Top seeds Italy see off South Korea comfortably

As with the first game of the day, the opening period began with the higher seed having the best of the play. Italy started the game as the better team and had a succession of chances early on which forced Hyunseung Eum in the South Korean net to make a number of saves, the best one being on an Andrea Ambrosi point shot while on the powerplay. Italy, who outshot their opponents 14:7 in the opening frame would go on to break the deadlock with less than five minutes on the clock, with Diego Kostner capitalising just Kyungwon Yoon’s penalty expired. Kostner picked up the rebound after Eum stopped Patrick Ianonne’s shot from the left half-boards, and the HC Lugano forward out waited Eum to put the puck past his diving stick. However, going behind didn’t seem to phase the Koreans, as Sangwoo Sin had a great chance to equalise a couple of minutes later, but his tip in effort off of a Minho Cho shot went over the bar. At the other end, twelve minutes into the period, Iannone went close to getting a goal to go with his assist, but his backhand effort failed to trouble Eum, despite being only a few feet from the net. As the period wound down, Kostner went to the box for a tripping minor, and the momentum swung Koreans way. In the last thirty seconds of the period, Korea had five of their seven first period shots, with Wooyoung Kim having three point shots stopped, and Adam Dennis in the Italian net making a great pad save on Minho Cho to preserve Italy’s slender lead through the first period.

It took less than three minutes for Italy to double their advantage in the second period. With Wooyoung Kim in the box for a holding the stick minor, a defensive mix up at the blueline allowed Rob Sirianni to gain the zone on the right wing, and fire a wristshot that scorched into the top left corner. However, South Korea were still in the game, and it forced a flash of the leather by Dennis to deny Brock Radunske from halving Italy’s lead. After Italy took a too many men penalty with six and a half minutes gone in the middle period, South Korea had another period of sustained pressure, however, with the best chance of the man advantage, Sangwoo Sin missed the net. Hyunseung Eum made the save of the game in the 31^st minute, with a miraculous stop to deny Luca Felicetti at the back door, however, he could do nothing about Italy’s third goal which came with 1:12 left in the period, as a beautifully weighted saucer pass from Vicent Rocco from the right wing went right onto the tape of David Borrelli, whose hard wrist shot flew past a sprawling Eum.

It was a lack of cutting edge that proved to be South Korea’s downfall in their opening game. This was summed up by Sangwoo Sin fumbling a pass while on a 2 on 1 shorthanded break with the score still at 0:3. The third period mainly petered out, as South Korea replaced Hyunseung Eum with Sungje Park, and the Korean back up did make a number of good stops, including a quick pad stop to deny Nathan di Casmirro. Italy would eventually get a fourth with six minutes left, as Stefano Marchetti’s point shot travelled through a maze of bodies before eluding the grasp of Park. Adam Dennis was hardly troubled in the final period, being forced to make a quick glove save on Kyungwon Yoon as the clock reached zero, but it would be the only shot he faced in the final frame, out of eighteen in total.

Man of the match awards:
South Korea: Wooyoung Kim
Italy: Adam Dennis

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