World Championship preparations: Austria again suffer a heavy defeat to Slovenia in Villach
Following the 2:5 away defeat to Slovenia, Austria’s men’s national ice hockey team also suffered a heavy defeat to their southern neighbours at Villach Stadthalle. The ÖEHV selection sustained a resounding 0:6 defeat and is still waiting for its first win in World Championship preparations. The red-white-red delegation moves on to Linz next week. Team Camp #3 will feature two warm-up games against Czechia.
4 min read
In contrast to the previous day, the aim was to improve in front of the home crowd and build on the performance in the second period of the first warm-up game. That worked very well in the opening 20 minutes. In the 6th minute, Niklas Bretschneider had the first good opportunity to give his team the lead. Austria put Slovenia under early pressure from the outset and mostly controlled the puck.
They repeatedly tried to get the puck in front of the opposition goal and create traffic there, unfortunately without reward. Towards the end of the first period, Bretschneider was assessed a 2-minute penalty for high-sticking. Four seconds before the penalty expired, Slovenia capitalised on the power play to make it 1:0 in the 21st minute.
Austria remained committed to its early forechecking approach, but too rarely found promising shooting positions. At the other end, their neighbours again capitalised on a power play to extend their lead to 2:0 in the 32nd minute and, shortly afterwards, again on the power play, to 3:0.
Slovenia had decisively seized the momentum and subsequently looked more likely to score again than Austria were to pull one back. In the 37th minute, the visitors set up Anze Kuralt perfectly. He fired the puck under the crossbar from close range to make it 4:0.
Austria made another effort to take control of the game in the final period, but were quickly set back by the 0:5 in the 44th minute. Ken Ograjensek put the finishing touch to the game with the 6:0 in the 52nd minute.
The preparations continue in Linz next week, with two warm-up games against Czechia in Budweis and Linz – live on ORF SPORT +.
Head Coach Roger Bader: “The first period was good and I was satisfied with it. The only shortcoming was that we did not take the lead on the power play. Looking back, our penalty killing was probably decisive today. That is normally one of our strengths. We had not conceded a single shorthanded goal in the previous three games and had played well, too. Today, we conceded three goals in a row. That is not typical of us. I did not expect that today. We knew Slovenia had brought a strong team here. Apart from their DEL imports, they have a full World Championship squad, while we are missing 15 to 18 players. Above all, we were physically inferior today. Slovenia clearly dominated us in the battles.”
Kilian Zündel, Man of the Match: “We certainly started the first period better than yesterday, but unfortunately we dropped off in the second, and the third was then a real struggle. The penalty killing made a difference today. It was not enough today, and we have to do better next week. When a game is evenly matched, playing shorthanded is what makes the difference. That definitely contributed to the result being what it was today. We need to work on that and learn the lessons from it.”
World Championship preparations
Austria vs. Slovenia 0:6 (0:0,0:4,0:2)
Fri, 12 April 2024, 18:00, Villach
Slovenia goalscorers: Matic Podlipnik (21st/PP1), Anže Kuralt (32nd/PP1, 34th/PP1, 37th), Jan Drozg (44th), Ken Ograjenšek (52nd)
Further games:
Czechia vs. Austria
Thu, 18 April 2024, 17:10, Budweis (CZE), live on ORF SPORT +
Austria vs. Czechia
Sat, 20 April 2024, 18:00, Linz, live on ORF SPORT +
Germany vs. Austria
Thu, 25 April 2024, 19:00, Garmisch (GER)
Austria vs. Germany
Sat, 27 April 2024, 16:15, Zell am See, live on ORF SPORT +
Austria vs. Canada
Sun, 5 May 2024, 19:00, Vienna, live on ORF SPORT +
Tickets for all home games are now available HERE.
Already played
Latvia vs. Austria 3:2 after penalties (0:1, 1:0, 1:1)
Thu, 4 April 2024, 18:00 (CEST), Riga (LAT)
Austria scorers: Leon Wallner (16th), Julian Metzler (43rd)
Latvia scorers: Feliks Egils Gavars (26th), Dans Locmelis (46th)
Latvia vs. Austria 3:2 after penalties (1:0, 1:2, 0:0, 0:0)
Fri, 5 April 2024, 18:00 (CEST), Riga (LAT)
Austria scorers: Nico Feldner (31st), Ian Scherzer (36th)
Latvia scorers: Martins Lavins (11th), Haralds Egle (34th)
2024 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship
10 - 26 May 2024 Host: Czech Republic
Venues: Parg and Ostrava
Group A – Prague: Canada, Finland, Switzerland, Czechia, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Great Britain
Group B – Ostrava: USA, Germany, Sweden, Slovakia, Latvia, France, Kazakhstan, Poland
Schedule
Austria vs. Denmark
Sat, 11 May 2024, 16:20, live on ORF 1
Austria vs. Switzerland
Sun, 12 May 2024, 20:20, live on ORF SPORT +
Canada vs. Austria
Tue, 14 May 2024, 20:20, live on ORF SPORT +
Finland vs. Austria
Thu, 16 May 2024, 16:20, live on ORF SPORT +
Czechia vs. Austria
Fri, 17 May 2024, 20:20, live on ORF SPORT +
Norway vs. Austria
Sun, 19 May 2024, 16:20, live on ORF SPORT +
Austria vs. Great Britain
Tue, 21 May 2024, 12:20, live on ORF SPORT +
