Italy conquer participation at the Paralympics in Vancouver

Report

The match among Germany and Italy was quite boring from the beginning. There was lack of opportunities, bigger actions were missing so that few spectators who came couldn´t be very satisfied with performance of both teams. The first action of the match came at the time 14:22 when Segreff passed to Gerd Bleidorn who scored to Stillitano´s cage. After the first period Germany led over Italy 1:0.

In the second period Germany was definitely more active team which also was able to create couple of interesting scoring opportunities to increase their lead. But Segreff oversthot and Stumpe one-man action was caught by Stillitano. At the time 22:10 was the game tied – short-handed German defense left Leperdi in front of the cage, he passed puck to Florian Planker who scored into an empty cage. Germany was still better team but without any goal thanks to Stillitano´s defense. Second period finished with score 1:1.

Also in the third period Germany was more active team. But Stillitano kept Italian hopes and performed very good actions. He caught shots from Disveld, Segfreff or Wedde. Before the end of match did not score even active Segreff so match went to the overtime.

In overtime Germans could not overcome Italian defense. Stillitano had the biggest problem with shot from Rennhack but he managed well. Stumpe´s attempt at the ending of game finished at the pole so it was time for shootout. In first two series goalkeepers were successful, in the third set both Rennhack and Leperdi scored so it was no winner of this match still. In the fifth set scored Rabe by Gianluca Cavaliere and then Disveld was not able to score so Italy finally won this match.