nun gibt es sogar einen artikel über das österreichische hockey auf https://www.eishockeyforum.at/www.nhl.com
finde es cool dass sogar auf nhl.com zu der wichtigen zeit über das österreichische hockey gesprochen wird.
Austrians stride forward in
North American, international play
By Bill Meltzer | NHL.com correspondent
June 8, 2006
Pop quiz: Can you name the European countries with the most representatives among the 262 European-born players who suited up in the NHL in 2005-2006?
Even if you couldn't arrange them in order, chances are you breezed through the top seven: Czech Republic (65 NHLers), Russia (51), Sweden (46), Finland (39), Slovakia (32), Germany ( , and Switzerland (4). But few fans realize that Austria is next with three players, tied with former Soviet countries Latvia and Belarus.
Likewise, while most fans of international hockey know Austria hosted the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championships last year -- finishing 16th and falling to Division 1 play this year -- relatively few paid much heed while the Austrians utterly dominated their pool last month at the 2006 Division 1 World Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, to regain a spot at the top level next year. Playing a gritty, straight-ahead style similar to North American-influenced style of Team Germany, Austria finished with a perfect 5-0-0 record, outscoring their opponents by a combined 27-9 and winning every game by at least two goals.
The fact the Austrians were the pre-tournament favorite to win the tournament (also featuring host-nation Estonia, Poland, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Croatia), doesn't take away from the impressive accomplishment. When you haven't won a medal in a major international tournament since 1947 or ranked in the IIHF Top 10 in a dozen years, progress must be measured in smaller increments.
The timing of the Division 1 tournament (April 23- 29) forced the Austrians to play without some their top players -- including Buffalo Sabres left wing Thomas Vanek, offensive-minded AHL and New York Rangers defenseman Thomas Pöck. Only St. Louis Blues' backup and Peoria Rivermen starting goalie Reinhard Divis was able to play in the tournament for Austria. Austria also lacked ex-Minnesota Wild left wing Christoph Brandner (who played for Södertälje SK in Sweden this season), former Philadelphia Flyers draftee and college hockey goaltending standout Bernd Bruckler and promising young right wing Michael Grabner, who scored 36 goals for the WHL's Spokane Chiefs this season. Even at the IIHF Division 1 level, that's a lot of talent missing from a roster already thin on frontline talent.
Austrian exodus
Austria's top domestic hockey league, currently called the Erste Bank Liga, is rarely regarded as a top destination for talent. While the league does feature a sprinkling of former NHLers such as Todd Elik, Bob Wren and Daniel Gauthier, the overall level of competition in the seven-team league is relatively modest. The caliber of play is roughly equal to the top lower divisions elsewhere in Europe.
Teams in Austria are limited to five imports, defined as any player not carrying an Austrian passport, with the exception of foreign-born players previously recruited to play junior hockey in Austria. In a country with just 8,800 registered hockey players (a miniscule 0.1% of the population), promising young Austrian players can earn senior-level roster spots sooner than their counterparts in most European countries. For example, forward Matthias Trattnig, drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in the fourth round of the 1998 draft and goaltender Bruckler each cracked the Graz EC (now Graz 99ers) lineup at the tender age of 16.
On the other hand, to truly impress scouts and propel themselves into candidacy for a career in North American hockey or the top leagues in Europe, almost all of the top Austrian juniors find it necessary to leave the country as teenagers to join American colleges, Canadian junior programs or more highly regarded leagues elsewhere in Europe. Trattnig, Bruckler, and Buffalo's Vanek, who scored 25 goals as a rookie this season after parlaying an athletic scholarship at the University of Minnesota into a first-round draft selection (fifth overall) are perhaps the most well-known examples.
"When I grew up, my dad played pro, so right from the time I about three or four, I had a hockey dream," Vanek explained to NHL.com shortly after being drafted by Sabres.
Austrian forward Andreas Nödl is the latest to attempt to duplicate Vanek's success. In fact, he's trying to follow the path to the letter. Nödl was a first-team all star this for Sioux Falls in the USHL, the same team Vanek played for before joining University of Minnesota. A potential mid-round selection in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, Nödl will play for St. Cloud State University next season, where he'll be coached by Bob Motzko, Vanek's former coach in Sioux Falls and University of Minnesota.
