World Cham­pi­onship sensa­tion! Austria beat tour­na­ment favourites Denmark 1:0

Austria once again started with netminder Selma Luggin in the marquee clash against Denmark at the Shenzhen Universiade Center in front of 2.355 fans.

From the opening shift, both teams engaged in an intense, high-tempo battle. Buoyed by the win over Norway, the ÖEHV selection played with confidence and held the offensive edge in the opening eight minutes, recording 9:1 shots on goal in that spell.

As the first period progressed, Denmark increasingly found their way into the game and tested Selma Luggin more frequently, but Austria’s red-white-red defence stood very firm.

Anna Meixner scores the game-winning goal

The second period started perfectly for Head Coach Alexander Bröms’ team: Emma Hofbauer fed the puck to Anna Meixner, and the captain fired a superb wrist shot under the crossbar to give Austria a 1:0 lead (in the 22nd minute).

Austria then had a 4:3 power play and, briefly, even a 5:3 advantage, which turned into a 4:5 shorthanded situation following a penalty against Charlotte Wittich. Moments later, Austria had to kill a 3:5 penalty after a line-change infringement and another penalty, but came through the spell without conceding thanks to strong penalty killing.

The Austrians took a number of penalties in the second period but also emerged unscathed from the next penalty kill, helped by Selma Luggin’s assured saves in goal. In the final minute, Austria quickly established themselves in the offensive zone on a power play and combined neatly, with only the finishing touch in front of goal missing.

Three and a half minutes into the final period, Anna Meixner had a great chance to make it 2:0 after a quick attack, but was denied one-on-one by Denmark’s netminder Caroline Bjergstad. Austria now had the upper hand and repeatedly created dangerous scoring opportunities.

With ten minutes remaining, the Danes took control and were forced to play more offensively. Denmark put the ÖEHV selection under pressure before also going on the power play. Together with netminder Selma Luggin, the Austrians defended their net as a unit and threw themselves in front of every shot.

Second shutout for Selma Luggin

Just under two minutes from the end, Denmark Head Coach Björn Edlund pulled netminder Caroline Bjergstad. The team relegated from the top division undermined themselves at this crucial stage by taking a penalty. Austria confidently saw out both the power play and the game, claiming their second win from two games at the World Championship and taking top spot in the standings with six points. Netminder Selma Luggin, who recorded her second consecutive shutout, was named Austria’s Player of the Game.

Netminder Selma Luggin commented on the major win immediately after the game: "That was a crazy game. We battled so hard, we fought for every puck. We hardly let the Danes have the puck for more than three seconds. It was a strong team performance, and I’m so proud of this young team. It was a huge win for Austria; we most recently lost to Denmark in Olympic qualifying, and now we got our revenge!"

The Netherlands await on Wednesday

After a rest day, the Austrians return to action on Wednesday, when they face the Netherlands at 10:30. The Dutch suffered a heavy 1:6 defeat to Denmark in their opening game. The game against the Netherlands will be streamed live on LIVE.eishockey.at. ORF SPORT + will show the final games against China and Slovakia live.

2023 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship Division IA

20 August 2023 - 26 August 2023, Shenzhen (CHN)

Denmark vs. Austria 0:1 (0:0,0:1,0:0)
Mon, 21 August 2023, 07:00 (13:00 local time)
Austria scorers: Anna Meixner (22nd)

Current standings

Remaining schedule:

The date and time refer to our local time, with the local time shown in brackets.

Netherlands vs. Austria
Wed, 23 August 2023, 10:30 (16:30 local time)
Live on LIVE.eishockey.at

Austria vs. China
Thu, 24 August 2023, 14:00 (20:00 local time)
Live on ORF SPORT +

Slovakia vs. Austria
Sat, 26 August 2023, 07:00 (13:00 local time)
Live on ORF SPORT +

Already played:

Austria vs. Norway 4:0 (2:0,2:0,0:0)
Sun, 20 August 2023, 10:30 (16:30 local time), Shenzhen
Austria goalscorers: Tamara Grascher (8/PP1, 20min.), Anna Meixner (32min., 40/PP1)