World Cham­pi­onship warm-up: Austria’s women lose to Slovakia in Bratislava

The team coached by Head Coach Alexander Bröms, who gave both goaltenders Selma Luggin and Magdalena Luggin 30 minutes of ice time each, trailed 0:2 after the first period following two late goals. Slovakia suddenly held a two-goal lead through Júlia Matejková on the power play and Ema Tóthová while shorthanded, but Theresa Schafzahl pulled one back with a power-play goal after 49 seconds and Artemis Tekin (25.) equalised in the middle period.

The hosts used a 5:3 advantage to retake the lead in the second period: Lucia Halušková scored to make it 3:2 with exactly four minutes remaining in the period. Austria improved with every shift as the game went on, but could not find an equaliser: Júlia Matejková’s second goal, just under three minutes from time, made it 4:2 and sealed the win for Slovakia, who will also face the ÖEHV selection at the World Championship in China on 16 April.

Centre Tamara Grascherwas frustrated by the poor start to the game after the first World Championship warm-up, but was pleased with how the match developed: "Unfortunately, we did not get into the game very well. We were only able to show towards the end how we can play, but unfortunately we could not come back from the 2:3 deficit. However, we can build on this performance; we need to go about our work with greater focus from the very beginning. We still need to work on a few things, but the finish was right and we can continue from there. It was a good opportunity for a few young players to show themselves, and they did just that. Once we are at full strength, we will have a good team to take to China!"

World Championship preparation

Slovakia vs. Austria 4:2 (2:0,1:2,1:0)
Sun, 6 April 2025, 11:00, Bratislava
Slovakia goalscorers: Júlia Matejková (18./PP1, 57.), Ema Tóthová (20./SH1), Lucia Halušková (37./PP2)
Austria goalscorers: Theresa Schafzahl (21./PP1), Artemis Tekin (25.) 

Further warm-up match:

Austria vs. France
Thu, 10 April 2025, 09:30 (15:30 local time), Shenzhen (CHN)

2025 IIHF Ice Hockey Women´s World Championship Division I, Group A

13–19 April 2025, Shenzhen, China

Austria vs. Denmark
Sun, 13 April 2025, 10:30

China vs. Austria
Mon, 14 April 2025, 14:00

Slovakia vs. Austria
Wed, 16 April 2025, 07:00

Austria vs. Netherlands
Thu, 17 April 2025, 10:30

France vs. Austria
Sat, 19 April 2025, 10:30