"I talked to Thomas Vanek about coach Motzko and he said he was an unbelievable coach who is very offensive minded," said Nodl to Foxsports. "I know it's a great school and I love the fact that they play on an Olympic-sized rink. I'm really looking forward to playing there next year."
Meanwhile, center Oliver Setzinger, a Nashville Predators third-round pick in 2001 and crafty left wing Thomas Koch took alternate European routes to prominence. Setzinger, who returned to Austria this season, left for Ilves Tampere's junior program in Finland at age 20, while the later-blooming Koch (the Austrians' top scorer at the 2006 Worlds with five goals and 10 points in five games), left Klagenfurt AC at age 21 to play for Luleå HF in Sweden's Elitserien.
The common thread in almost every case: each players' breakthrough came outside of their homeland. It's a situation the Oesterreichischer Eishockeyverband (Austrian Ice Hockey Federation) would love to change.
"The talent base must be made broader, with a focus on results at the World Under-18 and Under-20 championships," says OEHV president Dieter Kalt Sr. to the Austrian Federation's official site http://eishockey.at. "It's absolutely necessary to get young players the practice time and direct experience. Otherwise, you can't expect things to get better in the future."
But some outside observers remain skeptical of Austria's ability to keep its best young talent at home long enough to see their development come to full fruition.
"It's all about sponsor funding and public support," says German sports writer Thomas Mueller. "In Germany, young players have a hard time earning meaningful ice time in the DEL, but those who do experience a high caliber of opponents and teammates. Many of the teams are well-funded and well-supported -- Köln, Mannheim and Hamburg had three of the five best attendance figures in Europe this year. The overall level of coaching is also somewhat higher, at least by reputation, but I think you have to be careful about assuming bigger 'name' coaches automatically means better instruction. In Austria, however, the teams don't have as much ability to invest in hockey development infrastructure. Either way, both the Austrians and ourselves trail the best hockey countries in developing talent."
Chemistry takes shape
To fill the roster holes left by the absences of some of the better Austrian players and to instill veteran leadership, Austria's Italian-born head coach Giacinto "Jim" Boni and general manager Giuseppe Mion once again recruited four veteran Canadian-born players competing in the Erste Bank Liga to suit up for Team Austria at the 2006 World Championships: 34-year-old defenseman Mike Stewart (a one time New York Rangers first-round pick and a former member of the Canadian national team), 30-year-old defenseman Jeremy Rebek, 31-year-old former Columbus Blue Jacket left wing Sean Selmser and 29-year-old forward Mark Szucs.
Combined with Divis, Koch, Trattnig, Setzinger, hulking former New Jersey Devils defense prospect Andre Lakos and forward Dieter Kalt Jr., these players formed the nucleus of Austria's 2006 World Championships team.
"There was a healthy chemistry from the start, and it's a super feeling to have earned our ascent (in the World Championships) together. We already look forward to all the forthcoming tasks together," said 24-year-old Team Austria forward Johannes Reichel, who played for Klagenfurt during the Erse Bank Liga season.
In Austria's opening game of the five-match round robin, the team took on Croatia, the weakest nation in the pool, drubbing the badly overmatched Croats 6-0 on the scoreboard and out-shooting them 6-0. In the second period alone, Austria put four pucks behind beleaguered Croatia goalie Vanja Belic. The Croatian keeper kept his team close for the first 20 minutes, trailing only 1-0, but the floodgates sprung open in the second stanza when Koch scored two goals in a span of a few seconds. While Austrian goaltender Divis was rarely tested, he was forced to stone Tomislav Grozaj on a pair of clean breakaways.
The next contest, against Estonia, proved to be a somewhat tougher challenge. Once again, Austria dominated the shot totals (this time by a 50-17 margin) but this time found themselves trailing 1-0 after the first period. In the middle frame, Selmser tied the game 1-1 on the power play, batting a loose puck goalie Aleksei Terentiev. Then, with just six seconds left in the period, Stewart fired a tracer of a wrist shot past the goalie for what proved to be the winner. Selmser later added an empty net goal to seal the game 3-1 late in the third period.
