Austria suffered their third defeat at the Ice Hockey World Championships in Finland. After the 1:3 against Sweden and the sensational point against the USA (2:3 after extra time) they celebrated an unbelievable 2:1 victory against the Czech Republic on Tuesday after a penalty shootout against the Czech Republic. 24 hours later, Roger Bader’s team was challenged against Norway. The ÖEHV selection had to draw the short straw with 3:5. Austria took the lead in the seventh minute in the person of Dominique Heinrich outnumbered.
But then the Norwegians turned up the heat. Twice Mats Rosseli Olsen (8th/SH, 48th/PP2), Andreas Martinsen (21st), Martin Roymark (32nd) and Martin Ronnild (60th/EN) secured three for the Norwegians, who have always played in Group A since 2006 Points. “I’m happy with the end, the last third was strong. We almost equalized before the Norwegians scored the empty net. But we had trouble getting into the game, we played too complicated at the beginning. This meant that we lost discs, which then cost us strength on the defensive. And it took half a game before we really got going,” said team boss Roger Bader after the game.
Haudum was able to equalize in the meantime and Schneider made it exciting again with his connection hit, also on the power play. But Ronnild made the 5:3 victory perfect. “Unfortunately it wasn’t enough in the end. There was certainly a certain mental fatigue in the fourth game in five days, that’s understandable. Nevertheless, I would have wished that we got into the game better,” the Swiss analyzed the game.
Captain Thomas Raffl would have imagined the game a little differently: “Of course it’s bitter afterwards. We imagined the game differently. I think we got off to a good start with the power play goal. And right away in the next power play we unfortunately made a small mistake and then got a shorthanded goal. In the end we made one or two mistakes that were punished.”
Latvia is now waiting at 7:20 p.m. on Friday. Regeneration is the order of the day on Thursday. “The team will have a completely free day on Thursday, which means we don’t have any training or meetings, so we only go out on the ice with the players who didn’t play today.”
After the game against Latvia, however, the World Cup is not over for Austria. A day later, on Saturday, the ÖEHV selection will face Finland. Finally, the Bader Boys meet Great Britain on Monday (7:20 p.m.). In all likelihood, it will be about staying up in the league.
