"Were not ready"

After a horror start: ÖEHV team loses to Slovenia

Austria's national ice hockey team has clearly lost its first match against Slovenia. The ÖEHV team was beaten 2:5 (0:3,1:1,1:1) in Ljubljana on Thursday after trailing 3:0 early on. The chance for revenge against the B-Nation, who were almost at their best, comes on Friday (18:00) in Villach.

"Of course I wasn't satisfied with the first period. The Slovenians were more aggressive, we weren't really ready. From the second period onwards it was a normal game, I was quite satisfied from the second period onwards," explained team manager Roger Bader.

Slovenia, who already have their World Championship tournament at the beginning of May and are therefore further along in their preparations, were already 3:0 ahead after twelve minutes. Ken Ograjensek (2nd), Nik Simsic (8th) and Anze Kuralt (12th) beat goalkeeper Max Zimmermann. After conceding the fourth goal (34'), the Austrians reduced the deficit to 2:4 through Nico Brunner (39'/PP) and Senna Peeters (47'), but conceded another goal in the final 58 minutes. "We absolutely slept through the start. We found our game a bit more in the second period, but ultimately it wasn't enough," said defender Brunner.

Slovenia - Austria 5:2 (3:0,1:1,1:1)
Goals: Ograjensek (2.), Simsic (8.), Kuralt (12.), Drozg (34.), Jezovsek (58.) and Brunner (39./PP), Peeters (47.) respectively.