Ice Hockey World Cup: The dream of promotion has shattered

Italy attacked the outsider like a fire engine. Mair's team had 16:3 shots on goal after the first 20 minutes. And one of the last attempts resulted in the opening goal by Luca Frigo (19.34). After a shot from Anton Bernard, the Valpellice attacker stood in the right place and poked the hard rubber disc over the line. Before that, the Blue Team's attackers had failed in succession against Yutaka Fukufuji. The Japanese goalie surpassed himself time and time again.

Italy also started very actively in the second half of the game. Ramoser missed his first good opportunity in the early stages. But gradually the Asians got better and better into the game. From close range, Go Tanaka missed the possible equalizer, which fell to the alert Bernard.

The Blue Team is fading

In the middle of the second period, Frigo had the best opportunity to make it 2-0, but in the man-to-man duel he lost his nerve in front of Fukufuji. A little later, Trivellato had to go to the penalty box, but the Japanese team coached by Mark Mahon didn't have more than one chance for Nishiwaki.

Shortly before the end of the middle third, the cold shower followed. In the 39th minute, Mei Ushu shot from the blue line at the goal guarded by Andreas Bernard and the puck landed exactly in the top corner. Bernard's view was blocked when the Japanese defender finished. An equalizer that was not undeserved, as the Asians were the more active team in the second 20 minutes. This is also reflected in the shot ratio, which was 14:5 in their favor.

Armin Helfer received a time penalty seven seconds before the siren. Therefore, Italy had to play with one man less at the beginning of the final third and Japan had a good chance with Tanaka. Afterwards, when Italy was full again, Bernard gave away a top-class player.

Catastrophic defensive errors

The second Italian goal came in the 48th minute. Ramoser got past the boards, shot, Fukufuji let the rebound go, Ihnacak also got caught by the Japanese goalkeeper before Ramoser's second attempt found the net. It was Ramoser's first goal in Poland.

Takahashi could have equalized straight away, but Bernard was in the post. The game remained exciting. Italy pushed for the preliminary decision, but Japan also repeatedly appeared dangerously in front of the opponent's goal. And after a counterattack, the “Azzurri” equalized through Yanardori. But things got even worse, because after a hair-raising mistake from Sullivan, the young Hirano scored to make it 3-2 for Asians. Within 70 seconds, Japan had completely turned the tide.

One minute before the end, coach Stefan Mair took goalie Andreas Bernard off the ice for a sixth skater - in vain. It remained a 3-2 victory for the Japanese, who celebrated for the first time at this World Cup. For Italy, however, their dream of promotion to the top division has finally shattered after Hungary's victory against Ukraine.

Japan -Italy 3:2 (0:1, 1:0, 2:1)

Gates: 0:1 Luca Frigo (19.34), 1:1 Mei Ushu (38.48), 1:2 Joachim Ramoser (47.24), 2:2 Shinya Yanadori (55.56), 3:2 Yushiroh Hirano (57.06)

The other games from Thursday, April 23, 2015:

Ukraine - Hungary 2:4 Kazakhstan - Poland 3-2

The table: 1. Kazakhstan 12 points (20:6 goal difference) 2. Hungary 9 (12:10) 3. Poland 6 (8:7) 4. Italy 5 (7:9) 5. Japan 3 (7:15) 6. Ukraine 1 (7:14)

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Ice Hockey World Cup: The dream of promotion has shattered

The Italian national ice hockey team suffered a bitter defeat against Japan on Thursday afternoon. The 2:3 in the Tauron Arena in Krakow put an end to the “Blue Team’s” promotion dreams.

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