“The Czech Republic has more skills than Italy recently, and they play with extremely high intensity and speed. That forces us to keep up and by doing that, we will improve,” is Head coach Roger Bader confident that we will take the next step this week.
Since 2019, Austria and the Czech Republic have faced each other year after year in preparation for the World Cup. With the exception of the COVID19 year 2020, when all games had to be canceled.
In the all-time statistics, Austria has been able to prevail twice so far. The victory at the 2022 World Cup in Tampere (FIN) will never be forgotten, as will the success last year in Linz. They want to present themselves as unpleasant opponents again in the next two games.
Apart from the Moser Medical Graz99ers players, Austria is already close to making the World Cup squad. It has also been clear since the beginning of this week that NHL legionnaires Marco Rossi and Marco Kasper will have to be without at the 2026 World Cup.
Head to Head AUT vs CZE
| 02/14/94 | Czech Republic | Austria | Gjovik / NOR | 7:3 | 1994 Olympic Games | N | |
| 04/26/95 | Czech Republic | Austria | Stockholm/SWE | 5:2 | World Championships | N | |
| 05/01/99 | Czech Republic | Austria | Oslo / NOR | 7-0 | World Championships | N | |
| 04/23/02 | Czech Republic | Austria | Pardubice / CZE | 6-0 | Friendly game | N | |
| 04/28/03 | Czech Republic | Austria | Helsinki / FIN | 8:1 | World Championships | N | |
| 04/30/04 | Czech Republic | Austria | Prague / CZE | 2:0 | World Championships | N | |
| 04/12/05 | Czech Republic | Austria | Breclav / CZE | 7-0 | Friendly game | N | |
| 04/14/05 | Czech Republic | Austria | Znojmo / CZE | 5:4 | Friendly game | N | |
| 04/29/07 | Czech Republic | Austria | Mytischi / RUS | 6:1 | World Championships | N | |
| 05/08/15 | Czech Republic | Austria | Prague / CZE | 4:1 | World Championships | N | |
| 05/14/18 | Czech Republic | Austria | Copenhagen / DEN | 4:3 | World Championships | N | |
| 04/10/19 | Czech Republic | Austria | Znojmo / CZE | 3:1 | Euro Hockey Challenge | N | |
| 04/13/19 | Austria | Czech Republic | Linz | 4:5 SUN | Euro Hockey Challenge | N | |
| 05/19/19 | Czech Republic | Austria | Bratislava / SVK | 8-0 | World Championships | N | |
| 04/22/21 | Czech Republic | Austria | Jindrichuv Hradec / CZE | 5:0 | Euro Hockey Challenge | N | |
| 04/24/21 | Czech Republic | Austria | Jindrichuv Hradec / CZE | 7:2 | Euro Hockey Challenge | N | |
| 04/06/22 | Czech Republic | Austria | Znojmo / CZE | 5:1 | Friendly game | N | |
| 04/08/22 | Austria | Czech Republic | Linz | 1:4 | Friendly game | N | |
| 05/01/22 | Czech Republic | Austria | Ostrava/CZE | 4:1 | Euro Hockey Tour | N | |
| 05/17/22 | Czech Republic | Austria | Tampere / FIN | 1:2 SUN | World Championships | S | |
| 04/27/23 | Austria | Czech Republic | Linz | 0:6 | Friendly game | N | |
| 04/29/23 | Czech Republic | Austria | Brno / CZE | 2:1 | Friendly game | N | |
| 04/18/24 | Czech Republic | Austria | Ceske Budejovice / CZE | 5:1 | Friendly game | N | |
| 04/20/24 | Austria | Czech Republic | Linz | 2:3 | Friendly game | N | |
| 05/17/24 | Czech Republic | Austria | Prague / CZE | 4:0 | World Championships | N | |
| 04/17/25 | Czech Republic | Austria | Znojmo / CZE | 4:0 | Friendly game | N | |
| 04/19/25 | Austria | Czech Republic | Linz | 4:3 OT | Friendly game | S |
SQUAD WORLD CUP PREPARATION WEEK #3
| No. | name | First name | Pos | Size | Weight | Date of birth | R/L | Association | GP | G | A | PIM |
