TORINO 2006 PARALYMPICS WINTER GAMES March 10-19

[BOREALIS]

Ice Sledge Hockey: Norway and Germany Win the Rounds, Now It’s Time for the Semi Finals

Mar 15 2006

Norway proved to be in consistence “heavier” than Canada: in physical consistency, in manoeuvres and attacks, and in plans and playing to the backboards in addition to shots. The result was 4:1 (2:0/2:1/0:0) for the world champions, beating the Canadian team last night in the last match of the preliminary round and finishing at the top of Round A. Tommy Rovelstad scored twice, there was a goal by the captain Rolf Einar Pedersen and Eskil Hagen; for the North Americans, the 1:3 was made by Herve Lord. The shots were 10 to 10 at the end of the second period, 15 to 12 for Canada at the end of the match: which goes to say that a great game was also played by the Canadians. They were dangerous enough to make Norwegian goaltender Roger Johansen make some very important saves.
Norway always made very dangerous shots, going to shoot with great efficiency and power; two of the four shots came after a very hard fight for the puck in the corner along the barrier and assist to the centre.

Again in Round A, third place went to Great Britain beating Italy 2:1 in an absolutely balanced match. The Italians, coached by Massimo Da Rin, scored the first goal of their still short history of official international matches: the goal by Gianluca Cavaliere, with assist from Andrea Chiarotti, was a great shot that skimmed the ice diagonally into the bottom corner after coming strongly from the left wing, escaping the opponents defence. The Brits scored the winning short-handed goal. Italy demonstrated that the game could have been theirs, and this was the most significant thing for the Da Rin team.

Round B is led by Germany by 5 points. It contained the last attack by Japan in the qualification for the semi finals (0:0). Second was the USA with a clear 6:1 over Sweden (two goals by veteran Christopher Manns). Sweden was the real great disappointment of the tournament.

Tomorrow the semi finals will see Norway-USA (at 11:00) and Germany-Canada (at 20:30). The Scandinavian/United States match will be harsh and intense seeing the current world champions playing the current Paralympic champions.

Renzo Gilodi

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