After Olympic Champion Russia, World Champion Sweden was too big for Austria’s national ice hockey team. Team boss Roger Bader’s team lost 0:7 (0:2,0:3,0:2) against the defending champion at the World Cup in Denmark on Wednesday.
Adrian Kempe (10th/PP), Mattias Janmark (18th), Rickard Rakell (23rd/PP, 29th), Gustav Nyquist (30th), Mika Zibanejad (48th) and Magnus Paajarvi (54th) scored in the expected one-sided game.
The red-white-red team now has a day off before the key games are on the agenda. Against France (Friday) and Belarus (Saturday, 4.15 pm each), at least one victory is needed to avoid relegation for the first time in 14 years.
The game developed as expected. The defending champion, who competed with 14 NHL players, combined without last consequence. The Austrians fought back and reduced careless mistakes. The flawless Madlener could distinguish himself several times.
In the middle third the Austrians also showed good offensive actions, after Haudum (20th) Peter Schneider (24th) and Layne Viveiros (24th) also had good chances, but could not defeat Swedish goalkeeper Anders Nilsson. After a double shot to 0:5 within 24 seconds Bader got loud in a time-out (30.), after that Raffl and Co. acted more concentrated again.