Purdeller gives Italy a great start to the World Cup

On Sunday, the Italian national ice hockey team played its first game at the Division 1A World Championships. They comfortably defeated Japan in Sfantu Gheorghe (Rome).

27 April 2025

From: cst

Japan was not going to be a stumbling block for the Azzurri again. Last year, the Asians had thwarted the Blue Team's promotion at the World Cup in Bolzano – a fact that still bothered Alex Trivellato and his team. At the start of this year's Division A World Cup, the Azzurri got their revenge. Italy won the match 1-4 in the state-of-the-art Sepsi Arena.

Italy's national team coach Jukka Jalonen somewhat surprisingly selected Davide Fadani in goal. Damian Clara from Reischach had to settle for the bench position – probably due to his unfortunate performance in the last friendly. And let's be clear: Fadani confirmed his call-up with a strong performance. In Clara's place, another Pustertaler shone on the ice. Wolves striker Thommy Purdeller was involved in three of Italy's four goals in the first two periods.

Purdeller is Italy's star on the ice

The 1-0 goal came early. Meran star Riku Ishida went to the penalty box after just a few seconds, and Purdeller scored on the power play to give the Azzurri the lead (3rd minute). After Alex Ierullo scored the Azzurri's second goal (8th minute), Purdeller increased the lead to 3-0 (28th minute) on a pass from his HCP teammate Mikael Frycklund. Before the siren sounded for the second time, Italy struck for the fourth time: Purdeller found Daniel Tedesco, who was on hand in the slot (37th minute). Seconds later, Japan also celebrated. Chikara Hanzawa added a power play goal to make it 4-1 (38th minute).

In the final third, the Blue Team had to conserve their energy. Japan wasn't putting enough pressure on Fadani and Co., while Italy slowed down and skillfully managed their lead.

World Cup Division 1A: Japan – Italy 1:4

JPN: Narisawa (Otsuka); Hayata-Ishida, Hiroto Sato-Halliday, Kimura-Otsu, Toko-Takada; Hanzawa-Teruto Nakajima-Yu Sato; Hirano-Shogo Nakajima-Takagi; Isogai Irikura Suzuki; Kohei Sato-Osawa-Okubo
Coach: Jarrod Skalde

ITA: Fadani (Clara); Glira-Larkin, Zanatta-Pietroniro, Trivellato-Seed, Di Tomaso; Purdeller-Frycklund-Tedesco, Ierullo-Misley-Saracino, Frigo-Mantenuto-Gazley, Mantinger-Kostner-Zanetti.
Coach: Jukka Jalonen

Gates: 0:1 Purdeller (2.25), 0:2 Ierullo (7.33), 0:3 Purdeller (27.11), 0:4 Tedesco (36.23), 1:4 Hanzawa (37.53)

Here you can read the exact course of the game in detail.