World Cham­pi­onship 2025: Austria reach the quarter-finals after sensa­tional win over Latvia!

Fighting spirit, determination and incredible composure in front of both their own net and the opposition's. Once again, these were the ingredients that sent sports fans, experts and ice hockey fans around the world into raptures. In the decisive game for a place in the quarter-finals against Latvia, Austria played a strong first period, allowed their opponents hardly any chances and created several excellent opportunities themselves. Immediately after Dominic Zwerger's penalty expired, Lucas Thaler blocked a Latvian shot. The puck landed straight on the blade of Zwerger, who was coming out of the penalty box. He raced in alone on Kristers Gudlevskis's net, rounded him and made it 1:0. 

At the start of the second period, Latvia initially established themselves in the Austrian zone. In the 24th minute, the officials sent Ralfs Freibergs to the box to cool off for two minutes, but after just 17 seconds he was allowed to leave again. That was all the time Austria needed to capitalise on the power play and make it 2:0 through Benjamin Baumgartner. Exactly two minutes later, Vinzenz Rohrer intercepted a Latvian cross-ice pass in his own zone, raced the length of the ice and made Gudlevskis look old - 3:0, 26th minute.

After Latvia pulled one back to make it 1:3 in the 29th minute, Paul Huber had a chance to make it 4:1 towards the end of the second period. That had to wait a little longer, but it came in the 45th minute. Latvia were nervous behind their own net. The puck came to Peter Schneider, who laid it off perfectly for Thomas Raffl to slot home comfortably and make it 4:1. The 2023 World Championship bronze medallists had more shots on goal than Austria overall, but the Austrian players were far more efficient and clinical. 

In the 53th minute, Dominic Zwerger finally sealed it, racing towards the Latvian net with Peter Schneider, as the pair played around the only opposing player and extended the lead to 5:1. Latvia pulled their goaltender several minutes before the end in an attempt to fight their way back, but Austria defended resolutely, as they had in the previous games. Vinzenz Rohrer put the finishing touch on the game with the 6:1 into the empty net. After the final buzzer, the players gathered in one huge celebratory huddle. The victory wrote a chapter of Austrian ice hockey history and secured a place in the World Championship quarter-finals for the first time since 1994.

Canada secured 1st place in Group A with a 5:3 win over Sweden. In the parallel group, Denmark beat Germany 2:1 after penalties to claim the final quarter-final spot. It had already been confirmed beforehand that the respective hosts, Sweden and Denmark, would play their quarter-finals in front of their home crowd.

Canada will therefore travel to Herning in Denmark with Austria on Wednesday. As Denmark will play the evening game against the record world champions, Austria's game against Switzerland will take place at 16:20.

Head Coach Roger Bader: "Of course there is a smile on my face. During the game, I am so in the flow that the emotions only come out later. When we are at the hotel, the emotions will certainly come out. I am incredibly proud of how the team performed today. In fact, throughout the entire World Championship. We played seven good or very good games. Today, everything came together. Good power play, good penalty killing, good defending, a very good goaltender, lots of extra effort in the battles, goals scored. It was a really beautiful game. The team deserved it. This is an incredibly good team. I love this team, these players, and I will certainly never forget what they did today for the rest of my life."

Captain Thomas Raffl: "Unbelievable. The quarter-finals are now a reality. I think we knew from the start that we were playing against a very strong opponent. We simply never lost our courage. We had such a strong belief within the team that we could win this game. From start to finish, we consistently stuck to our game and deservedly won. It is such a great group. We have such strong belief. Perhaps that is the difference: we have a different perspective when it comes to belief and respect. Maybe in the past we respected these top nations too much. We all want to play ice hockey, have fun and, if we play our game, we can compete with anyone. Now we are going to the quarter-finals and, of course, we want the win."

2025 IIHF ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

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

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

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; 95 Kainz Lukas - 26 Achermann Oliver - 48 Thaler Lucas

Already played:

Slovenia vs. Austria 2:3 after a penalty shoot-out (1:1,0:0,1:1,0:0,0:1)
Sun, 18 May 2025, Avicii Arena, 16:20, 3.457
Slovenia scorers: Blaž Gregorc (10 min./PP1), Robert Sabolič (54 min.)
Austria scorers: Dominic Zwerger (14 min.), Brian Lebler (51 min.) - 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, 16 May 2025, Avicii Arena, 16:20, 4.873
Austria scorers: Marco Kasper (1 min., 58 min./EN), Vinzenz Rohrer (8 min.), Ramon Schnetzer (16 min.), Peter Schneider (60 min./EN)
France scorers: Jordann Perret (51 min./PP1), Pierre-Édouard Bellemare (59 min./PP1)

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

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

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

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 (14.)
Finland goalscorers: Patrik Puistola (5min), Juuso Pärssinen (8min)

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