France dominates EIHC tournament in Innsbruck, Austria

EIHC Austria recap

Originally the Euro Ice Hockey Challenge was thought to become a development tournament for second class teams that don't participate in the more traditional annual tournaments like Euro Hockey Tour (Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden) or Deutschland Cup (Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia, Canada/USA).

This time though the tournament was not only the chance for prospects of the participating nations to make the jump to the senior national team but a real preparation for top IIHF events. Austria and Slovenia both sensationally qualified for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, after eliminating favourites Germany (In Austria's case) or Belarus (in Slovenia's case) during the third and last qualification round in February 2013. Unfortunately both teams were immidiately relegated later during the World Cup in May 2013 in Finland and Sweden as last placed of their groups just one year after gaining promotion to the WC top division. France - since the 2008 WC - and next year's WC hosts Belarus - since the 2005 WC - managed to stay in the top division for several years in a row now and especially the French team became more than just underdogs with surprise wins against Germany, Switzerland and most recently Russia (2-1) during the 2013 World Championship.

Day 1

Belarus - Slovenia 0-3 (0-2, 0-1, 0-0)

The tournament started with aggressive Slovenes who worked hard from the very first minute and were 2-0 in front soon after goals by Robert Saboblic (3rd) and Jan Urbas (4th). The Central Europeans continued to dominate the match and even made it a three-goal lead early in the middle period through Jan Mursak (22nd). With such a large lead head coach Matjaz Kopitar used the whole tournament roster and his team thanked him his confidence with a solid performance and a 3-0 win that was never in real danger. Goalie Robert Kristan of HK Nitra in Slovakia even celebrated a shutout.

France - Austria 3-1 (0-0, 3-1, 0-0)

In their tournament opener France easily took what seemed to be the biggest hurdle when they defeated home side Austria. Mathias Lange, goalie of Iserlohn Roosters in Germany's DEL, gave his debut in the Austrian national team after being already used as back up goalie during the 2013 World Championship. He showed a solid performance during the game - just as his Frech opponent - but couldn't avoid the surprising shorthanded lead by France through Loic Lamperier (28th) who conquered the puck from Florian Iberer in the Austrian third and beat the goalie from close distance. Before Austria had left out several good opportunities, including a long 5 on 3 power play. With the momentum on their side France even doubled the lead through a break away by Nicholas Rech (30th). Five minutes later the Austrian power play finally worked as it should and Michael Schiechl used a rebound from short distance to cut the deficit to the half but with a shot from within the slot Julien Albert made everything clear for France just 34 seconds before the second intermission. In the last 20 minutes the goal post twice avoided a higher lead for France who kept the 3-1 till the final second.

Day 2

France - Belarus 2-1 SO (1-1, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 1-0)

In the top game of the tournament France won thanks to one man - Nicolas Ritz. The 21 year old center of Dijon in French Ligue Magnus opened the scoring for his team already at 08:51 but just four and a half minutes later Konstantin Zakharov - usually playing for Dinamo MInsk in KHL - tied the match in power play. Belarus outshot their opponents 36-22 in regulation and the following overtime but wasn't able to score another goal. Instead it was Nicolas Ritz who became the hero for the French national team by winning the extra point in shootout.

Austria - Slovenia 2-0 (1-0, 0-0, 1-0)

Both teams changed their starting goalies before the game - Austria used Bernhard Starkbaum instead of Mathias Lange and Slovenia used Luka Gracnar instead of Robert Kristan. Especially the change in the Austrian net had a positive effect as Starkbaum was able to get a shutout by blocking all 33 shots on goal he faced. For Gracnar the dream of a shutout was already over after about 10 minutes when Candian-born Brian Lebler scored the early lead for Austria in his national team debut. Slovenia was the more active team afterwards but when Andreas Kristler scored the 2-0 in power play (51st) the game was decided.

Day 3

Slovenia - France 2-5 (0-0, 1-2, 1-3)

In the battle for the tournament win France underlined their strong form and also beat last opponents Slovenia (5-2) with goals by Damien Fleury (Södertälje, HockeyAllsvenskan) who gained a hat trick, Charles Bertrand (TPS Turku, SM-liiga) and Brian Henderson (Angers, Ligue Magnus) - the son of national team head coach Dave Henderson.  

Austria - Belarus 0-3 (0-1, 0-1, 0-1)

Hosts Austria had the chance to reach the second spot with a win against Belarus - the tournament title already went to France earlier that day after their win against Slovenia. With Rene Swette the Austrians used their third starting goalie in the third game. One thing is sure: the loss was not his fault as he showed a good 31 save performance. Evgeny Kovyrshin (7th), Andrei Stepanov (33rd) in power play and Andrei Filichkin (59th) with an empty netter never let the hosts find into the game. Bitter for Austria: Andreas Nödl  received a match penalty and Brian Lebler and Andre Lakos left the game with minor injuries.

The only Austrian with a reason to celebrate in the end was Johannes Reichel with his 100th national team match. The 31 year old is a member of Team Austria already since 2002.

Final standings

#    Team Name    P    W    WOT    LOT    L    F    A    GD    Pts
1    France     3    2    1    0    0    10    4    6    8
2    Belarus     3    1    0    1    1    4    5    -1    4
3    Austria     3    1    0    0    2    3    6    -3    3
4    Slovenia     3    1    0    0    2    5    7    -2    3

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