Austria’s national ice hockey team has never won six games against Belarus. If the ÖEHV team wants to avoid relegation at the World Championships in Denmark for the first time in 14 years, this series must end. After the 2:5 defeat against France on Friday, the direct duel for class retention will start on Saturday (4.15 pm).
France were the first key game to be lost after a 1-0 lead. A lack of evaluation of chances and unnecessary penalties were the decisive factors in favour of the French. “We just didn’t have the killer instinct to score the second goal. The French were more consistent at both gates, and had a hot goalkeeper. Hardy ripped the match for them,” said team boss Roger Bader.
The goalscoring ratio for Austria was 36:30 shots and 19:5 in the final third, and he was not satisfied with his goalkeeper because of these statistics. “If we had a Starkbaum with the performance from the Swiss game, we would have won today. 83 save percent is simply not enough, he knows that too,” criticized the team boss, who did not want to make the one-man goalkeeper “the scapegoat. Whether Starkbaum will be used again against the Belarusians or replaced by David Madlener, Bader left open.
Konstantin Komarek, who with an unnecessary penalty helped the French to a power play, which they used to score a 2-1 lead, also aroused the displeasure of his boss. “We also had a chance to play 2-0, a well played power game, so we had to take the lead 2-0. Then Komarek has an unnecessary disc loss in the powerplay, has to follow up with an unnecessary penalty, we get the 1:1, that has already annoyed me very much. These are moments that make the game tip over,” says Bader.
Despite his disappointment, however, he expects another team ready to fight on Saturday. “There can’t be any cracks. We are not at a children’s birthday party, but at a World Cup, that is an occasion for men. Defeats are part of it, it’s not like you fall completely out of all clouds when you lose against France. Now you have to get up, and if you can’t, you have to stay at home,” said the Swiss.
Belarus are still without a point and have only made headlines with a trainer’s replacement. Canadian Dave Levis had to leave in the middle of the tournament after three games and was replaced by his former co-trainer, Russian Sergei Pushkov. There was no coaching effect. “They were not so convincing as a team, they probably also had difficulties with the coach. Let’s see what the change of coach has achieved, not so much so far,” said Bader.
Nevertheless: Belarus has always played in the A-WM since 2005 and therefore has much more experience at this level. The experienced Andrei Stas and the Kostitsyn brothers are not there this year, but at least eleven players from the KHL club Dinamo Minsk. “These are all ice-skating and technically good players, the Russian school. It takes a very good match to beat them,” Bader knows.
Whether Brian Lebler was operational was open on Friday evening. The forward from Linz was only able to finish the French game with syringes, possibly a finger was broken.