| 30 | KICKERT | David | GK | 188 | 83 | 03/16/94 | L | EC Red Bull Salzburg | 122 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 31 | TOLVANES | Atte | GK | 182 | 87 | 11/23/94 | L | EC Red Bull Salzburg | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 | AHEAD | Florian | GK | 188 | 81 | 12/9/99 | L | EC KAC | 31 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | HACKL | Dominic | D | 187 | 91 | 11/8/96 | L | EV Vienna Capitals | 45 | 0 | 3 | 14 |
| 10 | CLASS SEC | Thomas | D | 184 | 85 | 02/18/05 | L | RPI Engineers (USA) | 8 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 12 | MAIER | David | D | 187 | 86 | 10/12/00 | R | EC KAC | 83 | 2 | 10 | 61 |
| 8 | NICKL | Thimo | D | 191 | 87 | 04.12.01 | R | EC KAC | 51 | 1 | 4 | 27 |
| 4 | SCHNETZER | Ramon | D | 178 | 83 | 08/12/96 | L | Pioneers Vorarlberg ice hockey club | 72 | 3 | 7 | 24 |
| 9 | SÖLLINGER | Patrick | D | 188 | 97 | 05.08.04 | L | Steinbach Black Wings Linz | 19 | 1 | 0 | 16 |
| 13 | STEFFLER | Devin | D | 187 | 86 | 07/14/00 | R | HC TIWAG Innsbruck – The Sharks | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 25 | UNDERWAY | Clement | D | 183 | 91 | 04/01/92 | L | EC KAC | 92 | 6 | 25 | 32 |
| 27 | WHIMMER | Philip | D | 195 | 96 | 12/13/01 | L | EC Red Bull Salzburg | 41 | 0 | 1 | 35 |
| 32 | WOLF | Bernd | D | 178 | 84 | 02/23/97 | L | EHC Kloten (SUI) | 120 | 6 | 20 | 62 |
| 6 | GESSON | Adrain | F | 178 | 78 | 09/13/06 | L | EC Red Bull Salzburg | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 28 | HUBER | Mario | F | 188 | 90 | 8/8/96 | R | EC Red Bull Salzburg | 67 | 10 | 14 | 20 |
| 14 | COLARIK | Leon | F | 180 | 80 | 09/23/07 | L | Peterborough Petes (USA) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 18 | KOSCHEK | Felix | F | 186 | 84 | 10/23/05 | L | EV Vienna Capitals | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 20 | NEW BUILDERS | Henrik | F | 184 | 90 | 04/15/97 | R | Steinbach Black Wings Linz | 30 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 7 | NISSNER | Benjamin | F | 182 | 80 | 11/30/97 | L | EC Red Bull Salzburg | 56 | 12 | 14 | 24 |
| 24 | REBERNIG | Maximilian | F | 193 | 103 | 09/03/00 | L | EC iDM heat pumps VSV | 20 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| 21 | JOKER | Ian | F | 181 | 89 | 07/03/05 | L | RPI Engineers (USA) | 10 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 23 | SWINGER | Simeon | F | 182 | 75 | 10/07/97 | L | EC KAC | 42 | 2 | 1 | 20 |
| 15 | THALER | Lucas | F | 180 | 80 | 01/21/02 | R | EC Red Bull Salzburg | 52 | 9 | 9 | 39 |
| 19 | VAN EE | Finn | F | 182 | 88 | 01/12/03 | L | EC KAC | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 11 | WALLNER | Leon | F | 185 | 89 | 01.07.02 | R | EV Vienna Capitals | 26 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 2 | WASHING | David | F | 184 | 86 | 04/24/07 | L | EC KAC | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | DWARF | Dominic | F | 183 | 93 | 07/16/96 | L | HC Ambri-Piotta (SUI) | 102 | 26 | 39 | 51 |
| 184.6 | 86.7 | 01/25/00 | 1108 | 85 | 158 | 449 |
PREPARATION FOR THE WORLD CUP
Austria vs. Czech Republic
Thursday, April 23, 2026, 7:00 p.m., Steffl Arena Vienna
Live on ORF SPORT +
Czech Republic vs. Austria
Fri., April 24, 2026, 5:00 p.m., Jihlava (CZE)
Further World Cup preparation
April 30th, 7:00 p.m., Zell am See: Austria vs. Germany
May 2nd, 5:00 p.m., Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER): Germany vs. Austria
May 9th, 4:20 p.m., Klagenfurt: Austria vs. Slovenia
ÖEHV ticket shop
eishockey.at , Image: ÖEHV/Christian Rothmund
