Tournament-high number of goals, incredible comeback and 1st overtime in the tournament. Those were the most interesting features of the Austria - New Zealand game. Eventually, Austria prevailed in overtime, when Gregor Baumgartner luckily beat Nicholas Harvey.

Game report

The crucial quarterfinal game did not start well for New Zealand. Austrian natonal ice hockey team player Gregor Baumgartner opened a score in the 18th second. Michael Coleman, a goalie with symbolic number 00, did not hold zero too long.

Shortly later, two players with foreign names - Lukas Draschkowitz i Robert Dorazil, and Coleman went to the bench. Coach Lee called time-out, sent Harvey into the goal and encouraged his mates to a better performance.

New Zealand improved its defence and cut the lead by two goals of James Trevena-Brown. The difference between both teams could be seen, but New Zealand was just one goal behind.

The quality of Austria, which had several ice hockey proffesionals on its roster, was balanced by incredible enthusiasm of New Zealand. Jensen Taiapa and Alexander Novak kept New Zealand close and the hopes of Kiwis were still alive.

Austria led 7-4 and then 9-6, but New Zealand came back and tied the game while playing with an empty net. The happy scorer was Jensen Taiapa. 109 seconds to go.

However, the dream for New Zealand did not come true. After 26 seconds of overtime, Gregor Baumgartner went into a breakaway and luckily beat Nicholas Hervey. Austria thus won 10-9 and advanced into a semifinals. "I thought the shot in one on one situation would be a good solution, and it was. I am very happy for it," said Gregor Baumgartner.

"We managed to comeback after losing by many goals. That is great, but we still lost. Now we have to concentrate on our game tomorrow," said Julian Beardman.

"We started very well, but then we made plenty of mistakes in defence. We have to work hard on that. If we improve this, we can be successful in the whole tournament," said Baumgartner.

Author: David Schlegel

Game reactions

Juergen Leibig (coach of Austria): Our young team did not play well. We made so many indvidual mistakes and played bad in defence. We did not show good play today, but luckily it was enough to advance.

Patrick Lee (coach of Team New Zealand): I am very disappointed we lost. It was very hard game for us, our players showed fantastic performance. They came back from the three goal margin, we have to build on todays plays for tomorrow.