By Martin Merk | 09 OCT 2021 IIHF
Despite a rough start Italy didn’t allow an upset against Chinese Taipei and leads the standings of the Olympic Pre-Qualification Round 2 Group G before the final day with a maximum of six points.
The Italians eventually recovered from their rough beginning, winning the game 7-0, with 19-year-old forward Anna Caumo scoring a hat trick.
Spain surprised Kazakhstan in a 3-2 shootout win in the earlier game.
In the first period the Italians rarely looked like they could lose the game but for a long time they didn’t manage to score either despite a 17-1 shot advantage in the first frame.
With 4:20 left in the period the Azzurre eventually succeeded. Chinese Taipei lost the puck in the offensive zone creating a rush with Rebecca Roccella on the right side. She sent a horizontal pass to Caumo, who took care of the 1-0 goal.
The Italians continued to create most of the traffic also in the middle frame.
Franziska Stocker beat Chinese Taipei goalie Tzu-Ting Hsu with a shot just under the crossbar at 8:32. Three minutes later Laura Lobis from behind the net found Caumo free in front of the net, who extended the lead.
Chinese Taipei changed goalies with Yun-Tzu Wang coming in for the third period but the direction of the game didn’t change, which meant quite some work for Wang.
At 3:26 the blue team made it a four-goal game on the power play when Chelsea Furlani scored after a horizontal pass through the crease from Samantha Gius.
The Italians finished off with Caumo’s third marker and more goals from Marta Mazzocchi and Gius for the 7-0 win to set the tone for the final day.
The Italians lead with a two-point advantage before tomorrow’s opponent Kazakhstan. Therefore they just need one more point to win the tournament by beating Kazakhstan or at least reach a tie after regulation time. Kazakhstan would need a regulation-time win against Italy to finish in first place and advance to the Final Olympic Qualification.
Spain can’t move to first place despite its upset win against Kazakhstan but in case of a Kazakh loss can hope for a second-place finish.
Chinese Taipei will challenge Spain in their last game and could overtake tomorrow’s opponent for third place with a regulation-time win.