down the clock, while Austria sought to score a goal to reduce the deficit. Clear-cut scoring chances were few and far between. 

That changed when Ali Wukovits hammered the puck towards the German goal and Lukas Haudum deflected it in for 2:3 (54.). Suddenly, there was huge tension in the Nokia Arena. In the end, Head Coach Roger Bader took a risk and pulled goaltender David Kickert, with Nico Sturm sealing the result with an empty-net goal (59.). Marco Rossi was named Austria’s best player.

Head Coach Roger Bader: "In my opinion, this was our best game today; we have improved from game to game. I thought we were the better team, but once again the course of the game went against us. We were always chasing the game, but we never gave up, created and worked our way into scoring chances, and played a very good game that deserved to be rewarded with points!"

Defenceman David Maier: "It was an even game, perhaps we had a slight edge in chances, but unfortunately it was not enough today. I think individual mistakes, including one by me unfortunately, decided the game. We can be proud of how we played today; we really made life difficult for the Germans. We put them under a lot of pressure, and if we play like that again tomorrow and take another step forward, who knows, perhaps we can get some points. But we definitely know that the game against Hungary will be our decisive game!"

Hosts Finland await on Saturday

Just 20 hours after the opening face-off against Germany, the ÖEHV side are back in action on Saturday at 15:20, LIVE on ORF 1. Hosts Finland await in the sold-out Nokia Arena. 

According to Head Coach Roger Bader, the short break before this game must be used as effectively as possible: "The lads will now have something to eat, then sleep. The game is already at 16:20 local time, so in less than 24 hours. That is certainly a huge strain, and then against a team like Finland – we know that will be tough. We will not go on the ice tomorrow, but prepare at the hotel. Those are the measures that need to be taken, and then be ready again for the next game. Naturally, the initial feeling is one of frustration at having lost again; it does get to you. But we will manage to show the team everything they did well and how they can continue on this path. Get a good feeling again tomorrow against Finland and then be ready on Monday to play Hungary in the same way we played against Germany. Then I believe we will be rewarded at some point. The puck luck has not exactly gone our way at the World Championship so far; we are still owed some!"

Austria vs. Germany 2:4 (1:2,0:1,1:1)
Fri, 19 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)
Austria scorers: Bernd Wolf (12th), Lukas Haudum (54th)
Germany scorers: Nico Sturm (5th, 59th/EN), Parker Tuomie (17th), Wojciech Stachowiak (34th)

Line-ups

The current IIHF World Championship 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; the local time is shown in brackets.

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 +

Already played:

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

Sweden vs. Austria 5:0 (1:0,2:0,2:0)
Sun., 14 May 2023, 19:20 (20:20)
Sweden goalscorers: Par Lindholm (4.), Marcus Sörensen (27.), Patrik Nemeth (39.), Leo Carlsson (52.), Dennis Everberg (54.)

Denmark vs. Austria 6:2 (1:0,1:1,4:1)
Tue., 16 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)
Denmark goalscorers: Nikolaj Ehlers (10.), Niklas Andersen (34.), Jesper Jensen Aabo (47.), Nicklas Jensen (52./PP1), Matias Lassen (54.), Patrick Russell (58.)
Austria goalscorers: Thomas Raffl (28./PP1), Peter Schneider (49.)

USA vs. Austria 4:1 (0:0,2:1,2:0)
Wed., 17 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)
USA goalscorers: Rocco Grimaldi (28.), Carter Mazur (39.), Lane Hutson (44.), Nick Perbix (58./EN)
Austria goalscorer: Thomas Raffl (38./PP1) 

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