Austria head coach Roger Bader preferred goalie David Kickert against Finland, with Thomas Honeckl in the lineup as a backup. The Finns started strong and quickly took a 1-0 lead, with Saku Menalanen scoring on his backhand (3rd).
Peter Schneider shoots one time towards the Finland goal. Head coach Jukka Jalonen’s side then continued in direct and dominant fashion. Oliver Kapanen stole the puck from Manuel Canal and made it 2-0 from the slot (9th). Immediately, the Red-White-Red held themselves unharmed in the first high-numbered game.
The Austrians were able to generate repeated attacks, but the best chances failed early on until Peter Schneider again tested Suomi keeper Harry Satteri with a fine shot. Almost three minutes before the end of the first period, Austria had a good substitution, and the fans in the Prague arena immediately created a great atmosphere.
The Austrians also ran well with the Olympic champions in second and third place. After a world-class performance, a deserved goal arrived. Austria launched a good combination, Thomas Ruffle played a quick cross pass to Mario Huber, who beautifully placed the puck under the crossbar to make it 1-2 (24th).
With the feeling of victory, Austria now acted with a lot of confidence, continued to implement the instructions of the coaches and showed a strong performance in the second half. Five and a half minutes before the end of the middle third, ÖEHV had their first power play opportunity, in which Marco Rossi equalized. The next majority immediately followed. Special teams pressed hard and an equalizer was in the air, but didn’t happen.
Winning goal for Austria 0.2 seconds before the final siren
At the start of the last set, Austria had the majority of the third, with Dominik Sverger claiming the equaliser. The referee refused to recognize the goal as Thomas Raffle was standing in the goal area. Head coach Roger Bader drew the coaches’ challenge, but the goal was disallowed after video review. As a result Austria survived from low numbers, with keeper David Kickert making good saves and the penalty kill working well.
The Austrians did not allow themselves to tire and continued to play forward. Timo Nickel shot from the blue line to make it 2-2 (50th). Crucial time in the last ten minutes. Both teams had chances to score the winning goal. With almost three and a half minutes to go, Austria needed to be outnumbered but survived this delicate phase. David Kickert then made a sensational save to keep the score at 2-2.
Then the unthinkable happened: Austria went on the attack and Benjamin Baumgartner sent the puck into the net with 0.2 seconds left for the 3-2 winning goal (60th). Prague did not back down in the arena. Austria achieved its first win against Finland at a World Cup and took three points after regular time.
Head coach Roger Bader Analyzed the historic victory against the Finns: “The first thing is that we said before the game that we want to win. We want to go into a game with this team against a great country and give the game away. It’s very difficult to save energy somehow, we know that they are of very high quality, They showed that in the first three, but we have the mindset that we can come back after the difficult moments. For the first time in this World Cup, it’s a good sign for us in the first three, our tactical approach was right, but they won there, and we had a good shooting rate. Or we fixed three little things and controlled them. The game went on for a long time, we played well and created chances, played a very strong box game and played very well with David Kickert as the goalkeeper, everything went well today!”
Bader, who was already thinking about Friday’s Czech Republic match, responded to a question about whether the team was on the run: “It looks like it. But we have to come back down and the goal is always ‘recovery’ after the game. Then ‘refocus’ we have to recover quickly now and sell the next game on Friday. Let’s perform in front of a sold-out stadium!”
Benjamin Baumgartner scored the winning goal ÖEHV knows about the strength of the selection: “We have a lot of skills in attack, defense, and we have goalies who save our games, David Madlener and David Kickert. We fight each other and put everything into it. In the end, the Finns played well, we tried to prevent everything, But we’ll win it and that’s a better feeling than forcing Canada into overtime!
Fast bowler against World Cup hosts Czech Republic on Friday
The Red-White-Red continue their clash against hosts Czech Republic on Friday, May 17, starting at 8:20 p.m. The match can be seen live on ORF SPORT +.
2024 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship
Finland vs Austria 2:3 (2:0.0:1.0:2)
Thursday, May 16, 2024, 4:20 p.m., Prague Arena, 15,387 live on ORF SPORT +
Top scoring Finland: Saku Menalanen (3rd), Oliver Kapanen (9th)
Scorers Austria: Mario Huber (24.), Timo Nickel (50.), Benjamin Baumgartner (60.)
Austria played:
Goals: 30 kicker David; 29 Honeckl Thomas (Backup)
Line 1: 91 Heinrich Dominik – 78 Timo Nickel; 5 Ralph Thomas – 70 Nisner Benjamin – 96 Huber Mario
Line 2: 92 Unterweger Clemens – 32 Wolf Berndt; 16 Dwarf Dominic – 23 Rossi Marco – 3 Schneider Peter
Line 3: 24 Strong Steven – 12 Mayor David; 17 Canal Manuel – 98 Baumgardner Benjamin – 21 Houdum Lucas
Line 4: 18 Stapelfeldt Paul – 14 Zündel Kilian; 52 Huber Paul – 48 Thaler Lucas – 19 Rohrer Vincennes
More games:
Czech Republic vs Austria
Friday, May 17, 2024, at 8:20 pm, live on ORF SPORT +
Norway vs. Austria
Sunday, May 19, 2024, at 4:20 PM, LIVE on ORF SPORT +
Austria vs. Great Britain
Tues., May 21, 2024, 12:20 pm, Live on ORF SPORT +
Already played:
Canada vs Austria 7:6 aet (3:1,3:0,0:5,1:0)
Tues., May 14, 2024, 8:20 pm, Prague Arena, 14.704
The scorers were Canada: Dylan Cozens (7.), Kaiden Kuhle (10.), Bowen Byram (14.), Jared McCann (23.), Connor Bedard (30.), Pierre-Luc Dubois (38.). John Tavares (61.)
Scorers are Austria: Benjamin Nissner (11th), Benjamin Baumgartner (44th), Peter Schneider (45th, 56th), Dominique Zwerger (51st), Marco Rossi (60th)
Austria vs Switzerland 5:6 (2:1,2:3,1:2)
Sunday, May 12, 2024, 8:20 p.m., Prague Arena, 13,512
Scorers are Austria: Clemens Unterweger (5th), Paul Huber (15th), Lucas Hautum (22nd/BB1, 35th/BB1), Benjamin Baumgartner (53rd)
The scorers were Switzerland: Roman Josi (16th/BB2, 30th/BB2), Nico Hisier (23rd, 41st/BB1, 60th/BB1), Ken Jagger (30th/BB1)
Austria vs Denmark 1:5 (1:2.0:1.0:2)
Sat 11 May 2024, 4:20 pm, Prague Arena, 15,719
Austria scored the goal: Manuel Conel (20.)
Scorers are Denmark: Markus Lauridsen (14th), Frederik Storm (17th/SH1), Joachim Blichfeldt (39th, 59th/BB1), Felix Scheel (54th)