World Cham­pi­onship 2023: Austria’s strong fight ends in narrow defeat to Finland

Head Coach Roger Bader opted for David Madlener as starting goalie in the sixth World Championship game, marking his first appearance at the tournament. Bernhard Starkbaum served as backup goalie.

This time, the first line comprised Ali Wukovits, Lukas Haudum and Mario Huber, with Bernd Wolf and Thimo Nickl on defence. Benjamin Nissner centred the second line, with Paul Huber and Lucas Thaler on the wings. Dominique Heinrich and Kilian Zündel played on defence.

Marco Rossi centred the third line, alongside Dominic Zwerger and Peter Schneider. David Reinbacher made his comeback and played alongside Nico Brunner.

Oliver Achermann played centre on the fourth line, with Manuel Ganahl and Henrik Neubauer on the wings. Steven Strong and David Maier were paired on defence.

First World Championship goal for Dominic Zwerger

Finland took the lead with their first serious attack following a breakaway. Kasperi Kapanen scored after exactly 79 seconds to make it 1:0 for the hosts. Austria had a swift response to the early concession: Marco Rossi won the puck and passed to Dominic Zwerger, who beat Finland netminder Emil Larmi with a fine shot to level the score at 1:1 (5 min). 

Austria’s next good opportunity fell to Marco Rossi following a fine backhand pass from Zwerger from behind the net. Suomi regained the lead in a lively opening phase: Antti Suomela was left unmarked in front of goal and deflected an Olli Määttä pass to make it 2:1 (8 minutes). During their first penalty kill, Thimo Nickl had a good chance of a shorthanded goal after a shot by Manuel Ganahl. 

Goalie David Madlener made some good saves in the first period and, together with the defence, kept the deficit narrow.

The Finns stepped up the pace at the start of the second period and repeatedly established lengthy spells in the attacking zone, but the ÖEHV side remained compact at the back and allowed few major chances. Henrik Neubauer had a good opportunity following a counter-attack led by Manuel Ganahl.

As the middle period progressed, the Austrian players were tenacious in the neutral zone, repeatedly disrupting the hosts’ build-up play successfully and creating good attacking opportunities themselves. Their strong performance was also reflected in the shots statistic, which stood at 7:6 in Austria’s favour.

Little changed initially in the final period. The Finns were on top, but the Austrians continued to battle hard, defended uncompromisingly in their own zone and allowed the hosts few clear-cut chances. With four minutes remaining, Lukas Haudum put goalie Larmi under pressure with a spinning shot, Austria’s best chance of an equaliser.

In the 59th minute, Ahti Oksanen scored what appeared to be the decisive goal for Finland from a tight angle. Austria's goalkeeping coach Reinhard Divis alerted the bench from the stands to a possible offside. Head coach Roger Bader called for a coach's challenge, with the puck appearing to be just outside the blue line. However, following a video review, the officials awarded the goal. 

Austria lost the game 1:3 after a passionate fight and a strong performance. Goalie David Madlener was named Austria’s best player.

Head Coach Roger Bader: "We improved from game to game. I believe we managed to set the team up tactically against the Finns in a way that made this performance possible. The game against Hungary will be a completely different one. The Finns are a team that forecheck deep and with pace with all five players, and we prepared our countermeasure for that: this 1-3-1 trap, which we also always used against the top nations last year. They really struggled with it because they normally come through the neutral zone with a lot of momentum and get past their opponents. They were less successful at that today and had to dump in a lot of pucks because we were well positioned. But Hungary do not do that, they do not use such breakouts. It will be more of a game like the one against France!"

World Championship finale against Hungary on Monday

After a day off, the ÖEHV side return to action on Monday at 19:20 LIVE on ORF SPORT +. Hungary will be the opponents in their final World Championship game. Whether the game will be about staying in the top division will be decided after Hungary’s match against Germany on Sunday (15:20).

Austria vs. Finland 1:3 (1:2,0:0,0:1)
Sat, 20 May 2023, 15:20 (16:20)
Austria goalscorer: Dominic Zwerger (5.)
Finland scorers: Kasperi Kapanen (2nd minute), Antti Suomela (8th minute), Ahti Oksanen (59th minute)

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, with the local time shown in brackets.

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

Already played:

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

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

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

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

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

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