Austria Outgun Great Britain 5-2 in Wild Opening Period

Austria opened their 2026 IIHF World Championship with a 5-2 win over Great Britain at Swiss Life Arena on Saturday afternoon, riding a three-goal first-period burst to a comfortable points haul in Group A. A crowd of 7,974 watched the Austrians outshoot the Brits 33-20.

Benjamin Nissner started the scoring at 2:50, finishing from Dominic Zwerger and Bernd Wolf. Peter Schneider made it 2-0 at 6:00 from Nissner, and Paul Huber pushed the lead to 3-0 at 9:47 with Thimo Nickl assisting. Great Britain answered before the first intermission. David Clements got one back at 15:33 from Brett Perlini and Joseph Hazeldine, and Liam Kirk struck again just 37 seconds later (16:10) from Cade Neilson and Nathanael Halbert to make it 3-2 going to the break.

The middle period belonged to Austria. Schneider netted his second of the game at 6:43 from Zwerger and Nickl to restore the two-goal cushion, and Leon Wallner sealed it at 13:27 from Wolf and Leon Kolarik for the 5-2 final. The Brits put up nine shots in a scoreless third period but could not solve David Kickert.

Kickert finished with 18 saves on 20 shots for the win. Mat Robson took the loss with 28 saves on 33 attempts.

Austria are atop Group A with three points on the strength of a plus-three goal differential, joining Finland and Switzerland on three points. Both teams are back in action Sunday at Swiss Life Arena: Great Britain meet the United States at 12:20 CET, and Austria face Hungary at 16:20 CET.