photo: © INTERNATIONAL ICE HOCKEY FEDERATION / ANDRE RINGUETTE
Historically, France has had the upper hand in their Ice Hockey World Championship games against Austria, with a 6-3-1 record. However, in Stockholm, Austria – playing in the top division for the fourth consecutive year for the first time in two decades – beat France 5-2.
Marco Kasper scored twice for Austria, goaltender David Kickert made 21 saves. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored one and added an assist for France. Jordann Perret and Alexandre Texier also collected two points.
“It was an interesting game. We came out strong, got goals early which was huge for us. It was a good win for us, and we’re happy with that. We’ll try to stay focused on the next game and not look too far ahead," Kasper said.
"We knew how important this game was, and the boys left it all on the ice. It wasn't easy with back to back games (against Canada and France) but we showed the strength of this team. We knew it was going to be an important game but to come out and play like this is incredible,” Kickert said.
Austria got off to a dream start to the game when Kasper got the puck on the blue line in the first shift. He accelerated and fired a wrister from the faceoff dot and it beat Keller on the short side just 39 seconds into the game.
Sometimes you get the bounces you need, and other days, the puck just isn’t your friend. For France, today was one of the latter days.
Austria scored their second goal on a bad bounce. Lukas Haudum came flying down the right wing and sent a cross-ice backhand pass toward the net. A French defenseman intercepted it, but the puck slipped from his blade when he was about to clear it, and instead, he set it up on a tee for Rohrer to slam it into an empty net for 2-0 at 7.58.
Austria made it 3-0 with 4.30 remaining in the first period on a similar play. This time, it was France’s goaltender Antoine Keller who came out to clear the puck, but as he was about to fire it out of the zone, the puck went between his legs, and Schnetzer lifted the puck into a wide-open net from the slot.
“I don’t know what happened today. We started badly, they scored on their first shot, and it’s hard to come back being down by three goals,” France's Pierre Crinon said.
France made a change, Quentin Papillon took Keller’s place in the French goal.
The French players deserve a lot of credit for not giving up, even if they didn’t get the results they wanted.
After the scoreless second period, Austria did everything in their power to keep France off the board, even at the cost of creating fewer chances of their own. The first Austrian shot on goal came at the seven-minute mark of the third period.
Rohrer was awarded a penalty shot when he was tripped on a partial breakaway. Rohrer made a deke to his backhand, and fell, but as he went down, the puck hit the shaft of his stick, which was deemed as a second shot on a video review.
In the shift that followed, Alexandre Texier and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare tic-tac-toed the puck to Jordann Perret who one-timed it in, to get France on the board, at 10.09.
That was as close as they got. Kasper made it 4-1 with an empty-netter, with 2.04 remaining in the game. Even if Bellemare made it a two-goal game just with 94 seconds remaining, with a nice redirect on Texier's shot.
“We tried hard, and got two goals, but it was too late,” said Perret.
France chased an equalizer, but Austria got the insurance they needed when Peter Schneider scored their fifth goal into an empty French net at 19.09.
Austria bagged three points, keeping them within striking distance from Slovakia, currently fourth in Group A.
Marco Kasper scored twice for Austria, goaltender David Kickert made 21 saves. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored one and added an assist for France. Jordann Perret and Alexandre Texier also collected two points.
“It was an interesting game. We came out strong, got goals early which was huge for us. It was a good win for us, and we’re happy with that. We’ll try to stay focused on the next game and not look too far ahead," Kasper said.
"We knew how important this game was, and the boys left it all on the ice. It wasn't easy with back to back games (against Canada and France) but we showed the strength of this team. We knew it was going to be an important game but to come out and play like this is incredible,” Kickert said.
Austria got off to a dream start to the game when Kasper got the puck on the blue line in the first shift. He accelerated and fired a wrister from the faceoff dot and it beat Keller on the short side just 39 seconds into the game.
Sometimes you get the bounces you need, and other days, the puck just isn’t your friend. For France, today was one of the latter days.
Austria scored their second goal on a bad bounce. Lukas Haudum came flying down the right wing and sent a cross-ice backhand pass toward the net. A French defenseman intercepted it, but the puck slipped from his blade when he was about to clear it, and instead, he set it up on a tee for Rohrer to slam it into an empty net for 2-0 at 7.58.
Austria made it 3-0 with 4.30 remaining in the first period on a similar play. This time, it was France’s goaltender Antoine Keller who came out to clear the puck, but as he was about to fire it out of the zone, the puck went between his legs, and Schnetzer lifted the puck into a wide-open net from the slot.
“I don’t know what happened today. We started badly, they scored on their first shot, and it’s hard to come back being down by three goals,” France's Pierre Crinon said.
France made a change, Quentin Papillon took Keller’s place in the French goal.
The French players deserve a lot of credit for not giving up, even if they didn’t get the results they wanted.
After the scoreless second period, Austria did everything in their power to keep France off the board, even at the cost of creating fewer chances of their own. The first Austrian shot on goal came at the seven-minute mark of the third period.
Rohrer was awarded a penalty shot when he was tripped on a partial breakaway. Rohrer made a deke to his backhand, and fell, but as he went down, the puck hit the shaft of his stick, which was deemed as a second shot on a video review.
In the shift that followed, Alexandre Texier and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare tic-tac-toed the puck to Jordann Perret who one-timed it in, to get France on the board, at 10.09.
That was as close as they got. Kasper made it 4-1 with an empty-netter, with 2.04 remaining in the game. Even if Bellemare made it a two-goal game just with 94 seconds remaining, with a nice redirect on Texier's shot.
“We tried hard, and got two goals, but it was too late,” said Perret.
France chased an equalizer, but Austria got the insurance they needed when Peter Schneider scored their fifth goal into an empty French net at 19.09.
Austria bagged three points, keeping them within striking distance from Slovakia, currently fourth in Group A.
Austria vs France - 2025 IIHF WM
OF