Thoughts after Day 4 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. Here are my thoughts on what happened on the fourth day of action. If you missed them, click the links for my thoughts on Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3.

At the end of the fourth day of action, the picture is a bit clearer but still not all that clear. The stakes were pretty clear in the first game between Romania and Korea, though. The loser would be in trouble. And the loser – Korea – now is.

These two teams started this tournament at opposite ends of the spectrum and have gone in opposite directions. After a pair of 6-1 defeats, Romania honestly didn’t look like they belonged in this group, but then came that shocking win over Hungary and followed that up with a 3-2 victory over Korea – the winning goal coming shorthanded by Balasz Peter with 4:29 to play.

“Our power play hasn’t scored yet but our PK has scored two, so I guess we’re not bad killing penalties,” coach Dave McQueen quipped afterward.

This Romanian team started poorly but the players only came together a few days before the start of the tournament and didn’t play any exhibition games. The reason for that is that almost all of their roster comes from three teams in the Hungaro-Romanian Erste Liga, and two of those teams met in the finals, which ended just a week before the tournament.

About the direction he wants to take the team in, McQueen said:

And the Koreans, well, they caught Slovenia off guard at the start but that caught everybody’s attention and nobody has taken them lightly since. They enter the last day trailing Japan by a point but that could become an unreachable four by the time Korea faces off against Italy. A regulation win means that Korea catches Italy and perhaps Romania to force a three-way tie.

Up next was a Slovenian team firing on all cylinders and they still had their troubles with a Japanese team that never quits. I speculated at the start, after the Korea loss, that this might be the end of Slovenia as a contender for the top group. That might still happen soon but, for now, Slovenia leads the group with nine points and is very much in control of its own destiny as far as advancing.

And in the nightcap, the rink was rocking as the Italian and Hungarian fans created an amazing atmosphere. Italy dominated Hungary for two periods, thanks in part to a string of penalties against Hungary, but it was tied 1-1 after two and 2-2 after three. Hungary ultimately prevailed 3-2 in overtime despite being outshot 41-21.

“We were better at everything tonight except scoring goals, and if you don’t score goals you don’t win,” said Italian coach Mike Pelino. “We had way more of the play than they did, much better chances, they deserve credit because they found a way to win, but I thought by far we were the better team. We deserved to win but you don’t always get what you deserve.”

“It was a great hockey game!,” raved Hungarian coach Don MacAdam. “I think the guys did a great job. We knew that if we played with relentless effort and keep our emotions under control, we were going to be fine. You saw a lot of situations where our guys took a punch in the face or a slash in the back of our legs and they didn’t retaliate, so our guys were really under control. I’m very impressed. That’s hard to do.”

So heading into the last day of action, despite all the surprises we’ve seen along the way, it’s Slovenia and Hungary – the two teams relegated from the top group last year – that are in the driver’s seat.. Friday night's result has already qualified Slovenia and Hungary can join them – what exactly they need depends on what happens in the first two games. Italy and Romania have outside chances but they need to win in regulation time and then become Slovenia fans in the tournament finale.