Drama against Switzerland

Bader proud: “Best game in recent years”

Austria put in a strong performance against Switzerland.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Austria's ice hockey team showed "perhaps the best game in recent years" against medal contenders at the World Championships in Prague, says team manager Roger Bader proudly. The ÖEHV team lost 5:6 (2:1,2:3,1:2) on Sunday after a strong performance, scoring five goals while shorthanded and one goal 51 seconds before the end. After a day's break, the game continues on Tuesday (20:20) against defending champions Canada. 

"I think it was one of Austria's best games in recent years, if not perhaps even the best, comparable to the win against the Czech Republic two years ago. It was a great evening of ice hockey and Austria played its part. We sold ourselves extremely well, it would have been well deserved if we had taken something with us today," said team manager Roger Bader.

Roger Bader

(Bild: GEPA pictures/ Christian Walgram)

"We had a great performance," said Clemens Unterweger after his first World Cup goal and two assists. "What wasn't good enough was our short-handed play, maybe we took one or two penalties too many. It's a bitter defeat for us because we certainly deserved more," said the defender.

Drama in the last minute
The third goal by New Jersey forward Nico Hischier 50 seconds before the end deprived the red-white-red team of a deserved point in the goal festival. The Austrians, with a strong David Kickert in goal, showed a completely different face than the day before in their 5-1 loss to Denmark. From the first shift, Bader's team went to work with a lot of energy and stuck to the match plan. The underdogs were the better team in the first period and were rewarded.

After Marco Rossi won a face-off, Unterweger shot from the blue line to take the lead (5th minute). In the 15th minute, Paul Huber poked the puck into the net to make it 2:0. Until then, the Swiss had only had one great chance, which Roman Josi missed (10th). The NHL star defenseman's second shot was on target, he scored in double overtime (16.).

Lukas Haudum restored the two-goal lead with a powerplay goal (23.), only 38 seconds later Hischier scored again. Switzerland, who only had players from their strong domestic league and the NHL (6), then piled on the pressure and took the lead with two overtime goals in the space of 13 seconds from Josi and Ken Jäger (30.).

Historic performance
However, Austria recovered and equalized with Haudum's second powerplay goal (35'). But the Swiss powerplay worked again at the start of the final period thanks to Hischier (41'). But Raffl and Co. were able to fight back once again, Benjamin Baumgartner, who had been missing the day before, beat Akira Schmid, who had come on for Reto Berra in the second intermission.

Austria has never scored five goals against a medal contender at an A-World Championship, but it still wasn't enough because Hischier completed his hat trick after a harsh penalty against Bernd Wolf. The Devils' forward recorded three goals and an assist, while defenseman Josi was not far behind with two goals and two assists. "Maa mustn't forget, Josi and Hischier are NHL stars and captains of their teams, what top-class players they are, and they made the difference today," said Bader.