World Cup Debacle
LIVE NOW: Will Austria surprise Switzerland?
After three wins in three games, Austria was thoroughly routed by Switzerland in its fourth match in five days at the Ice Hockey World Championship in Zurich: The host showed no mercy to Roger Bader’s team from the start, ultimately celebrating a 9-0 rout. Austria now desperately needs the two days off before facing Germany on Saturday.
The “Krone” reports from Zurich
With Dominic Zwerger, who had taken a nasty check on Tuesday, and the visibly exhausted Vinzenz Rohrer, head coach Roger Bader gave two players based in Switzerland a breather in the match against the host of the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championship. In return, Neubauer and Scherzer made their first appearances at this World Championship. In front of 10,000 fans in the sold-out Swiss Life Arena, the Swiss started as expected: with relentless pressure and a barrage of shots on goal.
Right from the start, the action was intense in front of Austria’s goalie David Kickert, who, along with his forwards, was under constant fire. No mistakes were allowed, but one crept in during the fourth minute: After winning the puck in the opponent’s zone, Malgin launched a lightning-fast counterattack, feeding the on-rushing Rochette during a 2-on-1 breakaway, who fired the puck high into the net, leaving Kickert with no chance (5th).
It was a start no one wanted, but one that was difficult to avoid given the opponent’s determination and superiority. Even while shorthanded, the Swiss created chances, with Kickert stopping a shot from Andrighetto. But during this power play, Austria came close to tying the game at 1-1; Schneider, however, was denied by Swiss goaltender Genoni by the narrowest of margins.
Just as it began to feel like Austria might open up the game a bit, the 2-0 goal came: on a transition play, the puck went from Egli to Meier, who didn’t hesitate, beating Kickert with a shot into the far corner (10th).
Then Kickert made a save against Rochette, who had appeared alone in front of him, but seconds later the puck found the net again: Meier played the puck from behind the net to Nico Hischier, who finished to make it 3-0 (12th). Then, while shorthanded—with Hackl in the penalty box—they made it too easy for the opponent, allowing Riat to finish unchallenged for the 4-0 lead after a pass from Andrighetto on the Swiss team’s eleventh shot on goal (14th minute). Shortly after, Austria got lucky when Meier hit only the post (15th minute).
Even though the “Nati’s” pressure eased off somewhat in the second period, this did nothing to diminish their dominance. Austria had chances like the one by Neubauer—but a goal just wouldn’t come. On the other end, Rochette missed (26th), and Hischier shot wide from a promising position (28th).
Before Switzerland stepped up the pace again, the puck found the back of Kickert’s net for the fifth time: Hischier tapped in during a power play to make it 5-0 (30th minute). Just 21 seconds later, a shot by Thurkauf flew over Kickert’s shoulder and into the top corner for the 6-0 lead—at this point, the Salzburg goalie was relieved and made way for Vorauer.
Team Austria’s third goalie had been on the ice for just 2:16 minutes when he couldn’t stop a shot from Rochette, allowing the 0-7 goal (33rd minute)—thankfully, the score remained that way until the end of the second period.
The final period was a carbon copy of the first 40 minutes—Switzerland dictated the action at will. Peter Schneider and Co. had a few isolated chances, but a goal just wouldn’t come. At the other end, Riat scored on the power play off an assist from Rochette to make it 8-0 (51st), and Bertschy surprised Vorauer in the top corner for the 9-0 final score (57th). The only positive takeaway from the sobering afternoon—Austria was ultimately spared a double-digit defeat!
Switzerland – Austria 9–0 (4–0, 3–0, 2–0)
Goals: 1-0 (6.) Rochette, 2-0 (10.) Meier, 3:0 (12.) Hischier, 4:0 (14./PP) Riat, 5:0 (30./PP) Hischier, 6:0 (31.) Thurkauf, 7:0 (33.) Rochette, 8:0 (51.) Rochette, 9:0 (57.) Bertschy.
Austria’s lineup: Kickert (31. Vorauer); Wolf, Unterweger; Nickl, Biber; Hackl, Maier; Stapelfeldt, Schnetzer; Schneider, Nissner, Kolarik; Thaler, Harnisch, P. Huber; Schwinger, M. Huber, Rebernig; Scherzer, Wallner, Neubauer.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.