The Austrian men's national hockey team is the national ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 team for Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. The team is controlled by Österreichischer Eishockeyverband. As of 2008 the Austrian team is ranked 16th in the IIHF World Ranking

IIHF World Ranking

The IIHF World Ranking is a ranking of the national teams of member countries of the International Ice Hockey Federation.The system was approved by the IIHF congress in September 2003...

s. Austria has not won a medal in a major tournament since 1947, and has not broken 10th place since 1994. Austria currently has 8,799 registered players (0.1% of the total population). Their head coach is Bill Gilligan

Bill Gilligan

Bill Gilligan is an American professional ice hockey coach. He is also a former professional ice hockey winger who played in 128 World Hockey Association regular season games with the Cincinnati Stingers between 1977 and 1979 before moving to Europe.- Playing career :In addition to the WHA...

.

Head coach:   Bill Gilligan

Bill Gilligan

Bill Gilligan is an American professional ice hockey coach. He is also a former professional ice hockey winger who played in 128 World Hockey Association regular season games with the Cincinnati Stingers between 1977 and 1979 before moving to Europe.- Playing career :In addition to the WHA...

Austria made its first Pool A appearance in 1981, and spent several years in Pool B and Pool competition.