Monday 15 May 2017

Caspita!

When Italy met Denmark in today's games at the 2017 IIHF World Championship, there was some hope that Italy could pull out a victory to keep them in the top division of hockey for next year's tournament. Granted, it was a tough task against a rising team in Denmark, but hope was all that Italy needed to spur their efforts. Instead, things unraveled late in the game when Italy needed a goal or two to keep their hopes alive. Let's just say this is not how Italy wants to be remembered.

Alexander Egger is a 37 year-old defenceman who has played in Italy with HC Bolanzo for the majority of his career. He's a fairly productive scorer in Italy with 117 goals and 303 assists in 579 career games, but playing against some of the world's best in this year's World Championship has seen the Italian go scoreless in seven games.

Unless you count this one.
After stumbling over his own feet, the puck comes off Egger's stick and slides directly into his own vacated net. While it's completely an accident, it was the last goal "scored" by the Italians in this tournament as they will be relegated back to the Division-1A next season in the hopes they can battle back and participate in the 2019 IIHF World Championship.

For a guy who has been so good in Italy, it sucks for Egger to be remembered on the world stage like this.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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