2026 Ice Hockey World Championship

LIVE: Austria Holds Its Own Against Finland for Now

The Austrians were rarely able to keep the Finns at bay...(Bild: EPA/ANDREAS BECKER)

 

Austria’s sixth game at the Ice Hockey World Championship in Zurich ended with the expected fourth loss: Schneider and Co. kept pace with Finland for a long time, but a two-goal surge by the Scandinavians within 49 seconds to make it 4-0 in the second period settled the outcome early. In the end, after a solid overall performance, the final score was 2-5. Regardless, the ÖEHV team remains in the running for a quarterfinal spot—but will likely need a stunning victory over the U.S. on Tuesday.

The first questionable move came from the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF)—assigning two head referees for the match, Nolan Bloyer (USA) and Andre Schrader (Germany), from countries whose teams are still battling it out with Austria in Group A for a spot in the quarterfinals, cast a suspicious light on the whole affair, despite Finland’s clear sporting superiority – That’s not exactly what you’d call tact!

As for the game: With Kickert in goal, Austria recorded the first shot on goal by Nickl (1st minute), but also took the first penalty of the game: Hackl had to sit out two minutes for holding. The first three minutes passed without a shot on goal by the Finns, but in the dying moments of the power play, a 1-0 lead seemed all but certain: Yet after a well-worked play, Puistola, alone in front of Kickert, failed to find the net, hitting the outside post instead (4th min).

The Bader team held the defensive line very tight, allowing only one shot on goal in the first five minutes. And they showed courage up front in the form of Harnisch: The Graz forward finished his bold run with a shot that went just wide of the goal (7th minute). In goal, Kickert was alert, clearing Granlund’s shot (10th) and also stopping Vaakanainen’s attempt (11th)—Jokiharju’s effort went just wide, and Helenius hit the post (14th).

The fans at the Swiss Life Arena were mostly rooting for Austria: This was evident in the 14th minute when Harnisch was struck in the face by a Finnish stick, sustaining a bleeding wound, while the referees apparently overlooked the incident. A chorus of boos followed, but it did nothing to change the fact that the Scandinavians got away without a penalty.

Then Austria suddenly came close to scoring the 1-0 lead when, following a clever pass from Rebernig, Rohrer and Thaler broke away on a 2-on-1 rush against Finnish goalie Jannunen, with Thaler shooting just wide of the net (18th minute). What the refs overlooked for the Finns, they penalized Austria for in an instant: a foul by Nissner, who rightly received a two-minute penalty for tripping (18th minute).

It was during this very power play that the favorites scored after 59 seconds: Kickert got a glove to Granlund’s close-range shot off a Barkov assist, but could only deflect the puck into the net (19th minute). The goal was met with a chorus of boos—the outrage over the obvious foul on Harnisch had not yet subsided.

Fans from Finland and Austria had already celebrated together before the game...(Bild: zVg)

Messrs. Bloyer and Schrader were also greeted with loud boos at the start of the second period—Austria immediately showed its offensive presence, with Schneider firing a backhand shot just wide of the net. At the other end, Kickert made a save against Raty (22nd). Before the 2-0 goal earned the label “worth watching”: Merelä fed the charging Mäenalanen from behind the net, and he finished successfully (24th).

The underdog continued to play with spirit, with Annunen making a save against Mario Huber (25th). Late, but still, the first Finn was sent to the penalty box: However, Rohrer and Co. couldn’t capitalize on the power play resulting from Merelä’s two-minute penalty.

Within 47 seconds, the Finns then sealed the deal for good: First, the puck rolled across the line in slow motion for Puljujärvi’s 3-0 goal (32nd), then Manninen was on hand after Ratys’ shot and a quick save by Kickert to tap in for the 4-0 lead (33rd). Despite the opponent’s dominance, Austria continued to push offensively, but even Rohrer (39th) couldn’t find the net for his team.

With a shot count of 27-8, the Finns entered the final period; on their ninth shot, Austria was finally rewarded for its efforts, narrowing the score to 1-4: Schneider intercepted a pass attempt by goalie Annunen behind the net; the deflected puck flew in a high arc in front of the goal, where Zwerger acted decisively, feeding the better-positioned Nissner, who fired the puck high into the net to make it 1-4 (44th).

Bader’s team continued to play with energy: Unterweger tested Annunen with a shot from the blue line (50th). Shortly thereafter, however, the score was 1–5: Puistola was the most determined on the rebound, restoring the four-goal lead (48th).

Rohrer, who had been struggling since the start of the World Championship, left the ice early in the final period—hopefully just a precautionary measure by head coach Bader. Kolarik had a chance for his second goal, but Annunen prevented it with a strong save (52nd). He was ultimately beaten again, though: Wallner calmly scored after setups from Kolarik and Scherzer (59th).

The Austrian fans responded to the team’s solid overall performance with chants and songs in the final minutes; Austria won the third period 2-1 against the Finns—which should provide an extra boost for Tuesday’s final group stage match.

The Finns celebrated their sixth win in six games and will face Switzerland in a showdown for first place in Group A on Tuesday at 8:20 p.m. to conclude the group stage. Before that, Austria will almost certainly need a “miracle” in their 4:20 p.m. match against the U.S. to advance to the quarterfinals.

Because if everything goes according to plan in the preceding matches—victories after 60 minutes for the USA (Monday against Hungary), Germany (Monday against Great Britain), and Latvia (Tuesday against Hungary)—Austria will need two points against the US team: that is, a win in overtime or a shootout. Which amounts to a “mission impossible”...

The result:
Finland – Austria 5:2 (1:0, 3:0, 1:1)

Goals: 1-0 (19th/PP) Granlund, 2-0 (24th) Mäenalanen, 3-0 (32nd) Puljiujärvi, 4-0 (33rd) Manninen, 4-1 (44th) Nissner, 5-1 (48th) Puistola, 5-2 (59th) Wallner

Austria: Kickert; Wolf, Unterweger; Nickl, Biber; Hackl, Maier; Stapelfeldt, Schnetzer; Schneider, Nissner, Zwerger; Thaler, Rohrer, Harnisch; Neubauer, M. Huber, Rebernig; Scherzer, Wallner, Kolarik