Austria 4 Hungary 3 (0-3, 1-0, 2-0, 0-0, 1-0)
Sunday’s early game saw Austria and Hungary each get their first points of the tournament. The Hungarians led 3-0 after one period before Austria rallied to tie it in the last minute of regulation time and win in a shootout. Dominic Zwerger had three points in the comeback and defenceman Lukas Haudum had two points in regulation before scoring the shootout winner.
“It’s better than losing the last game,” Austrian defenceman David Reinbacher said. “We didn’t play our best in the first period, but at least we showed some character and some pride in our game and came back to win it.”
Always motivated to beat their western neighbours, Hungary stormed out of the gate.
The first goal came just past the four-minute mark. On a 3-on-2 rush, Zeteny Hadobas took the initial shot up high, which was stopped by Thomas Honeckl. However, the Austrian goalie couldn’t control the rebound and Vilmos Gallo put it in.
Hungary went up 2-0 at 11:34. Balasz Varga’s shot went wide and rebounded off the end boards and Honeckl seemed to lose track of the puck. Kristof Papp got to it before anybody else and slid it in between the post and the goalie’s skate from a sharp angle.
After allowing three goals on 10 shots, Honeckl was pulled in favour of Florian Vorauer to start the second period. Vorauer stopped all 11 shots he faced in a choppy middle frame that saw several stoppages and three power play aside.
The Austrians still seemed out of sync, which was best demonstrated midway through the period on a shorthanded two-man breakaway. Vinzenz Rohrer attempted a drop pass to an unsuspecting Zwerger, who missed the puck.
Austria finally broke through on the power play late in the second period. They moved the puck around well, with Clemens Unterwger nicely setting up a one-timer from Haudum, who beat Bence Balizs inside the far post with 1:27 to go in the period.
A much more patient and composed Austrian team came out for the third period, outshooting Hungary 14-4 and eventually getting the two goals they needed to tie it up. They drew within one goal with 8:22 remaining as David Maier set up Zwerger, who beat Balizs with a perfect shot over the glove.
The later the game got, the more the Austrians pushed and, with Vorauer on the bench for a sixth attacker, they equalized with 43.1 seconds to go. Balizs stopped Haudum’s blast from the point but couldn’t freeze it, and Zwerger reached in behind the goalie and…
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