Final thoughts on the Division 1 Group A in Bolzano

All week I've been in Bolzano, Italy covering the World Championship Division I Group A for IIHF.com. Here are my final thoughts on each team in the tournament. If you missed them, click the links for my thoughts on Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4.

This tournament opened with Korea beating Slovenia 4-2 and finished with Hungary beating Slovenia 2-1. That was the only win for the Koreans, who were relegated, and those two defeats bookended an otherwise perfect tournament by the Slovenes.

What to say about a tournament where it seemed like everybody beat everybody, every day had another upset, and yet in the end, the two teams that were relegated from last year’s top flight are the two going back up?

Hungary

Hungary was the most consistent team throughout the tournament, and it never seemed like they weren’t going to be promoted, or at least stay in the race for it right till the end. But even they had a head-scratcher – that loss to Romania. The team recovered from that though to win its final two games – thanks in large part to some incredible goaltending by Bence Balizs – and win the tournament.

They were also the best-supported team in the tournament. I first witnessed the Hungarian hockey fans in St. Petersburg in 2016, and they were just as amazing in Bolzano.

“Yeah, they’re still crazy, so we’re thankful for them and proud to win for them,” said forward Istvan Terbocs. “They follow us everywhere. They’ll come next year, it’ll be farther away and more expensive (in Sweden or Denmark) but I think they’re gonna come.”

Slovenia

I made the bold and rather foolish comment after Slovenia’s opening loss to Korea that they might not beat anybody in this tournament other than Romania. With many of their veterans being replaced by younger players, the early evidence seemed to show that their days of competing for a spot in the top flight were done. But the Slovenes got stronger as the tournament went on, and even in the last game which they lost to Hungary, were the better team for most of the game.

“We had a lot of new players, young players, so it was new chemistry and I think we connected with each other pretty well. Now at the end of the tournament, we have a nice group of 25 guys,” said newly minted captain Robert Sabolic.

Italy

The Italians looked good throughout the tournament, scored the most goals (20) and had the best goal difference (+10). All throughout, they looked like they’d be one of the teams to go up, and in fact finished with the same number of points as Slovenia, but just seemed to give up points at the wrong time. 

They were taken to overtime by Japan. They lost 2-0 to Slovenia and 3-2 in overtime to Hungary despite outshooting both. The loss to Hungary by a razor-thin margin is what took their destiny out of their control on the last day. Then ran up the score against Korea but they couldn’t get more than three points. And they were still in the hunt to advance right up till the end of the end of the Hungary-Slovenia game.

Romania

This was the most interesting team of the week. In their first two games, they didn’t look like they even belonged in the tournament, losing both 6-1, but then reeled off three straight wins to finish tied in points with Slovenia and Italy. Unfortunately, those were the two teams that beat them, so the tiebreakers weren’t going to fall their way, but they were the feel-good story nonetheless.

Romania moved up two divisions between 2017 and 2019 and remained in Division I Group A for a third straight year despite winning once. A lot of players are still on the national team that was in 2A seven years ago. What’s changed for them?

“We’ve gained a lot of experience, we’ve matured, we play smarter, and we’ve improved from playing at a higher level in the World Championship,” said captain Roberto Gilga, who also praised the structure instilled by coach Dave MacQueen. “Most of us also play in a common league with Hungary in the Erste Liga, so that’s also helped us get better.”

Japan

I covered Japan’s promotion from Group B last year in Tallinn and they were a clear step above everyone in that group. I had a feeling this team was going to be competitive in Group A and it was. The Japanese actually only won one game – a satisfying win over rival Korea – but that was enough to keep them in the group. The record is underwhelming but they didn’t lose any game by more than two goals.

“We have to play to our identity, which is our speed an our work ethic,” said coach Jarrod Skalde. “I felt in all the games there were some breaks here and there that were the difference in the game. The Hungary game could have gone either way, we took Italy to overtime, obviously winning against Korea and then yesterday against Slovenia, every game was a bounce here or there.”

Korea

Once upon a time, Korea’s national team was composed largely of naturalized citizens in an effort to make the team more competitive for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Since then, the team has gradually cut back on its reliance on those players, resulting in the team we saw this year – a young, fast, dynamic team that gave Slovenia fits in the opening game. The Koreans really looked like they’d be staying in the group another year, but after Slovenia they didn’t win another game. The loss to Japan seemed to really dishearten them, and they were strangely a no-show for the last game against Italy with relegation at stake.

“We are very disappointed because a lot of us have been in Group A for a long time now,” said captain Sangwook Kim. “We played in the top division and we wanted to go back. We started well against Slovenia, then some close results but today, not good. But we’ve got a lot of young kids who will get some good experience in I-B and hopefully, next year we get a promotion.”

So that’s it. Next year, Italy, Romania and Japan return to this group. Filling in the voids will be Ukraine, winner of Group B, and two teams to be relegated from the IIHF World Championship in Czechia.