Men’s field hockey: Italy is brave, but Sweden is relentless

Sweden hoped to defeat Italy 5-2 in the opening match of Group B of the Milan Cortina 2026 men&#8217s ice hockey tournament, played at the Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena in Milan. The Scandinavians, among the leading candidates for the podium and with a team composed of several NHL superstars, got the better of them in an intense match that closed with a success that confirmed their technical and physical superiority. The Azzurri, down by one goal until 4’18” from the end, nevertheless gave a courageous performance, supported by the home crowd.

The Blue Team’s start was surprising: after 4’14” from the start of the match, in fact, Luca Frigo scored the unexpected lead goal, making the Italian fans explode. A 2′ penalty against Dustin Gazley, however, sets the stage for the equalizer, which comes right at the tail end of the powerplay, in minute 9’06” and bears the signature of Gabe Landeskog, champion of the Colorado Avalanche. The equalizer lasted until minute 17’53” when it was Gustav Forsling, one of the Stanley Cup winners with the Florida Panthers, who made it 2-1 for the Three Crowns national team.

At the start of the second period, however, Italy not only made it clear it was still there, but also managed to find the equalizer again, thanks to Matthew Bradley&#8217s wriggle: the Bolzano forward outplayed Filip Gustavsson and got the national team dreaming big again. The difference, however, was still made by the National Hockey League phenomena, especially William Nylander, who in minutes 16’46” of the middle period set up the new Swedish lead, which the Azzurri, despite their good will, could not recover.

Francesco Lucivero

In the third and final drittel Italy failed to take advantage of 2′ of numerical superority for Pontus Holmberg’s irregular hold, plus fatigue began to set in and Sweden took advantage in the final: Mika Zibanejad, a veteran of the New York Rangers, netted at minute 15’42” the goal that made it 4-2 while Victor Hedman scored goal number five shortly afterwards, at minute 17’11” with Italy having tried to play with an extra man of movement by taking goalie Davide Fadani (who took over for Damian Clara right in the last period) off the ice.

It thus begins with a defeat Italy&#8217s difficult path in the men&#8217s tournament: the Azzurri will be engaged on Friday 13 at 12:10 p.m. against Slovakia and on Saturday 14, at 4:40 p.m., against Finland: two more top national teams to face, remembering however that the group stage does not eliminate any team but takes the first ranked and the best second directly to the quarters and all the others to the playoff round.