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Italy avoids World Para Hockey relegation with win over Norway

With 3-1 victory, Italy to finish second in Group B and play in quarter-finals; Norway and Germany relegated to B Pool

Heading into their match-up with Norway at the World Para Hockey Championship on Wednesday afternoon, Team Italy faced the most pressure of any team in the tournament thus far.

Either win or find yourself relegated to the B Pool next season.

But like they did 24 hours earlier in their epic 1-0 shootout win over Germany, Italy managed to come up huge.

Stephan Kaffman scored the eventual game-winner 5:06 into the third period and Italy would go on to a 3-1 victory, booking their spot in the quarter-final and -- most importantly -- ensuring they will remain in the A Pool for the 2024 World Championship.

“I’m so happy. I’m so happy for the team, I’m so happy for the players,” said Italy coach Mirko Bianchi. “We knew that when we arrived here that it was going to be a difficult world championship, and starting with China was good for us because we knew our focus would be on the other two games. We tried to do our best and we fought really well in the second and third games and I’m just so proud of the players to win such an important game.”

Christoph Depaoli opened scoring for Italy with the lone goal of the second period before Kaffman extended the lead to 2-0. Audun Bakke got Norway back within one, with nine minutes to play, but Andrea Macri restored the two-goal lead three minutes later, and that’s where things would finish.

“We knew that today was the day, that it was the match we had to win,” Depaoli said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy one, but luckily we won… We played very good, and Santino our goaltender had an extraordinary performance, it was just a really good game and we’re so happy to win.”

Italy goaltender Santino Stilitano picked up where he left off in his team’s epic win a day earlier, stopping 21 shots to give his team a chance to win.

“They shot more than us, but we played good defence and our goalie was great,” Bianchi said. “Everybody was trying not to make a mistake or give a present to the other team and the guys did enough to win.”

Unfortunately, the nature of international hockey means someone had to be relegated.

In 2023, that will be Norway and Germany after they finished in third and fourth place in Group B.

Norway veteran Jan Roger Klakegg didn’t mince words with the disappointing turn of events.

“We didn’t play good enough, so we didn’t deserve any better,” Klakegg said. “We wanted to show that it was a mistake going down into the B Group, but we didn’t show it, and its not like we wanted. There were too many mistakes, we didn’t follow the gameplan and that’s what happens when you do that… we learned a lesson today and we have to step up.”

Team Norway coach Ken Babey felt that his crew played well against Italy, but a few too many mistakes at bad times led to Italy pulling away.

“There were moments I thought we played very well, and there were moments we made some mistakes with the puck that led two or three of the goals,” Babey said. “Italy played very well, they were blocking shots and Italy made the saves when they needed to, and even though we carried the play at times, we gave it up at the wrong time and that’s what happens.”

The goal now will be to temper the disappointment with a win in the seventh-eighth place game on Friday.

“Now we want to set our sights on playing a good game against Germany and show that maybe we deserved to stay in the A Pool,” Babey said,

Italy, meanwhile, gets ready to face Czechia in their quarter-final.

“They’re one of the best Czech teams we’ve seen in many years and that’s okay, we like to play against a good team because if you want to grow you have to play your best,” Bianchi said. “That’s one reason I’m so happy we stayed in the A Pool, we can play the best teams and I know it’s tough, but that’s the point for us.”

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