It’s done: with a 4-1 win in the last group game, Austria’s U18 national ice hockey team secured promotion to the highest division. Black Wings Linz youngster Jonathan Oschgan contributed a brace.
After France’s defeat against Estonia on Thursday evening, it was clear that gold would be decided between Austria and Lithuania. Red-white-red didn’t get off to a good start at first. In the 8th minute, Simon Cseh had to go into the penalty box, Lithuania promptly used the power play to make it 1-0. Almost three minutes later the same picture on the opposite side. Jonathan Oschgan was there in the 11th minute to make it 1-1 in the power play. Lithuania now showed nerves and received two more penalties, but they survived unscathed. One second before the half-time siren, Luc Van EE scored Austria’s deserved lead.
In the middle third they gained clear advantages and once again Jonathan Oschgan was there in the power play, increasing the score to 3:1. They didn’t allow much in their own third and when they did, Gabriel Lemberger was there. In the final third, Lithuania threw everything into it again, Austria defended well and learned the lessons from the game against South Korea, when they gave up a 3-1 lead shortly before the end.
This time the bag was closed and Lennart Leitner made the final preliminary decision in the 57th minute and the final score was 4-1.
Head coach Peter Schweda: “Incredible success. I’m incredibly proud of the team. We’ve been working on this since the summer of 2025. Everything came together. I’ve never been able to coach a team that has such team spirit and cohesion. The boys deserve it and I’m very happy for them.”
Jonathan Oshgan: “The tournament was really great. The team we were here with is incredible. The solidarity, the atmosphere, we never let ourselves get down, we always came back. We went into the game today with a good spirit, were there from the first second. We deserved this victory, we worked hard for it all last year. We are simply overjoyed.”
U18 World Cup | Estonia
Austria : Lithuania – 4:1 (2:1|1:0|1:0)
Goals: 0:1 Kaupaitis (8th/PP), 1:1 Oschgan (11th/PP), 2:1 van Ee (20th), 3:1 Oschgan (29th/PP), 4:1 Leitner (57th)
hockey-news.info, eishockey.at, image: fodo.at
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