Marco Rossi / Picture: APA / HANS PUNZ
Austria's national ice hockey team goes into the fight for participation in the Olympics with self-confidence. One day after the 7: 5 against Hungary, the ÖEHV selection also defeated Italy on Sunday in Vienna. In the 4: 1 (1: 1.1: 0.2: 0) success, storm talent Marco Rossi turned with his first international goal (10th), Raphael Herburger (34th) and Lukas Haudum (56th) each in a power play the game after an early deficit. Patrick Spannring fixed the final score with a shot into the empty goal (59th).
“That was a completely different game than against Hungary. I am not at all satisfied with the first third, we played too much across and diagonally and had too many disc losses. From the second third we really got into the game and deservedly won . Today there was more resistance, it was also important that we saw that it doesn't work like in the first third, “summed up team boss Roger Bader in an interview with ORF.
After the two victories, the Swiss will have to reduce his squad by one goalkeeper and three field players before things get serious in Bratislava. From Thursday to Sunday, the qualification against the favored hosts Slovakia, Belarus and Poland is about a ticket for the Olympic Games in Beijing in February.
Bader switched to Italy as announced. With David Kickert in goal instead of Bernhard Starkbaum and five new field players, the Austrians started unhappy. Alex Petan surprised the otherwise safe Kickert with a shot into the near corner and put the Italians in the lead in the 5th minute. A little later, Raphael Wolf had to be injured from the ice after a serious knee check by an opponent.
The following power play equalized by Rossi, who hit the short Kreuzeck with a full shot (10th). The supposed quick lead by defender Kilian Zündel, who had already scored two goals against Hungary the day before, was revoked after studying video (12th).
In the middle third, however, the 2: 1 fell. A shot by Haudum was deflected unsustainably by captain Thomas Raffl, who was playing his 100th international match, and Herburger (34th). In the end, Haudum used another superiority game for the third red-white-red power play hit (56th). “It seems that we are well on the way,” said Bader happily about the power play efficiency.
