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CANADA RALLIES TO TIE AUSTRIA

unbedingt lesen, ist köstlich, dazu little Interview mit Reinhard Divis und Supertalent Vanek.

[QUOTE]Code

Yeah :bigsmile:

Ach ja und hier ist er:

Canada rallies for tie vs. Austria

By Alan Adams
PRAGUE -- Thomas Vanek called it the most important game in Austria's long hockey history and he wasn't exaggerating.

Austria came close to pulling off a major upset Sunday but Canada rallied with a pair of third-period goals for a 2-2 tie at the World Hockey Championship.

Canada humiliated Austria 23-0 at the 1956 World Championship and beat the Austrians 5-1 in their last meeting at this tournament in 1998. The Austrians went into the game 0-16-2 against Canada and have been outscored 112-21, but the previous scores are a wash in Vanek's mind.

"This is huge in Austria," he said.

One of the reasons is for the fact that Austria hosts the world tournament next year.

"It is good for kids back home and kids growing up," said Vanek, who was the fifth-overall pick by the Buffalo Sabres last June. He plays for the University of Minnesota. "It gives them hope that we are getting better and we can play with the big teams."

The Canadians came out and dominated the first couple of minutes of the game and the Austrian plan was simple.

"We just kept icing the pick and icing the puck to get them off their game," said goalie Reinhard Divis of the St. Louis Blues. "Then we got our game together."

The Austrian forecheck was close to perfection and the Canadians didn't get a lot in the way in scoring chances during the first two periods.

With the 2005 tournament set for Vienna, the Austrians, who are ranked 12th in the world, have their youngest team ever at this tournament and it is obvious they have come a long way in a short period.

"I think Austria is excited," said Vanek. "The game was on live television and our fans were great."

The Austrian fans definitely enjoyed themselves throughout the match. They sang from the opening face-off and never let up for an instance. When their hockey heroes went ahead 2-0, they were hugging each other in the stands and high-fives were much in demand.

The Canadians know they will have to do better. The only thing in a way of an excuse they offered was they are just starting to get their act together as a team. The Canadians have received major reinforcements in the last two days, with six players arriving from North America.

Scott Niedermayer stepped off the plane Sunday morning, joined the team at the arena where he was handed his "A" for alternate captain and played a regular shift plus the power play.

"I just wanted to play," said Niedermayer.

The Canadians took their share of penalties, which played another card into Austria's plan because rather than play five-on-five and take the game to the Austrians, the Canucks had to kill them off those penalties.

"All that happens is they are just getting the momentum and you can't take penalties," said head coach Mike Babcock, who is replacing an ill Joel Quenneville. "You can take penalties because you had to break up a goal but you can't take offensive-zone penalties.

"We have some work to do and we know that. But the one thing is our guys got the message tonight. Everybody has a chance. Everyone at the international stage can beat you and everybody is prepared to play Canada so we had better have our A game."

In Sunday's other games, Daniel Alfredsson of the Ottawa Senators stepped off the plane and had a goal and two assists in Sweden's 5-1 win against Japan. Alexei Yashin of the New York Islanders had a goal in a 6-2 win against Denmark and Switzerland beat France 6-0.

France plays Canada on Wednesday and goalie Cristobal Huet of the Los Angeles Kings has an idea what to expect.

"We don't have a chance and we know it," he said.

Ryan Smyth, who was named Team Canada captain on Sunday, is playing in his sixth consecutive world championship and he wasn't shocked that the Austrians gave the defending world champions a game.

Smyth said there was never a sense of panic on the bench when the Austrians went ahead by a pair.

"We made sure we were calm and collected to gather our thoughts and we did not panic," he said. "We battled hard at the end and we had some opportunities to go ahead."

But Smyth has seen this show before, He was in Finland a couple of years ago when Denmark and Canada tied 2-2 and he also played on the 2000 team in Russia, which lost 4-3 to Norway.

"I think a lot of teams have improved but you to have to look at that this was our first morning skate as team so to jell together this quick is tough to do."

Andre Lakos put Austria on the scoreboard at 15:39 of the first period when his wrist shot deflected off defenseman Willie Mitchell and over Roberto Luongo's catching glove.

Vanek doubled Austria's lead to 2-0 midway through the second, his wrist shot from the high slot beating a screened Luongo to the top left corner.

Canada finally solved the Austrians in the third.

Matt Cooke of the Vancouver Canucks beat Divis with a slap shot while Canada played shorthanded at 10:36 of the third period. Then Dany Heatley deftly slid a rebound from beside the net under Divis at 15:17.

NOTES: Vanek is the leading scorer after two days of competition. He has one goal and five points. . . . Joel Quenneville remained under doctor's care and Canadian officials are hoping he is well enough to fly home Tuesday night. Quenneville stepped down as Canada's head coach on Saturday because he was exhausted. . . . Latvia is scheduled to be host to the 2007 world tournament but there's a problem. "There is no rink," says IIHF president Rene Fasel. What he meant by that is there is no arena that meets IIHF standards for world championships.

Ja, muss dir recht geben.

Wär doch ein fahrlässige Aktion unser Wunderkind nicht unter Vertrag zu nehmen. Ich kannte ihn vorher nur von diversen Berichten, aber nach diesen zwei Matches die ich live im Fernsehen gsehen hab > Hut ab, man glaubt es spielt ein Patrik Elias oder ein Sakku Koivu, doch ACHTUNG.

Thomas Vanek, austrian boy. Weiter so, dann wird was ganz großes aus ihm.