Thoughts after Day 3 of the Division 1 Group A in Bolzano

I am currently in Bolzano, Italy covering the World Championship Division I Group A for IIHF.com. I’m a little late on this, but here are my thoughts on what happened on the third day of action. If you missed them, click the links for my thoughts on Day 1 and Day 2.

In all three games, the team that had fewer points won, which has thrown the standings into chaos.

First of all, let’s take a look at what I said going into this day:

Well, I was two-thirds right, but I couldn’t have been more wrong about the first game, where the Romanians pulled off the upset of the tournament so far. Not only was the game scoreless through two periods, but the shots were almost even, with a slight 16-15 edge for Hungary. In the third period, the Romanians took the lead, Hungary tied it, and it looked like the game was headed for overtime, which would have been surprising enough. Instead, Otto Sandor Szekely took the puck to the net and scored the game-winner with 53 seconds to play.

“That was crazy!” exclaimed Romanian captain Roberto Gliga, who drew the primary assist on the winning goal. “To be honest, we weren’t really expecting that but we tried our luck and it was an unbelievable feeling. Even the goal scorer, he couldn’t believe it – I could see on his face.”

About the team’s progress, Gliga said: “We’ve taken baby steps. In the first game, there were a few glimpses where we played well, and then against Slovenia, we had almost two periods where we were in the game, and now we’ve taken the next step where we played the whole game well.”

As for Hungary, the players didn’t seem terribly concerned about the loss, and perhaps they needn’t be, as long as they return to form against Slovenia and Italy, and there’s no reason they shouldn’t.

Since Day 1 I had been looking forward to Japan vs Korea, which didn’t disappoint. It was fast-paced and fun to watch. And while these teams are both known for their discipline, it was also evident that they’re quite familiar with each other, with some skirmishes after whistles. Three times Korea took the lead and three times Japan tied it. The Japanese took their first lead of the game with 7:03 left when Sota Isogai scored his second of the game.

The Koreans took the loss pretty hard. I spoke to Sangyeob Kim after the game, thinking the 20-year-old NAHLer would have a better command of English than many of his teammates. But given the circumstances, maybe I should have picked a more veteran player.

“We’re so disappointed right now. I can’t believe it,” he said, almost trembling. He then said a bit about needing to be more prepared for the next games before excusing himself.

Japanese defenseman Kazuki Lawlor wasn’t terribly concerned about upsetting the Koreans. “This is my first year on the national team so I don’t know a lot about the rivalry, but I know we haven’t won a lot against Korea. I think they were pretty confident they’d beat us,” he said with a sly grin on his face.

Japan has looked very impressive this tournament, losing a 3-1 game against Hungary that they could have won and then taking Italy to overtime before this one. With four points, they’re now only two off the lead.

“Our goal is still to go to the top division,” said Lawlor. “We were confident we could compete as a team in this division, and even though we didn’t win the first two games, I think we’ve been able to compete. Seeing the results of other games, everybody’s pretty close and you never know what happens, so we need two more wins. I think we still have a chance.”

The last game of the day produced the best crowd atmosphere so far, with Italy and Slovenia playing before nearly a full house thanks to a healthy contingent of Slovenian fans. Slovenia won 2-0 thanks to a dominant first period in which they outshot the Italians 16-6. After opening with a loss to Korea, I openly wondered if the Slovenes were more of a contender for relegation than promotion, but now look at them, tied for first place.

I asked Rok Ticar what’s changed on the Slovenian team since the first day.

“It’s not that we were expecting something else from Korea, but I think we caught ourselves too much in counterattacks and up-and-down hockey,” he figured. “The Koreans were very strong and opportunistic. Today, nothing special, we wanted to play with a lot of speed and play simple hockey and I think we played a solid 60-minute game.”

Ticar scored the lone goal of the opening period on a play that looked like a pass attempt from behind the net that went in off an Italian skate. But he set me straight when I mentioned it being a “lucky” bounce.

“Yeah, it was lucky, but I tried it because I saw there were a couple guys in front and I said, ‘I’m going to try to hit some of them’,” he smiled, before confirming that yes, it was an intentional play on his part. So there you go.

So all teams are now within three points and probably four of them can realistically look at promotion. But Friday’s action starts with two teams that have to watch out for relegation. Korea and Romania are tied for last with three points each, so this is absolutely a must-win game for both of them. Up next is Slovenia against Japan, and I think I know what to expect from Japan at this point but we’ll see if the Slovenes – now playing much better – can handle their speed better than they could Korea’s. And the winner of the last game between Italy and Hungary might be pencilled in as one of the two teams that advance … but I’ll emphasize “pencilled” because nothing is for sure anymore.