World Cham­pi­onship 2025: Looking to build on perfor­mances so far against Slovenia

All good things come in threes. In preparation for Olympic qualifying in August 2024, Austria played two warm-up matches against Slovenia and won both games 2:1. Austria have not recorded three wins at a World Championship since the turn of the millennium. At the 1999 World Championship in Norway, they last managed three wins.  

At the ongoing World Championship, Austria have two wins following the 3:2 penalty-shootout victory over Slovakia and the 5:2 win over France, while Slovenia have yet to get off the mark. Together with France, Austria’s neighbours are battling to stay in the top division.

Slovenia urgently need points and will certainly throw everything at Austria. But that is of no concern to anyone in the Austrian camp. Having secured their top-division status, they have set themselves new targets. The first interim target is to take all the points against Slovenia, as this could open the door to the quarter-finals.

“It is possible. First, we need to make sure we are ready for the next game and continue to improve. We want to play a good game against Slovenia,” said Marco Kasper, whose 1:0 after 39 seconds put Austria on course for victory against France.

Head Coach Roger Bader: “We have our targets within the team. We have a rolling plan, and therefore also rolling targets. Once staying in the top division has been achieved, we have reached an interim target. That allows us to pursue the next target. And that is three wins at a World Championship. We have never achieved that before.”

If Austria secure their third World Championship win against Slovenia on Sunday, they will battle Slovakia and Latvia for 4th place. Should Slovakia lose their Saturday game against Canada, Austria’s neighbours would be on seven points after five of seven games. They would be followed by Latvia on six and Austria on five points.

Latvia and Slovakia face each other on Sunday evening, while Slovakia conclude against Finland. Latvia’s final opponent will be Austria this Tuesday at 12:20, live on ORF 1.

2025 IIHF ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

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

Slovenia vs. Austria
Sun., 18 May 2025, Avicii Arena, 16:20, live on ORF SPORT + and ORF 1

Latvia vs. Austria
Tue., 20 May 2025, Avicii Arena, 12:20, live on ORF 1

Already played:

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 (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, 15 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 penalties (2:0,0:1,0:1,0:0,1:0)
Mon, 12 May 2025, Avicii Arena, 16:20, 4.375
Austria scorers: Peter Schneider (8th), Marco Kasper (12th) - Lukas Haudum and Peter Schneider score in the penalty shootout.
Slovakia scorers: Samuel Honzek (27th), Matúš Sukeľ (51st) - Martin Chromiak scores in the penalty shootout.

Sweden vs. Austria 4:2 (0:0,1:1,3:1)
Sat, 10 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), Marco Kasper (53rd) 

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

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