“One challenge that I see and keep coming up with is our goalkeeper situation,” said team manager Roger Bader after the narrow 4-3 win over Hungary in the penalty shootout, expressing his greatest concern with regard to the upcoming 2024 World Cup in the Czech Republic. “I’m very happy with the goalkeepers we had here and I hope they’ll be there next year too – although I’m not sure about that,” said the Swiss, referring to his trio of Bernhard Starkbaum, David Kickert and David Madlener.
Because the expiry date of Austria’s current team goalies is getting closer. The 37-year-old Starkbaum left it open in the catacombs of the Nokia Arena in Tampere whether he will wear his number 29 team jersey again next year. At 31, Madlener is no longer an up-and-coming talent, and at 29, Kickert is also soon leaving the 30s age range. Younger reinforcements in perhaps the most important position in ice hockey are not necessary.
Relief after relegation
After the dramatic victory against Hungary, Austria’s ice hockey team was able to celebrate relegation at the A World Championships in Finland.
Goalies without practice
But that’s not due to a lack of players, but to a lack of prospects – especially in the ICE Hockey League. Of the three current team goalies, only Starkbaum had that status with the Vienna Capitals, at least in the regular season, which is called number one. In the play-off, however, the native of Vienna slipped behind Stefan Steen of Sweden. Kickert and Madlener were generally only substitutes for Champions Salzburg and the Vorarlberg Pioneers.
“We can’t play a World Cup with Vorarlberg’s backup goalie, Salzburg’s backup goalie and a goalkeeper who wasn’t number one in the play-offs anymore. No nation has that. They have no match practice,” said team boss Bader and painted a bleak picture: “If that doesn’t change, maybe Starkbaum stops and one of the other two gets injured, then good night.” Worrying: Starkbaum and Kickert finished in the league at 55 Playing together only one more than the Swiss “one” Leonardo Genoni at EV Zug alone.
Possible candidates would be 23-year-old Florian Vorauer, who has already been called up to the national team, or his colleague Ali Schmidt, who is the same age. But Vorauer is standing in the way of the experienced Dane Sebastian Dahm at KAC, Schmidt turned down an offer from Villacher SV after they had given him little chance of appearances in the top flight. “We have good goalkeepers, but they have to play,” said Bader. He himself could not make any demands on the clubs: “But it will be a big problem.”
Naturalization as an unpopular alternative
A look at the statistics for the past World Cup group phase shows how important a good goalkeeper is in the concert of the greats. Austria’s goalkeepers together only had a catch rate of 86.43 percent. They were just behind relegated Hungary (86.93) and just ahead of France (85.45) in number 15 out of 16 nations. If Madlener hadn’t saved more than 92 percent of shots in his only game against Finland, Austria would probably be last in this statistic.
At his possibly last World Cup, Starkbaum showed his routine and class only in extra time and in the penalty shoot-out against Hungary. Before that, the Capitals goalkeeper rarely reminded of the man who, among other things, recorded the sensational first victory over the Czech Republic with his saves last year. Kickert was also unable to match his form from 2022 this time. For comparison: Genoni, as the best goalkeeper of the tournament so far, saved almost 97 percent of the shots in three appearances.
This time things went well again, said Bader: “But if this situation doesn’t change, we won’t be in the A group for long.” An alternative to training young goalies would be a variant from the past: naturalizing goalkeepers. “I’ve always been against naturalization, but you have to think about that too,” said Bader, adding in the wake of staying up: “Fortunately we won, because then maybe you’ll listen to me.”
Offensive potential is there
Apart from the goalkeeper problem, the potential for a long-term dance at A-level would definitely be given, despite clearly expandable youth work. Above all, the young defence, in which Dominique Heinrich, who retired near Salzburg, was by far the oldest at 32, gives reason for hope. The 18-year-old also proved in the last two games which diamond in the rough and which reinforcement David Reinbacher is with a splint on his injured left knee.
Even in the storm, Austria’s fans don’t have to be afraid. Marco Rossi improved from game to game in Tampere, probably also to the delight of his bosses from the Minnesota Wild from the National Hockey League (NHL). The 21-year-old scored his first World Cup goal against Hungary and was the best Austrian scorer at the tournament with six points. With 19-year-old Marco Kasper, also under contract in the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings, and 22-year-old Benjamin Baumgartner, two young attackers were missing, as was NHL-hardened Michael Raffl due to injuries.
In any case, Bader will have printed out a statistic before the team leaves on Wednesday and may have distributed it to his players. When it comes to powerplay, Austria was the clear number one at the 2023 World Cup. Bader’s boys scored five of their eleven goals in twelve overtime opportunities. With a power play rate of 41.67 percent, the Austrians were the clear number one in the preliminary round. Speaking of twelve: Austria was also first with the lowest number of power plays.