Despite all its best efforts, Italy gets hammered by Russia

After their brilliant performance against Slovakia with an overtime loss nobody could foresee before the start of the game, Italy came on today's ice with confidence. Of course, nobody was expecting an upset or, say, a great victory against one of hockey's superpowers, but the usually soccer-freak Mediterranean country was at least hyped for the game. 

Russia started strong, with speed and a lot of attacking, making the game look like an endless powerplay. The first ten minutes were nevertheless scoreless, and Freddy Cloutier, Italy's goalie, was bombed endlessly with pucks. Still, after a 2-0 for the Russians Italy was able to respond with a goal by Tommaso Traversa, who gave the Blue Team some hope. But it couldn't last longer, and Russia could go into the third period with a 5-1 lead thanks to Kuchenov, Namestnikov and Panarin. The last part of the game was a one-team show, with the Bears doing what they wanted on ice, thus scoring five times with Plotnikov, Mozyakin, Namestnikov, Panarin and Andronov.

Italy will now face Latvia on Tuesday, knowing that their third game will already be a key one in terms of relegation (or not). This could explain the choice of keeping Cloutier in front of the net for the whole duration of the game, giving some rest do Anton Bernard, Italy's main goalkeeper. On its part, Russia will face Germany tomorrow, and will probably put on another, magnificent display of skills and power.

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