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hockeyis66 · 01-08-2016, 11:14 AM

**ready to be graded**

Coming from the Netherlands, Vader was a free agent so to speak on the international level and after tweeting out that he was looking for an IIHF team to join, he received several offers reaching out to him to join a country.

Austria

After going back and forth and discussing each country’s future and possible management opportunities, Vader decided to join little known Austria for international competitions. Why Austria one may ask since they are ranked last in the SHL out of 12 countries? The opportunity is there for a country like Austria to get a few active players back into the fold and grow back into a powerful international hockey team. Vader decided to help get Austria going back in the right direction and take it upon himself to help make Austria better. Austria

Vader’s goal is to eventually become part of the management team in Austria and be vocal about getting more players into the Austrian hockey program.
It will certainly be a tough task and one that Vader will not do on his own as Austria does have some younger players that will be able to step up as well in Feist, Wachter and Berger who will hopefully be Austria’s goalie for the long term.

Also, with rumors circulating that at least one member of the Vader household potentially joining the SHL here soon, Austria could gain at least one other member especially since they just lost Lehner to retirement unforetunately. Although the new Vader may not be a high end TPE earner, he could very be another active body into the Austrian system. Since he is looking at being an offensive defenseman, could we see the two Vaders on the same pairing? And who knows, maybe one day, the son will take over for the father (no cutting off of my hand is necessary).

The hype for Austria is real and Vader is going to do his best to get more players to consider Austria as either their birth country or as an unassigned or assigned transfer. If someone is not happy about being buried on another country’s depth and may not get to play for their country for several seasons, Austria will be a prime destination. Austria will also be willing to take on other players from countries outside of the 12 currently in the IIHF as well. Getting the right players and depth into Austria will be key and even if seasons from now, Austria maxes out as #5 or #6 in the world, the work being done here in the next couple of seasons will be considered a success.

Even though the previous IIHF tournament didn’t go well, lets take a look at the 10 games Austria played in:

Canada

Game 1 vs Canada: Anytime you play the #1 team in the world and it’s the first game of the round robin, its going to be a tough matchup. Canada was up 2 to 1 after the first and 5 to 2 after two periods en route to a 6 to 2 drubbing of the Austrians. Brojled and Flamel scored the Austrian goals. Vader was a -1 in the game with one shot and one shot block in a whopping 26 minutes of action.

Usa

Game 2 vs USA: The teams exchanged goals in the first, second and third periods as the game ended in a 4 to 4 tie at the end of regulation. Bursyuk scored two goals and Kinsler and Flamel each had one. Vader was even in the contest with one shot, one hit and 2 shot blocks in 27 minutes. Neither team scored in overtime as the game went into a shootout. After both teams scored once, USA’s Manning was stopped and Flamel scored for Austria to give them the win. Berger made 29 saves.

Usa

Game 3 vs USA: The return game did not go very well for Austria as the Americans won the game 5 to 0. Austria could only muster 23 shots on goal. The Americans scored 3 power play goals and Ciarelli got the shutout. Vader was a -2 in the game with 4 PIMs (USA scored on one of those power plays) and four hits in 24 minutes.

Norway

Game 4 vs Norway: The Norweigns jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first before Austria made it 2 to 1 after one and then scored both goals in the second period to take a 3 to 2 lead into the third period for the first time in the tournament. Norway tied it early in the third but King scored the game winner on the power play for Austria to give them their first regulation win of the tournament. Flamel and Brojled also scored for Austria and Berger made 23 saves. Vader was a -1 with 2 PIMs, one shot, two hits and two shot blocks in 24 minutes.

Canada

Game 5 vs Canada: The return game against the Canadiens was much closer than the first game as Canada won the game 4 to 3 after being down 3 to 2 early in the third period. Canada opened the game with two power play goals and then closed the scoring with two goals just 32 seconds apart early in the third after Austria took the lead. Lehner, Kinsler and Langabeer scored for Austria as Berger took the loss in goal by making 29 saves. Vader was even in 25 minutes with 2 PIMs, one shot, four hits and two shot blocks. He has been held pointless through the first half of the round robin portion of the tournament.

Sweden

Game 6 vs Sweden: Similar to the last Canada game, Sweden scored the first two goals of the game before Austria scored three straight goals to start the third period and take a 3 to 2 lead. 2 of those 3 goals were scored on the power play. However, Sweden would score two power play goals of their own just 30 seconds apart and win the game 4 to 3 over Austria. Those goals were scored on a double minor slashing penalty against Austrian defenseman Jordan. Berger played another amazing game in defeat by making 24 saves. Vader was a -2 in just under 25 minutes of action with one hit and three shot blocks.

Norway

Game 7 vs Norway: Another exciting match against Norway as the teams tied at 5 to 5 through regulation. Austria was up 3 to 2 after the first and 5 to 3 after the second, but Norway shut the Austrians down in the third period while scoring two goals to tie the game. Neither team scored in overtime and Cunningham scored the only goal in the shootout to give Norway the 6 to 5 win. Langabeer, Brojled, Bursyuk, Lehner and King all scored for Austria with Vader getting his first international point on King’s goal. Vader was also a -1 in the game with 4 PIMs, 2 hits and one shot block in 26 minutes.

Germany

Game 8 vs Germany: The Germans scored two goals in the first and two goals in the second as they held Austria to just 15 shots and one goal in a 4 to 1 win. The lone Austrian goal was scored by Kinsler and Berger made 9 saves on 13 shots before being pulled in favor of Kubicky who stopped all 16 he faced. Vader played just over 23 minutes and was a -2 with 2 PIMs, two shots, two hits and two shot blocks against the IIHF Finalists.

Sweden

Game 9 vs Sweden: Sweden dominated the game in shots 35 to 21 but Berger made 32 saves as Austria lost the game 3 to 1. Lehner scored the only goal of the game for Austria as Vader got his second assist of the tournament. Vader was still a -1 in the game with 4 PIMs, six hits and one shot block.

Germany

Game 10 vs Germany: The Germans scored two in the first and two in the second period to take a commanding 4 to 1 lead into the third period where both teams would score a goal as Germany won the game 5 to 2. Kinsler and Bursyuk scored the Austrian goals as they were outshot 34 to 20 in the game. Berger made 14 saves on 18 shots while Kubicky made 15 saves on 16 shots in relief. In the final game of the tournament, Vader played 26 minutes and was a -1 with 2 PIMs, two hits and two shot blocks.

Austria

Austria finished in 6th place in Group A out of six countries with a record of 2-7-1 which was good for 6 points and was 6 points behind 5th place finisher Norway. Austria scored 26 goals (tied for 10th best) and gave up 44, which was the worst in the tournament by 11 goals. We also lost our final 6 games of the tournament and only had one win in regulation time. Austria

In the 10 games, Vader did not score a goal and had two assists for two points. He was also a team worst -11 while averaging over 25 minutes per game. He also had 20 PIMs, 24 hits, 16 shot blocks and 6 shots on goal in the tournament. It was definitely a good experience to measure my myself against the best players in the world and see what areas of my game I need to work on as I join the SHL. I definitely got tired toward the end of the tournament as I am not use to playing 25ish minutes a game and that definitely hurt my defensive coverage and I took lazy penalties, but I learned a lot and look forward to the next tournament.

Towel