Austria stuns Latvia to make QF

Austria overwhelmed Latvia 6-1 this afternoon to claim fourth place in Group A and a spot in the quarter-finals on Thursday. It was a disappointing loss for Latvia, which had shown flashes of its bronze-medal 2023 form at various times in the tournament. For Austria, this is their first playoff appearance since 1994.

“It’s huge,” said Vinzenz Rohrer, who scored two goals for the winners. “It’s not guaranteed for us, so when we get here it’s a special thing. We take pride in this. Most of the teams say it’s about the team, but I think it really is about the team on our team. Our team chemistry is so important; I’m so happy for the boys.”

Austria now awaits the outcome of the remaining games to see who they’ll play on Thursday, but no matter their opponent, they will take the same approach as Latvia two years ago when they upset Sweden in the QF en route to a bronze medal. Who knows…?

“We had a couple of different goals at the start,” Rohrer continued. “Our first goal was to stay in the top group. But we didn’t want to think too far ahead and just control our game. We’ve done a good job of that the last couple of games. We dream of getting to the quarter-finals, and now we’ve done it’s a new challenge. It’s one game. Anything can happen. It’s the attitude you have when you come into a game against one of the big guys. What is there to lose? You’re there now. You try your best.”

“It’s tough to judge now with our emotions about what went wrong, but I give credit to Team Austria,” Latvian cpatain Kaspars Daugavins said. “They showed the whole tournament they deserve to be in the quarter-finals. They went out and pushed us into their hockey and they achieved their goal. It was hard to change them during the game.”

The game started with caution, both teams realizing a quarter-finals berth was at stake. And both goalies were sharp when they needed to be. Kristers Gudlevskis, making his sixth start, was tested first, but he stopped captain Thomas Raffl from in close.

Soon after Vinzenz Rohrer took the puck to the net and almost swatted in his own rebound, and Dans Locmelis had a good chance from close range for the Latvians. Latvia got the first power play and were effective with the extra player, but David Kickert stood tall for Austria.

The only goal of the period came on a fortuitous play for Austria. They were playing short-handed, with Dominic Zwerger in the penalty box. As his penalty neared expiration, Latvian forward Martins Dzierkals,…