World Championship point against Canada

Austria wants to upset Canada – LIVE from 20:20

Austria put in a heroic, historic performance against Canada, to which one can only take one's hat off enthusiastically ...

(Bild: AFP)

What an amazing finish, what a historic evening! After trailing 1:6 after two periods, Austria's ice hockey team went into a frenzy against Canada at the A World Championships on Tuesday, sweeping the world champions off the ice 5:0 in the final 20 minutes. Rossi forced the sensational overtime with the score at 6:6 just 49 seconds before the end. Canada then scored after 15 seconds to win 7:6. 

In the duel between David and Goliath, the blatant underdog cut a passable figure right from the start: as expected, Canada set the rhythm against Austria, pinning their opponents in their defensive zone with fast, determined field hockey. However, the ÖEHV team bravely and often successfully countered the avalanche of attacks and repeatedly disrupted the actions of the defending champions. Nevertheless, conceding goals was only a matter of time - the first came after 6:34 minutes: Strong was able to block Mangiapane's first shot together with goalie Madlener, but Cozens then buried the rebound into the net to make it 1:0.

Austria put in a heroic, historic performance against Canada, to which one can only tip one's hat enthusiastically ...

(Bild: AFP)

Nissner overruns the situation the quickest
Less than three minutes later it was 2:0: Hagel failed with his attempt, the rebounding puck was played by captain Tavares to Guhle, who scored from a free position. Austria? Could only look for salvation in counter-attacks, but showed how to do it after 10:11 minutes: After a successful forecheck by Nissner, Mario Huber failed to beat Binnington, who was unable to tame the puck - Nissner was quickest to clear the situation and dusted it off to make it 1-2.

Here you can see Austria's goal to make it 1:2:

Madlener repeatedly distinguished himself in the first period, defusing attempts by Zellweger, Mangiapane and McCann, among others. Before the unfortunate 1:3 was scored in the opening period: Paul Huber deflected Byram's harmless shot unstoppably (14th).

Madlener then made his first mistake at 1:5
The 4:1 was scored in minute 23: After a pass from Bunting, McCann skillfully rounded Madlener, pulled sharply inside right in front of the goal and tucked the puck into the empty box. On one of the rare forays forward, Schneider failed to beat Binnington (28'), then Madlener made his first mistake at 1:5: He deflected Bedard's cross-ice pass into his own goal with his skate (30') - making the 18-year-old Bedard the first Canadian since Sidney Crosby in 2006 to score in the Canadians' first three World Championship matches.

The pace made it increasingly difficult for Austria in this phase of the game, fortunately Canada was too playful in some of its forays and Madlener kept what he could. Zwerger then almost made it 2:5: He shot the puck just past Binington's goal after a feed from Schneider (36'). Cozens was unlucky with a shot over the crossbar in the second period, while Rossi failed to beat Binnington at the other end. As Dubois had successfully dusted himself off (38'), the final 20 minutes began with a score of 6:1.

(Bild: AP/Associated Press)

Spectacular brace within 52 seconds
Austria's highlight came when they scored a spectacular brace within 52 seconds. With Peter Schneider in the role of the protagonist: At 2:6, he escaped the defense after winning the disc on the left wing, played backhand ideally for Baumgartner, who finished (44th). At 3:6, he beat Billington from an acute angle in the short corner after a wonderful one-two with Zwerger (44').

Here you can see Austria's goals at 2:6 and 3:6::

Team boss Bader throws his hands up in delight
But it got even better: First Paul Huber had the 4:6 on his stick, but he failed to beat Billington (50'). Shortly afterwards, Zwerger did better, surprising Binnington with a shot into the short corner - his fifth shot in the third period, his third goal (51')! The arena was finally upside down, even the usually calm Austrian team boss Roger Bader threw his hands up in delight.

The heavy favorites now wavered and Austria pressed for the final goal, which Schneider actually managed to score, rounding Binnington after Zwerger's cross-ice pass and cutting the deficit to 5:6 with 4:04 minutes remaining. Marco Rossi then completed the miracle 49 seconds before the end when he finished backhanded in front of Binnington to make it 6:6.

Here you can see Austria's goal to make it 6:6:

As the siren sounded after 60 minutes, the Austrian team cheered and the players clapped enthusiastically. In overtime, the dream of an even greater sensation was shattered after just 15 seconds when Tavares scored to make it 7:6 for Canada. Nevertheless, it was a heroic, historic performance by Austria, and one can only take one's hat off to them.

The result:
Austria - Canada 6:7 n.V. (1:3, 0:3, 5:0; 0:1)

Goal sequence: 0:1 (7.) Cozens, 0:2 (10.) Guhle, 1:2 (11.) Nissner, 1:3 (14.) Byram, 1:4 (23.) McCann, 1:5 (30.) Bedard, 1:6 (38.) Dubois, 2:6 (44.) Baumgartner, 3:6 (45.) Schneider, 4:6 (51.) Zwerger, 5:6 (56.) Schneider, 6:6 (60.) Rossi, 6:7 (61.) Tavares

Austria played with: Madlener; Nickl, Heinrich; Wolf, Unterweger; Maier, Strong; Brunner, Stapefeldt; M. Huber, Nissner, Raffl; Schneider, Rossi, Zwerger; Haudum, Baumgartner, Ganahl; Rohrer, Wukovits, P. Huber