Lithuania was up next. Boni cautioned his team not to be overconfident, especially in light of Lithuania's shocking 2-1 upset of Poland the previous day. Nevertheless, the Austrians got off to a slow start, and the determined Lithuanians held leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 before the Austrians, keyed by their power play, stormed back to win 5-3 after giving up what seemed to be a deflating shorthanded goal while on a 5-on-3 power play. As the game see-sawed, Rebek tied the score at 2-2, and Trattning equalized the game at 3-3. Finally, Daniel Welser (who played in Sweden for Skellefteå this season) scored what proved to be the winning goal at 5:14 of the third period, Koch closed out the scoring with an empty net goal. Austria out-shot Lithuania 57-18.
In the penultimate game, Austria hammered the Netherlands, 8-2, as backup goaltender Gert Prohaska, a former St. Cloud St. and West Coast Hockey League, manned the pipes for the Austrians. Before the game was even four minutes old, Marco Pewal and Johannes Reichel scored to put Austria ahead 2-0. Trattning then scored a pair of goals in the middle period and Mark Szucs further padded the lead to 5-2. In the final period, Austria scored a pair of shorthanded goals on the same penalty kill, as Trattning assisted on the first and scored the second to complete the hat track.
Austria's destruction of the Dutch meant a tie or win against Poland would clinch the tournament and an elite-division spot for the 2007 IIHF World Championship in Russia. "It will be a clash between two styles," said Boni to IIHF.com. "The Poles play a skilled game, while we try to go more straight to the net. Discipline will play a big part. This is what we have been looking for all along."
Having played both teams, Dutch coach Doug Mason had no trouble picking a winner in the final showdown "My money is on Austria," he said. "The game will be decided by grit and toughness and I think that the Austrians have more of that."
Sure enough, Austria took control early against Poland, which featured longtime NHLer Mariusz Ckerkawski. At the 1:54 mark, Koch swooped around from behind the net and tucked the puck past Polish goaltender Rafal Radziszewski. Six minutes later, a Polish turnover in the neutral zone six allowed Rebek to gain the zone, wind up for a full slap shot and overpower the goaltender. Befre the end of the first period, an Andre Lakos goal made the score 3-1, chasing Radziszewski from the net. Poland narrowed the gap to 3-2 in the second period, before Walser backhanded in a rebound for the decisive 4-2-goal in the final period. A Poland power-play goal with less than two minutes to play cut the lead back to a single goal, but Koch soon sealed the victory with an empty net goal.
A small but vocal contingent of 150 Austrian fans who made the trip to Tallinn for the tournament sent their victorious squad off with a raucous standing ovation.
"I see it as a confirmation of what a highlight this tournament was for ice hockey in Austria," said Mion to the Austrian hockey official site. "We're proud of our fans and on behalf of the entire team, I'd like to say thank you."
"We deserved to win this group. We were the best team in the tournament," added Boni. "Back in the top division, we will again be hunted. Here in Tallinn, we were the hunters."
Related Links:
Across the Pond archive
Austrians abroad
Many of the best Austrian hockey players ply their trade in other hockey countries rather than the seven-team Erste Bank Liga at home. Here is a partial directory of Austrian players in various foreign-based hockey leagues in 2005-2006.
NHL
Thomas Vanek LW Buffalo Sabres
Thomas Pöck D New York Rangers
(and Hartford Wolfpack of the AHL)
Reinhard Divis G St. Louis Blues
(and Peoria Rivermen of the AHL)
North American Minor Leagues
(non-AHL)
Florian Iberer D Elmira Jackals (UHL)
Matthias Iberer F Fairbanks Ice Dogs (NAHL)
CHL
(OHL, QMJHL, WHL)
Michael Grabner F Spokane Chiefs/WHL
Raffael Rotter F Guelph Storm/OHL
NCAA/USHL/other U.S.
college-track programs
Andreas Nödl F Sioux Falls Stampede (USHL)
Matthias Lange G RPI (NCAA)
Lukas Friedl D Hobart College
Taylor Holst F Okanagan Hockey Academy
Finland
Bernd Bruckler G Espoo Blues
(SM-Liiga)
Mario Fischer F Lukko Rauma Jrs.
(SM-Liiga track)
Sweden
Thomas Koch F Luleå Bears (Elitserien)
Daniel Welser F Skellefteå (Elitserien)
Michael Schiechl F Leksands IF Jrs.
(now Allsvenskan track)
Germany
Christoph Brandner F Hamburg Freezers (DEL)
Switzerland
Martin Ulmer F ZSG Z?rich
(National League)
Matthias Fussenegger D HC Lugano
(National League)
