Austria takes big step towards salvation

In the first 20 minutes Austria seemed much hungrier to take the win than their neighbours, as the German defence had difficulties handling the young Austrian team. In several occasions German goalkeeper Dennis Endras saved his team from falling back. One of those situations was in the 8^th minute, when he stood in the way on Thomas Raffl’s shot. Shortly after a faceoff win in the neutral zone gave Michael Raffl and Raphael Herburger a 2-on-1 situation, once again denied by the MVP of the 2010 World Championships.

Germany had its first opportunity in the 9^th minute, when Tobias Rieder’s breakaway attempt was stopped by Austrian net minder Bernhard Starkbaum. Rieder, a speedy winger of the Arizona Coyotes, could not score, but gave his team the chance to play two minutes on the man advantage, on which Germany though did not capitalize.

The Austrians kept the pressure high also in the middle frame. First Manuel Latusa, on a nice feed by Thomas Raffl, was robbed by Endras and on the next play Konstantin Komarek missed the wide open net. In the 28^th minute Raphael Rotter created another good chance for the red-and-white, but Raphael Herburger’s shot was not precise enough to beat Dennis Endras.

In the 36^th minute the Austrians were finally rewarded for their attempts, as Thomas Raffl’s slap shot beat the German goalkeeper on the five hole. A goal Endras might want to get back, but he was without any doubt the reason Germany was still in the game.

Also after the second intermission, Austria had lots of chances to improve their lead to two, but it was the rivals from Germany to find the equalizer. Michael Wolf beat Starkbaum with a perfect wrist shot to make the final 16 minutes of regulation time as exciting as possible.

In the 46^th minute Germany even had the chance for the go-ahead-goal, but Michael Wolf could not convert Rieder’s pass on the 2-on-1 situation.

4 minutes later Austria was on the power play and just as has been the case in the whole game, were very dangerous but lacked scoring efficiency. This time Brian Lebler was unable to squeak one through Endras.

In the 55^th minute the Austrians regained the lead: Raphael Rotter, with his skate, deflected Florian Muhlstein’s shot into the net and the large amount of Austrian fans in Prague already started the celebration.

Hockey is a crazy game though and Patrick Reimer, whose team was outshot 18-34 in this game, sent the game to overtime. Reimer’s wrist shot from the blue line went over the shoulder of the screened Starkbaum. Nicolas Krammer did a great job in front of the net making sure the Austrian goaltender was chanceless on this shot.

13 seconds to go the German hockey world was shocked again, as the puck was behind Dennis Endras’ back. Luckily for them though the goal was waved off because Brian Lebler was in the goal crease before the puck entered it.

During the 5 minutes of OT both teams had some good scoring opportunities, but neither Patrick Hager for Germany nor Herburger for Austria could decide the game.

In the shootut Austria ensured themselves two extremely important points, scoring twice with Dominique Heinrich and Konstantin Komarek, whereas Tobias Rieder was the only German player to deke out Starkbaum.

Fight to avoid relegation is still open

With this two points , unless France beats Latvia in the extra time, Austria is safe from relegation. One thing though is sure: Whatever team earns no point in the clash of tomorrow afternoon, will be sent down to Division 1A.

All of this is based on the assumption, that Austria does not earn points against Canada and France loses to Sweden in regulation time.

Anyway, a very interesting last day in the relegation race is awaiting us tomorrow, with 3 teams fearing to follow Slovenia to the second level of international hockey.

Photos: Stanislav Souček

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