World Cham­pi­onship 2025: Austria finish eighth after quarter-final defeat to Switzer­land!

Austria started their first World Championship quarter-final in 31 years against reigning World Championship runners-up and co-favourites Switzerland with goaltender David Kickert. Florian Vorauer was in the line-up as the backup. Niki Kraus replaced the injured Lukas Kainz on the fourth line. After just a few moments, the match had to be interrupted because several floodlights had failed, before initially continuing without the lights being repaired. 

Red-White-Red were primarily occupied with defensive duties in the opening minutes, while Switzerland combined very well in the offensive zone. After Austria survived their first penalty kill, Christoph Bertschy gave Switzerland a 1:0 lead following a quick attack (7.). Marco Kasper then had Austria's best chance, testing Swiss goaltender Leonardo Genoni twice from the slot. Switzerland remained on top, and Timo Meier increased the lead to 2:0 for the Swiss on the next power play (12.).

Austria could not get into the game, and the World Championship runners-up made perfect use of the space as Ken Jäger made it 3:0 (15.). Switzerland also hit the post twice. The ÖEHV side missed the opportunity to get back into the game on the scoreboard during a power play. One minute before the end of the period, Vinzenz Rohrer received a five-minute major and game misconduct penalty for a cross-check.

Austria held firm for a long time during the five-minute penalty kill, but then the puck bounced back off the boards unfortunately and Kevin Fiala scored from close range to make it 4:0 (24.). 64 seconds later, Sandro Schmid made it 5:0 for Switzerland (25.). Red-White-Red then had a 5:3 power play, but unfortunately could not turn their numerical advantage into their first goal. On the next power play, Peter Schneider hammered the puck against the left post. 

Switzerland were also on top in the second period, in which all the floodlights were working again, and had several good opportunities, but David Kickert made some fine saves. Shortly before the second siren, Schneider had another good chance, but the puck did not cross the line. 

In the final period, Marco Kasper had a chance to score Austria's first goal while shorthanded, but Genoni denied the shorthanded effort. Paul Huber missed another good opportunity, and Simon Knak made it 6:0 on the counterattack (52.); that was also the final score.

Following their quarter-final exit against Switzerland, Austria ultimately finished an excellent eighth with ten points from four wins – two of them after shoot-outs – their first top-eight finish in 31 years, since the 1994 World Championship in Italy. From 15 to 31 May 2026, the ÖEHV side will play in the top division for the fifth consecutive time in Zurich and Fribourg. Marco Kasper, David Kickert and Dominic Zwerger were named Team Austria's three best players at the World Championship.

Head Coach Roger Bader analysed the match against Switzerland after the final siren: "Basically, Switzerland's victory by this margin was deserved, primarily because the opposition were simply brutally strong. They were by far the best opponent we faced. There is still a difference between facing a gold-medal candidate in an all-or-nothing game and in a group-stage game. They raise their game another notch. In addition to being a very strong team individually, with skill and speed in their line-up, they also completely dominated us physically. Not because we did not want to, but because we could not. They were simply superior to us. They showed us what it means to perform at the very highest world-class level and with this intensity. It is another step from which we will learn. I am not unhappy with what we showed today; the opposition were simply brutally strong!"

Bader's assessment of the best World Championship in 31 years: "The World Championship was, of course, fantastic in every respect; it cannot be praised highly enough. I do not know whether a number 13 has ever reached a quarter-final before. And the way we approached the decisive game against Latvia, for example, the way we started the World Championship against Finland and Sweden despite not having any points at that stage, was incredibly good, as was our performance against Canada. We played seven good games before the quarter-final; it was a huge World Championship, a huge achievement!"

Defenceman Dominique Heinrich was disappointed shortly after the game, but satisfied with the World Championship as a whole: "First and foremost, there is naturally disappointment because you are involved in the game and it is not fun, but we also discussed it in the dressing room: We can be incredibly proud of the performance we have delivered over the past two weeks. We had an incredible amount of fun, we immediately became positive again, and we are enjoying the time we still have together because this really was something very special. Switzerland played a very strong game today; we did not. We played seven very good games over the past two weeks, and today was certainly not our day. The Swiss have a superb ice hockey team, as they have proven in recent years. There is no shame in losing to them, but we could have acquitted ourselves better today!"

