2023-05-06 16:48:53
Austria’s national team lost the dress rehearsal for the Ice Hockey World Championships in Tampere, which begins next Friday.
Two days following the surprising 6:3 home win once morest Slovakia, the ÖEHV selection had to admit defeat on Saturday in the return game in Trencin with 3:4 (0:3,2:0,1:1).
After a very weak first third, the red-white-red team improved, managed to equalize, but conceded the 3:4 one second before the end.
Bader with six changes
As announced, team boss Roger Bader made six changes, including doing without Marco Rossi.
David Kickert was given priority in goal and was the center of attention from the start. Because the Slovaks presented themselves like a different team, obviously they wanted to rehabilitate themselves for the performance on Thursday in Kapfenberg.
That worked in the first third. With the first shot on goal, the hosts took the lead following 68 seconds, much to the delight of more than 6,000 spectators thanks to Robert Lantosi. The action took place almost exclusively in the third of the Austrians, who only fired the only shot on goal in the 17th minute through captain Thomas Raffl.
Samuel Knazko (16th) following a mistake by Lius Lindner and Milos Kelemen (17th) gave the 2002 World Champion a deserved 3-0 lead before the first break.
Austrians clearly improved in the middle third
In the middle third, the Austrians presented themselves clearly improved and made the match exciting once more. Captain Thomas Raffl (32nd), who deflected an untenable shot from Thaler, and Lukas Haudum (39th), who scored a wonderful slap shot in the first power play, brought their team up to 2:3.
In the final third, the Austrians increased once more. Achermann, Huber and Co. initially defused two Slovakian power plays, Mario Huber scored to equalize 3:3 (58th). However, it wasn’t enough to win because Mario Grman scored just before the final siren to make it 4:3 in favor of the Slovaks.
Bader now has to reduce his squad by four players before heading to Tampere via Helsinki on Tuesday. The first opponent at the World Cup is Saturday followingnoon (11:20 a.m. CET/live ORF 1) France.
LAOLA1 TV
to the TV program
1683392258
#ÖEHV #team #loses #World #Cup #dress #rehearsal #Slovakia
