Italy powers past Great Britain

It was always going to be a tough ask to follow up the thrilling Asian clash between South Korea and Japan, and the goals were hard to come by in the second game of Day 3 in Budapest. It did only take 61 seconds for Italy to find the back of the net though, as they caught Great Britain cold early on. Good work in the offensive zone by Trevor Johnson opened up Britain’s defence and Nathan di Casmirro finished off the play, netting from the back post. Stephen Murphy in the Great Britain net would have another busy game, and he made a number of fine stops in the first period, denying Alexander Egger and Nicola Fontanive in the seventh minute. Britain equalised at 7:23, Robert Farmer winning the puck on the half boards and wiring a wristshot which beat Adam Dennis to give him his first international goal. The rest of the period was littered with penalties, with the Italian powerplay looking menacing and Great Britain managing to hold on to the tie game through twenty minutes.

However, just as in the first period, Italy would light the lamp in the opening two minutes of the period. With time left on a Matthew Myers penalty from the first period, Italy finally made good on the man advantage. Nicola Fontanive worked the puck from the left wing, and managed to find Patrick Iannone who had drifted into the slot, who then hammered a one timer past Murphy for his third goal of the tournament. The shots were 22:9 through two periods in favour of the Italians, and the top seeds for the group fired at will in front of Murphy, but time and again the Belfast Giants netminder got in the way of the puck, his best save coming as he flashed the leather on an Armin Helfer one timer. Britain almost equalised as Mark Richardson’s point shot cannoned off of two bodies, and somehow Adam Dennis stuck out his pad and made the save as he was going the other way. The Italians piled on the pressure in the final five minutes of the period, dominating puck possession and laying siege to Murphy’s goal, but they struggled to create clear cut scoring chances, and as a result they went into the third with only a one goal lead.

However, the third period would see Italy pull away from a Great Britain side for whom relegation seems a very real possibility. Farmer had a chance to get his second goal of the game in the opening ninety seconds, but Dennis stopped his one timer, and from then on it was all one way traffic. Two goals in thirteen seconds took Italy to a 4:1 lead, as Vincent Rocco scored on a fine solo effort coming from behind the goal to then roof the puck, before great work by Nathan di Casmirro on the right wing to win the puck off Jonathan Weaver gave Italy a 2 on 1 which Markus Gander finished off. Britain were given a powerplay in the eighth minute, but Italy would go on to score shorthanded, as Daniel Sullivan bagged the rebound after Luca Felicetti elected to shoot on a 2 on 1 break. Britain struggled to muster any real chances as the clock ticked down, and they replaced Stephen Murphy in net with Ben Bowns with five minutes to go. All in all it represented a comfortable victory for the Italians, who seem to have plenty more in reserve if they need it.

Patrick Iannone, who has three goals in three games for the Italian team commented: ‘Any time you can win your first three games it’s a good feeling for sure. But we’re not finished yet and we’ve got two huge games ahead of us so we’re just taking it day by day and we’ve got to get ready for Friday now as Hungary has got great team’.

Italy have had ten players find the back of the net in their first three games, to which Iannone added, ‘We have to continue to get better, and it’s easier when everyone’s contributing, it makes everyone’s life easier’.

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