2025 IIHF ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

9–25 May 2025, Stockholm, Sweden & Herning, Denmark

Quarter-final 2:

Switzerland vs. Austria 6:0 (3:0,2:0,1:0)
Thu, 22 May 2025, Jyske Bank Boxen, 16:20, 2.621
Switzerland scorers: Christoph Bertschy (7th), Timo Meier (12th/PP1), Ken Jäger (15th), Kevin Fiala (24th/PP1), Sandro Schmid (25th), Simon Knak (52nd)

Austria lined up with:

Goaltenders: 30 Kickert David; 33 Vorauer Florian (backup)
Line 1: 92 Unterweger Clemens - 32 Wolf Bernd; 16 Zwerger Dominic - 96 Kasper Marco - 3 Peter Schneider
Line 2: 91 Heinrich Dominique - 78 Nickl Thimo; 5 Raffl Thomas - 24 Baumgartner Benjamin - 19 Rohrer Vinzenz
Line 3: 45 Biber Gregor - 12 Maier David; 7 Lebler Brian - 21 Haudum Lukas - 52 Huber Paul
Line 4: 18 Stapelfeldt Paul - 4 Schnetzer Ramon; 80 Kraus Nikolaus - 26 Achermann Oliver - 48 Thaler Lucas

Already played:

Latvia vs. Austria 1:6 (0:1,1:2,0:3)
Tue, 20 May 2025, Avicii Arena, 12:20, 4.973
Latvia scorer: Eduards Tralmaks (29th) 
Austria scorers: Dominic Zwerger (18th, 53rd), Benjamin Baumgartner (24th/PP1), Vinzenz Rohrer (26th, 58th/SH1/EN), Thomas Raffl (45th)

Slovenia vs. Austria 2:3 n.P. (1:1,0:0,1:1,0:0,0:1)
Sun, 18 May 2025, Avicii Arena, 16:20, 3.457
Slovenia scorers: Blaž Gregorc (10th/PP1), Robert Sabolič (54th)
Austria scorers: Dominic Zwerger (14th), Brian Lebler (51st) – Lukas Haudum, Dominic Zwerger and Benjamin Baumgartner scored in the penalty shoot-out.

Austria vs. France 5:2 (3:0,0:0,2:2)
Fri., 16th May 2025, Avicii Arena, 16:20, 4.873
Austria scorers: Marco Kasper (1st, 58th/EN), Vinzenz Rohrer (8th), Ramon Schnetzer (16th), Peter Schneider (60th/EN)
France scorers: Jordann Perret (51st/PP1), Pierre-Édouard Bellemare (59th/PP1)

Canada vs. Austria 5:1 (0:1,2:0,3:0)
Thu., 15th May 2025, Avicii Arena, 20:20, 5.259
Canada scorers: Nathan MacKinnon (22nd/PP1, 34th), Travis Konecny (49th), Will Cuylle (52nd), Sidney Crosby (59th)
Austria scorer: Vinzenz Rohrer (12th) 

Austria vs. Slovakia 3:2 after penalty shoot-out (2:0,0:1,0:1,0:0,1:0)
Mon., 12th May 2025, Avicii Arena, 16:20, 4.375
Austria scorers: Peter Schneider (8th), Marco Kasper (12th) – Lukas Haudum and Peter Schneider scored in the penalty shoot-out.
Slovakia scorers: Samuel Honzek (27th), Matúš Sukeľ (51st) – Martin Chromiak scored in the penalty shoot-out.

Sweden vs. Austria 4:2 (0:0,1:1,3:1)
Sat., 10th May 2025, Avicii Arena, 16:20, 12.530
Sweden scorers: Mika Zibanejad (34th/PP1, 58th), Jonas Brodin (58th), Alexander Wennberg (59th/EN)
Austria scorers: Benjamin Baumgartner (26th minute), Marco Kasper (53rd minute) 

Austria vs. Finland 1:2 (1:2,0:0,0:0)
Fri, 09 May 2025, Avicii Arena, 16:20, 6.822
Austria goalscorer: Bernd Wolf (14th minute)
Finland goalscorers: Patrik Puistola (5th minute), Juuso Pärssinen (8th minute)

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