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.
In their first-ever meeting the Spanish women’s national team scored an upset win against Kazakhstan. The Spaniards won 3-2 in shootout. Alba Gonzalo was heroic in the Spanish net with 36 saves.
“It was a great game to play. In the first period we couldn’t believe that we could be better than them but we believed in ourselves and started to play better. We were great in defence with all the bodies and didn’t allow them too many good chances,” Gonzalo said.
Even though it was the first official game in the women’s senior category between these countries, the win didn’t come entirely out of the blue.
In the U18 women’s category Spain already had a 3-1 win against Kazakhstan in 2018 – and six of those players as well as American head coach Harold Rosenholtz were on the senior team in Torre Pellice again to repeat history at senior level.
Playing a division higher, Kazakhstan entered the game as the favourite and had its chances for a win outshooting their opponent 38-13. But that didn’t seem to impress Spain too much. They continued the way they ended the game against Italy by battling hard and believing in their chances.
Although the Spaniards did not have many chances in the first period. Kazakhstan outshot their opponent 11-0 and had good opportunities especially late in the game. With four minutes left Spain needed a nice pad save from Gonzalo on a Malika Aldabergenova shot during a power play.
Two minutes later Erin McLean tried it alone against several Spanish skaters, lost the puck, had a takeaway but Gonzalo saved the shot. Also a Pernesh Ashimova breakaway attempt didn’t break the scoreless first-period tie.
The long-awaited first goal for the Kazakhs came at 6:35 of the middle frame. Roxanne Rioux skated toward the Spanish net, deked defender Elena Alvarez and lifted the puck over Gonzalo’s shoulder.
As long as the Kazakhs had to patiently wait for the lead, as short-lived was the joy about it. 14 seconds after the next face-off Spain used one of its first good opportunities to tie the game.
Vega Munoz and Haizea Fernandez de Romarategui created a 2-on-1 opportunity in front of Arina Shyokolova’s net. Munoz tried it with a shot rather than passing to the centre and found the hole high in the near corner.
The Spaniards even had the chance for more after a penalty against Rioux for boarding. A shot from Elena Ramos went through Shyokolova’s five-hole but stopped in front of the line. The Kazakh defence managed to clear the situation.
On the other side Rioux had the chance to score her second goal at 10:32. Her breakaway attempt was stopped with a hooking from Madelyn Ann Rego leading to a penalty shot for Rioux, which ended at Gonzalo’s pad.
Late in the second period the Kazakhs ran into penalty trouble with both Rioux and Anna Pyatkova in the penalty box.
A shot from ten meters by Spanish captain Elena Alvarez gave Spain the 2-1 lead at 17:14 and also ended the game for Shyokolova, who was replaced by Darya Dmitrieva.
Spain had its chances in the third period thanks to two penalties against Kazakhstan while the Kazakhs put pressure on the Spanish net with equal strength. At 11:27 they managed to put the puck behind Gonzalo. After a long shot from Munira Sayakhatkyzy, McLean was at the right spot to capitalize on the rebound and tie the game at two.
The Kazakhs continued to put pressure on the Spanish net but Gonzalo, who moved north to play for HV71 Jonkoping in the Swedish SDHL, stayed strong and made 36 saves during 65 minutes of play.
A shootout had to decide the winner of this game and it was Sofia Scilipoti with Spain’s first shot who scored the only goal in five rounds of penalty shot.
After McLean had missed with the Kazakhs’ fifth shot, the Spaniards cleared the bench and skated toward Gonzalo to celebrate the historic success.
“We are so excited. When we came here, we were not the second-best team and now this is what we are. They are better than us but today they weren’t. We won, we played hard and that’s where we are. We are Spain and we are here to stay,” Spanish captain Elena Alvarez said.
When it comes to the race for tournament win, the two points from two games were too little for Spain to finish in first place. Even if they reached the five-point mark after tomorrow’s game against Chinese Taipei, they wouldn’t be able to finish better than second, which in itself would be a success.
It will therefore remain a battle between host Italy and Kazakhstan for tournament win tomorrow and the Italians can improve their position before that game when they play Chinese Taipei tonight.
Currently Italy has three points from one game and Kazakhstan four from two.
