Austria make history with 1st ever victory against Finns

The Lions conceded their second defeat in the Ice Hockey World Championship 2024 as they lost to Austria by 2 goals to 3 in Prague on Thursday.

Although the Finns took lead with two early goals in the first period, Austria leveled the score with one goal in second period and another in third period and finally the third goal in the last second of the match brough the first ever victory for Austrians against the Finns.

The Lions started the match with dominating performance over Austria and Saku Maenalanen scored at the third minute to take 1-0 lead and Oliver Kapanen widened the gap at the ninth minute.

The Austrians players came back in the second period and Mario Huber sent puck into the net at 24^th minute to narrow down the gap.

Dominic Zwerger appeared to level the score in the early third period, but the referees waved it off due to a crease violation.

Later Thimo Nickl scored a goal at the 50^th minute and leveled the score 2-2 creating extra pressure on the three-time world Champion Finland.

Finally, Benjamin Baumgartner scored the winning goal with just one second left and created the history ensuring their first ever victory against Finland.

Finland will face Canada on Saturday in their next group match.

Earlier, the Lions beat Norway by 4-1 and Great Britain by 8-0 and lost to Czech Republic on tiebreaker in their group matches.