With the second win in the second game, the Austrian national team has all but secured relegation. Head coach Roger Bader’s team celebrated a 4-2 win against Hungary, with defender Thimo Nickl scoring twice.
Mathematically, with their second win, Austria has not yet secured relegation. But with the victories over direct competitors Great Britain and Hungary at the start of the 2026 World Cup in Zurich (SUI), this is as good as fixed. The ÖEHV camp is now setting its sights on the next goal and that is to achieve the third victory in the tournament. If this succeeds, we can even talk about the quarter-finals again.
“The relief is of course great. Staying in the league is always the first goal, I have always emphasized that. If you lose these two games, you are right in the middle of the fight to stay in the league. With these two wins, we have almost achieved our first goal. The next goal is the third win, whenever and against whomever. If we manage to do that, we will set ourselves new goals,” said head coach Roger Bader, satisfied and relieved after the end of the game.
The start to the game against our neighbors was once again successful. Vinzenz Rohrer made it 1-0 in the power play after five minutes. But Hungary had more of the game overall in the first third and was sometimes extremely aggressive in the duels. And we kept testing Atte Tolvanen, who was allowed to play against Hungary. Like Austria, Hungary was also successful in the power play and made it 1-1 in the 12th minute.
An open middle third ended without goals, but the final period became a battle of nerves. First, Dominic Zwerger put his team back in the lead with a powerful shot in the power play, only 44 seconds later Thimo Nickl made it 3-1. Austria was heading for the second victory they had hoped for, but then found themselves twice outnumbered in the 53rd minute. Hungary didn’t miss this to make it 2:3.
Just under two minutes before the end of the game, our neighbors took their goalkeeper off the ice and created some top-class chances. But Atte Tolvanen didn’t let himself be surprised, held on to the lead for his team and Thimo Nickl finally used three seconds before the end of the game to make the final score 4-2 into the empty goal.
89th Ice Hockey World Championship
Austria : Hungary – 4:2 (1:1|0:0|3:1)
Goals: 1:0 Rohrer (6th/PP), 1:1 Sofron (12th/PP), 2:1 Zwerger (47th/PP) 3:1 Nickl (48th), 3:2 Vincze (54th/PP), 4:2 Nickl (60th/EN)
Move into the knockout round
128 (48.48%)
Preliminary round exit
120 (45.45%)
descent
16 (6.06%)
hockey-news.info , eishockey.at , Image: ÖEHV-Nicolas Zangerle
“), i.text = “window._taboola = window._taboola || ();_taboola.push({mode:’alternating-thumbnails-a’, container:’taboola-below-article-thumbnails’, placement:’below-article’, target_type: ‘mix’});”, n.appendChild(l), n.appendChild(i), e(n, t) } Array.prototype.filter || (Array.prototype.filter = function(e, t) { if (“function” != typeof e) throw TypeError(); let n = (); for (let l = 0, i = this.length >>> 0; l < i; l += 1) if (l in this) { let r = this(l); e.call(t, r, l, this) && n.push(r) } return n }), window.insertAfter = e, window.getElementByXPath = t, window.injectWidgetByXpath = function e(l) { let i = t(l) ||. document.getElementById("tbdefault"); i && n(i) }, window.injectWidgetByMarker = function e
