The Austrian national ice hockey team for men (also called " Team Austria " or " Team Austria ") is ranked 16th in the IIHF world rankings after the 2017 World Cup .
The Austrian Ice Hockey Association was founded in January 1912 and immediately applied for membership in the World Ice Hockey Association IIHF . This took place on March 18 of the same year. Since in the intervening February Austria took part in the European championship, which comprised only three participants, as a non-member, it was subsequently canceled.
Due to the First World War , the next international games were not played until the 1920s. In the meantime, the change from bandy to Canadian ice hockey was made in Austria . Successful years followed, in which they became champions at home in 1927 and European champions in 1931 .
After the Second World War , the Austrian team continued their successes for the time being, which culminated in the 1947 World Cup with a bronze medal. Then the team fell into a low and thus out of the A group of the national teams.
It was not until the B World Cup in 1992 that the Austrians managed to return to the class of A nations. Since the home World Cup in 2005 there has been an annual descent from and promotion to the highest class. Promotion was not achieved at the 2016 World Cup . For this, the promotion took place at the 2017 World Cup and at the 2018 World Cup Austria managed to stay up. At the 2019 men's ice hockey world championship , the national team was relegated to Division 1A as the last place in the top division.
The point list is led by Rudolf König with 183 points in 158 games, ahead of Thomas Cijan (131/132) and Herbert Pöck (128/127). With 105 goals and 78 assists , König also clearly leads the two individual ratings. The best-placed active player is Thomas Koch with 77 points in 120 games (all as of October 2012).
From 1928, the European ice hockey championships were held as part of the ice hockey world championships , with the exception of 1929 and 1932 . The European champion was the best European team and the rest of the placements were only divided into European teams.
1 After the third round, a thaw set in in Chamonix, so the games were moved to Berlin. An exception was the game for 4th place, which took place in Vienna at the request of Austria.
2 Relegation to Division I.
3 Despite 14th place, relegation, as the worse-placed Germany was automatically qualified as the 2010 host country.
4 Promotion to A World Championship / Top Division.
Special games
First game (international): Bohemia - Austria-Hungary, 5-0 (Prague, Austria-Hungary; February 4, 1912)
First win (international): Austria - Belgium, 2-0 (Štrbské Pleso, Czechoslovakia; January 11, 1925)
Highest game won: Austria 30-0 Belgium (Stockholm, Sweden; March 12, 1963)
Biggest lost game: Canada v Austria, 23-0 (Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy; January 27, 1956)
EHC Biel ( NL )
