World Cham­pi­onship: U20 team loses 2:11 to Canada

Image caption: Austria goalkeeper Leon Sommer was in the spotlight against Canada – Photo: © Puckfans.at/Werner Krainbucher

Head Coach Marco Pewal had already emphasised the significance of this second game for Austria’s U20 national team beforehand: "It is simply a highlight – playing Canada in Canada at a World Championship, there is nothing bigger in junior ice hockey!"

However, the hosts showed no mercy to the red-white-red selection at Rogers Place in Edmonton in front of around 4.000 fans – including a few United Fans Team Austria, better known as UFTA – from the very start. Owen Power and company unleashed the expected Canadian power hockey from the opening second. Austria started the game with goalkeeper Leon Sommer. The Linz native was making his World Juniors debut and had to withstand a veritable barrage of shots from the Canadians.

The defence was unable to withstand the relentless attacks for long, and Johannes Tschurnig was sent to the penalty box for hooking after just under four and a half minutes of play. Kent Johnson scored Canada’s 1:0 on the power play with a thunderous one-timer following a perfect feed from Cole Perfetti and Owen Power (6.). Barely a minute later, Sommer’s net was rattled again when Lukas Cormier fired the puck into the far corner for 2:0 (7.). Austria’s goalkeeper was repeatedly in the spotlight and made several excellent saves. However, Sommer was again helpless against Logan Stankoven’s powerful shot from the right face-off circle for 3:0 (9.).

Sommer then produced a superb glove save against Connor Bedard, who had beaten Luca Erne with a strong body feint and fired a shot towards the top right corner. Sommer was applauded by the Canadian crowd for the save.

Shortly afterwards, Bedard’s big show began: on the power play, the centre converted his own rebound for 4:0 to the Maple Leafs after Austria’s netminder had spectacularly stopped the initial close-range shot with his pad (16.). Just 71 seconds later, Bedard appeared in front of the Austrian net again, played a one-two with Will Cuylle and tipped the puck in from close range for 5:0 (17.). The Canadians, coached by former Vienna Capitals coach Dave Cameron, had registered 25 shots on Sommer’s goal after the first period, while Austria managed only sporadic counter-attacks and six shots on the net guarded by Brett Brochu.

Little changed in terms of Canadian dominance at the start of the second period. Austria’s players responded with a huge battling effort. Following a face-off, Connor Bedard got to the puck, danced through Austria’s defence and wristed it into the top right corner for 6:0 (27.). A perfect hat-trick. The title favourites then allowed themselves a brief breather, with the ÖEHV team improving and making the game more open.

Towards the end of the second period, Lukas Necesany took centre stage. Canada goalkeeper Brochu lost his balance while venturing out of his net. Vinzenz Rohrer picked up the puck, fired a sharp pass into the middle and Necesany shot it into the wide-open net to make it 1:6 from the red-white-red perspective (40.). The middle period therefore ended in a 1:1 draw, a small but very pleasing partial success for Austria’s U20 players.

In the final period, the Canadians picked up where they had left off in the first. They raised the tempo again and Cole Perfetti made it 7:1 after just 27 seconds (41.). Connor Bedard crowned his performance with his fourth goal, making it 8:1 for Canada (43.). Mason McTavish then struck twice within 47 seconds to make it 9:1 (45.) and 10:1 (46.). Barely a minute later, Mavrik Bourque beat Sommer for the final time (47.).

Despite the heavy defeat taking shape, Austria showed character, battled until the end and were rewarded with their second goal. Leon Wallner and David Reinbacher brought the puck in front of the Canadian net on the power play, Brochu was only able to make a brief save and Mathias Böhm converted the rebound for 2:11 (53.).

After the final buzzer, Head Coach Marco Pewal drew positive conclusions from the game despite the heavy defeat: "We knew Canada were the favourites here and it was the difficult game we expected. But I think we can build on this performance in some areas. We played the second period 1:1. For the first time, we reached double figures in shots on goal, with more than 20 shots. We have to build on these little things. We fought until the end and I think we represented Austria very well in some phases."

Team Austria’s player of the game was forward Vinzenz Rohrer . Like the head coach, the Vorarlberg native focused above all on the positive aspects of the game: "When you play against so many strong opponents, you should see the positives. We can certainly take the second period with us. We played 1:1 against Canada, which is really incredible. We have to build on the positive things. We now have the Czech Republic and then Germany as opponents. If we can perform like that, I believe we have a good chance of winning."

Austria’s U20 men’s national ice hockey team will play its next game against the Czech Republic on Thursday, 30 December 2021 at 22:30 CET (14:30 local time), live on ORF Sport+.

Austria vs. Canada 2:11 (0:5,1:1,1:5)
Wed., 29 December, 01:00 CET (Tue., 28 December 2021, 17:00 local time)
Austria goalscorers: Lukas Necesany (40 min), Mathias Böhm (53 min/PP)
Canada goalscorers: Kent Johnson (6 min/PP), Lukas Cormier (7 min), Logan Stankoven (9 min), Connor Bedard (16 min/PP, 17 min, 27 min, 43 min), Cole Perfetti (41 min), Mason McTavish (45 min, 46 min), Mavrik Bourque (47 min) 

World Championship opener: 1:7 defeat to Finland