Ice hockey from the Black Sea: Blue Team wants a successful start to the World Cup

The Blue Team will play its opening game at the Division I, Group A World Championship in the Bozner Sparkasse Arena on Sunday at 19.30:XNUMX p.m. The opponent: Romania.

28 April 2024

From: do

On Sunday at 12.30 p.m. the time has finally come. Then the Bozner Sparkasse Arena will open its doors to international ice hockey as soon as South Korea and Slovenia open the Division I, Group A World Championship. While the sports festival continues at 16 p.m. with the game between Japan and Hungary, the fans of the Blue Team have to wait until 19.30:XNUMX p.m. when the Azzurri take the ice and overcome the first hurdle towards promotion against Romania. This means pure excitement in South Tyrol's capital and the start of a tournament that many local fans have been waiting for for a long time.

This home World Cup is an absolute highlight for ice hockey Italy, but everything is not entirely rosy for Stefan Zisser's team. As the sports director explained in an interview: “The mood in the team is good, even though the two test games this week against Hungary (5:6) and South Korea (4:3 nV) were a warning signal at hopefully the right time for everyone.” At the same time, Zisser demanded XNUMX percent commitment from his athletes in order to finally be able to master the great challenge of a climb. The chances of this are not bad for the Blue Team, and head coach Mike Pelino has all key players at his disposal.

An opponent who should not be underestimated

The first step should be taken against Romania on Sunday. A look into the history books showed a head-to-head record that clearly speaks in favor of the Azzurri, who have won all three previous games against the Eastern Europeans - in 2009 they even managed an 11-0 win. Since then, however, the players from the Black Sea country have improved considerably, despite their 2-6 defeat to Italy in Nottingham a year ago. Even back then, the Romanians played some good ice hockey.

Romania beat China 6-1 in February. © IIHF / Ian Offers

After gaining promotion in 2019 and missing the following two years due to Covid, the Romanians managed to stay in the league in 2023 thanks to a win over Lithuania. All players in the squad come from either the Romanian League or the First League. Particular caution applies to Finnish-born defenseman Matias Haaranen and striker Yevgeni Skachkov, who has already played in the KHL. The team is led by Dave MacQueen. The 65-year-old Canadian has been the coach in Romania for five seasons, having previously coached Dornbirn for seven years.