Wow, what a match! Japan surprised, but the experience and skill level of the Italians decided the outcome of the match! Congratulations to Italy on the victory 🇮🇹 🇮🇹 🇮🇹 🏆
I really appreciate that these tournament games are freely available to watch. This is high-level hockey in the purest form it's probably possible to get it in, with no commentary and no trying to cram in scummy gambling advertisements every stoppage in play, but still good production quality and great hockey. For a recently promoted team that hasn't won a game yet, I've still been really impressed with Japan's play so far. They've played tight games against recently demoted Hungary and the highly motivated host Italy with a raucous crowd backing them. That crowd's singing reminded me of watching Japanese baseball games. I think Japan has to get younger in net at some point, but I don't think goaltending is a major concern yet for this tournament. Narisawa has let in some goals he should have stopped, but made astounding saves as well, with examples of both late in the game against Italy. With no players near the net, he should have been able to find the puck better on Larkin's goal, but he made up for it on Italy's late powerplay chance in regulation. A lapse off the faceoff led to a virtually immediate loss once overtime started, but at least they got a point out of it, so they look to be in pretty good shape to be able to stay at this level in the tournament next year as long as they can maintain this level of play in their upcoming games.
Depending on where you live... this was the third matce of 1A I am not able to watch and wasn't able to watch cause it was blocked for some reason 😭... and it is not like I am living in a country that doesn't like hockey, we are even hosting the top div this year lol
What a hockey game! What a game! I am happy to watch this tournament and say that Italy and Japan deserve to enter the World Cup! But, most likely, Italy and Hungary will go to the World Cup! 🇮🇹 🇭🇺
