After a strong showing on Thursday evening in Vienna in a 0-1 draw against eleven-time world champion Sweden at the start of the Euro Hockey Tour, Austria’s national men’s ice hockey team set off on the trip to Ostrava (CZE) on Friday morning, where they played at 12 noon on Saturday and 4 p.m. on Sunday Clock meets Olympic champion Finland and host Czech Republic. Both games will be broadcast live on ORF Sport+.
It was a defeat that Austria had to accept against Sweden, which received a lot of attention in a positive sense, and which also made for many happy faces. After the final whistle, head coach Roger Bader was visibly proud and full of praise for his team:
“I’m super happy with the performance, of course I would have preferred to win 1-0 than lose. I don’t think that would have been entirely undeserved either, because at times it was very balanced. We had five more shots than the Swedes, you have to imagine that. Normally they have 20 to 25 more shots than we do. We had our chances, the first third was excellent. The penalty before the first goal was tough, so I took a quick look at it again. I’m very happy with how the players can keep up!”
But now all that is a thing of the past and the focus is already on the next tasks. And as part of the Euro Hockey Tour, they are called Finland on Saturday and the Czech Republic on Sunday. The Finns, hosts of the upcoming World Cup, won gold in 2019 and silver in 2021, were crowned Olympic champions in February and have been number 1 in the world rankings ever since.
A mammoth task, especially since some Olympic gold-plated players are already involved. But this duel is not only characterized by medals and names: Austria vs. Finland falls under the category “rarity”. The two nations have faced each other just eleven times and all of them in the context of World Championships or Olympic Games. Finland won ten of the eleven games, at the 2000 World Cup in Saint Petersburg (RUS) they drew 3:3.
In three weeks it will be the eighth edition of the World Cup. The game comes a year too early, because both 2003 and 2013 there was already this World Cup comparison on Finnish ice. Both times in Helsinki.
The Czech Republic was twice the opponent of the red-white-red cracks at the beginning of the World Cup preparations. Both squads have changed significantly in the past three weeks. A number of legionnaires from Finland, Sweden, the KHL and Switzerland came to our neighbors for the Euro Hockey Tour.
Head coach Roger Bader: “The team has gained self-confidence, but now we have the next two top nations ahead of us. You know it’s extremely difficult to create chances against Finland. They are so tight defensively and so good, it will be a challenge to counter them again. Like us, the Czech Republic has a completely different team than three weeks ago, with a number of excellent players. We will also pay very close attention to the condition of the players. Not all players will definitely play all three games, but we will give the players targeted breaks.”
The Austria games of the Euro Hockey Tour will all be broadcast live on ORF Sport+. Next week, the national team will be drawn together for the final preparatory camp in Schwenningen (GER), where the red-white-red selection will take on the never-ending duel against neighboring Germany on Sunday, May 8, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. for the final World Cup test , also live on ORF Sport+.
Euro Hockey Tour Ostrava from April 28 to May 1
April 30, 2022, 12:00 p.m., AUT – FIN in Ostrava, live on ORF Sport+
May 1, 2022, 4:00 p.m., CZE – AUT in Ostrava, live on ORF Sport+
www.eishockey.at, Bild: fodo.at
