CORTINA D’AMPEZZO – There were 19 goals in two games as host nation Italy made an impressive start to its Olympic campaign with a dominant display over outsider Serbia after the British and the Dutch served up a thriller in the opening game in Group G.
Italy vs. Serbia 8-0 (3-0, 3-0, 2-0) A goal after just 60 seconds set the tone for Italy’s opening game against Serbia. Stefano Marchetti struck in the first minute as a youthful Serbian team, more accustomed to Division II hockey, got its first look at an opponent at this level.
That was the prelude to an opening stanza of almost total Italian domination: two further goals and a shot count of 20-1 in favour of the home team. Without some brave goaltending from Arsenije Rankovic, especially in a flurry of action late in the period, the damage could have been even greater.
As it was Nicholas Plastino doubled the lead in the 13th minute off a Marco Insam pass before Kevin Divergilio added to his assist on the opener by unleashing a savage wrist shot that whipped upstairs after Paul Zanette’s drop pass opened up a look at goal.
Italy’s play had the home crowd in party mood, greeting each attack with a clanging cow bell – a mountain tradition not confined to Switzerland – and serenading the goals with a thunderous pounding on the wooden frame of the venerable Olympic Stadium.
The middle session followed a similar pattern, with Italy continuing to fire in an average of one shot every minute. Three further goals followed, while the piping denied Thomas Larkin and Daniel Frank as the game often resembled an offence vs. defence training drill.
To Serbia’s credit, though, the defence stuck doggedly to its task and kept Italy at bay for almost 13 minutes of the second period with Rankovic again providing good resistance to the onslaught. Frank beat him on 32:59, and after hitting the post twice Italy went on to add two more before the second intermission.
A good combination involving Marchetti and Zanette got the puck to the net where Markus Gander sowed confusion before the puck was bundled over the line. Then Alexander Egger added a sixth before Serbia enjoyed its first power play of a difficult evening, finally earning a little respite from the blue tide surging inexorably towards its goal.
“I think we went out there with the right approach,” Egger said after the game. “We kept going to the end, all four lines were skating hard. We kept them down in the their own end and it was a good start to the tournament for us.”
By now it was already a question of ‘how many?’. Diego Kostner added a seventh early in the third, Plastino got his second of the night on a solo rush. That brought Rankovic’s evening to a merciful end with eight minutes left to play and gave 19-year-old Petar Stepanovic a spell in the firing line. He managed to keep the Italians at bay with 19 saves despite some intense pressure. At the other end goalie Andreas Bernard needed just four saves for his shut-out.
After such a convincing opening-day victory, Italy now has to prepare for tougher tests ahead.
“We didn’t know what to expect from Serbia, it’s a team we’ve never played before, so it was a good start but we are aware that there will be probably be tougher opponents coming up,” Egger added. “It’s a win and we’ve started the tournament the right way.”
Great Britain vs. Netherlands 6-5 (2-1, 2-2, 2-2) These two countries have been rivals in recent World Championship Division I events and they demonstrated that they had a good understanding of each other’s weak spots as fans in the Dolomites witnessed an avalanche of goals.
Britain finally claimed victory – by the odd goal in 11 – on a Mark Richardson goal in the 56th minute. His initial shot got caught up in a Dutch defenceman but he was first to the rebound and scored on the wrong-footed Martijn Oosterwijk to end the Netherlands’ resistance. Dutch penalty trouble in the closing stages helped GB to close out a game that was high on entertainment but that will give both defences sleepless nights as the goals flew in.
Russell Cowley, a double goalscorer for GB, admitted that the result was better than the performance. “There’s a few things we need to clean up. We can definitely say we’re happy with the win but as a team we know we are better defensively than we showed at times tonight.”
GB was officially the home team for this one, and with a raucous travelling band of about 100 supporters the atmosphere in the arena was loudly pro-British. But those fans were stunned into silence in the third minute when the Netherlands opened the scoring on the first power play of the game. Ronald Wurm got the goal, exploiting the extra space around the net to score from close range after Mitch Bruijsten shot into Ben Bowns’ pads.
Back to full strength, the Brits were back on level terms almost immediately. Defencemen David Phillips and Ben O’Connor combined in centre ice and the latter pulled out a defence-splitting pass to set Cowley through on goal. The Coventry Blaze frontman slipped his shot through the five-hole to level the scores.
The O’Connor-Phillips axis was back in business for the second British goal. O’Connor fed the puck along the blue line and Phillips launched a slap shot from the point to send his team into the first intermission with a 2-1 advantage.
And the pair combined again midway through the third to make it 3-1. This time it was Phillips’ pass and O’Connor’s shot, with Matt Myers forcing the puck through Oosterwijk’s pads.
If GB thought it had built a decisive advantage, it was quickly proved wrong as a double Dutch strike in just 55 seconds levelled the scores. Mike Dalhuisen assisted on both of them. First, on 33:06, his shot from the point deflected off a GB skate for Kevin Bruijsten to fire home. Then on 34:01 the defenceman stepped up to send in a rising shot that had Bowns juggling on the crease before the puck dropped for Maarten Brekelmans to slip it into an empty net from a tight angle.
GB head coach Pete Russell added: “At 3-1 I thought we controlled it a little bit but those two goals in 55 seconds were not good. We certainly didn’t help ourselves at times but it was a win and that’s what sport is all about.”
Parity lasted just two minutes. Britain had been profiting from diagonal plays all evening and when Ashley Tait slipped the puck into the danger zone from the top of the circle, Cowley stretched out with his stick to deflect it past Oosterwijk and make it 4-3.
“At least we showed good character,” coach Russell added. “When team loses a lead, then loses a lead again, sometimes it can collapse a bit but I don’t think we ever did that.”
The action remained frenetic in the final stanza. Dalhuisen was prominent once again, racing round the back before popping up the puck for an unmarked Kevin Bruijsten to join his brother on the scoresheet and tie it at 4-4 before GB edged in front once more with 10 to play. Colin Shields shot from the point, Myers threw up the screen on Oosterwijk.
But there was still more to come. Diederick Hagemeijer went high on Bowns off a Nardo Naagtzam pass to tie it up once again before Richardson got the eventual game-winner in the 56th minute.
Click here for scores and stats. ANDY POTTS
