Today at 3:00 a.m. ET, Austria and Slovenia faceoff for men's ice hockey at the Bolshoy Ice Dome in Sochi as part of the 2014 Winter Olympics. The game can be live streamed for free here.
The winner of this game will advance to within once upset victory of competing for a possible medal.
New York Islanders forward Michael Grabner has been a shining star for the Austrians thus far in the tournament. Grabner notched a hat trick in Austria's loss to Finland to open up the tournament and following a loss to Canada, he returned with two goals to spark a 3-1 win over Norway on Sunday to give him the most goals out of anyone in the tournament thus far.
Grabner has thrived on a line with Islanders teammate Thomas Vanek and Philadelphia Flyers forward Michael Raffl.
"It's nice to score goals, but I can't do it without my linemates," Grabner told the IIHF website. "They're doing a great job of finding me. I'm just trying to get open. Our line has been creating a lot of offense."
Grabner has 20 points through 56 games for the Islanders off of nine goals and 11 assists this season.
Slovenia, in its first year in the tournament, has had some success and will look to get past Austria in order to become the Cinderella story of the tournament. Slovenia upset Slovakia in Group A play and played well in losses to Russia and the United States.
Anze Kopitar is the only NHL player on the team's roster, but he's questionable to play after he left the second period on Sunday due to a stomach ailment. Kopitar scored the third goal for the team against Slovakia and Slovenia will hope to have him back into the lineup.
"We'll see," Anze's father and Slovenia coach Matjaz Kopitar told ESPN.com Sunday of his son's status. "They're going to go with the doctors now to the hospital and they're going to check his blood to see what is going on. Hopefully he's going to be ready for Game 4 which is very important for us. If we want to continue in the tournament we need to win that one. We need every single player because we don't have depth."
Kopitar has 47 points in 59 games for the Kings this season off of 17 goals and 30 assists.
Austria and Slovenia hit the ice tonight at Bolshoy Ice Dome as part of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
© Copyright 2024 Sports World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
