Italy celebrates 100th anniversary of IIHF membership

It was 11 o’clock^th At its annual general meeting held in Chamonix, France, on January 24, 1924, two new members were admitted to the IIHF: Italy and Romania.they became 13^th and 14^th Each country was to join a burgeoning organization aimed at unifying and codifying the game across Europe and bringing countries around the world under one competitive umbrella.

overview

Italy is one of the top hockey countries in Europe, both in domestic and international competition. Just two months after joining the IIHF, they hosted his 1924 European Championship in Milan. They began his participation in the IIHF at the first World Championship in 1930 and have played in the WM almost every year since. They faithfully compete year after year at both the World Juniors and World U18 Championships, and the same goes for the women’s team.

Italy has hosted the Winter Olympics twice: in 1956 in Cortina d’Ampezzo and in 2006 in Turin. Two years later, when the world gathers in Milan for the 2026 Olympics, they will add a third chapter to Olympic history. The World Championship was held for the first time in his 1934 in Milan, and 60 years later the tournament was held again in his three cities: Milan, Bolzano and Canazei.

In the 1930s, the Men’s World Championships were held by invitation only, so teams who wanted to participate were welcome. Italy he competed in 1930, and also competed in 1933, 34, 35, 39, and his first Olympic Games of 1936. After the war, the IIHF expanded beyond just its A pool to include B, C, and D pools, with promotion and relegation keeping the number of top-level teams roughly equal.

Italy played consistently in the B and C pools from the 1950s to the early 1990s. However, there were some notable exceptions. In 1959, they played in the top pool and were coached by Bill Cupolo, a Canadian NHLer who moved to Milan to play and coach after his professional career ended. In the early 1980s, the team enjoyed even greater success under another Canadian coach, Dave Chambers. In 1981, he led the team to first place in the B pool and promoted to the A pool the following year.They achieved a respectable 7th place^th They played in the top group again in 1982, but were then relegated.

However, since 1992, the Italian team has developed a more successful program, first under a series of Canadian coaches and a number of Canadian players, and more recently thanks to homegrown talent. They have played in the top pool 21 times since 1992, with their greatest success coming in 1994 when they finished six times.^th At W.M.

At the U20 and U18 levels, the program has yet to break into the top pool, and the same goes for the women’s side. The only notable exception was in 2006, when they qualified for the Olympics as the host nation, but the women fell behind, losing all five games by a cumulative margin of 48-3.

top star

Of course, you can’t play a century of hockey without some star players on the ice and behind the bench. Italy certainly has many alumni to be proud of. The biggest stars of the 1930s included Desio Trovati, Francolón Carelli, Ignacio Dionisi, and goaltender Augusto Gerosa, all of whom played in his first World Championship in 1930.

Aldo Federici was perhaps the most famous figure of the 1950s, and the next wave of talent came from the Da Rin brothers, Gianfranco and Alberto. Robert Oberlauf captained his team six times in the 1990s, and Gates Orlando, Lucio Topati and Toni Circeli were familiar names. In the early 2000s, a new core emerged, led by Giuseppe Busillo, Mario Cittaroni, and Rolando Ramoser.

The two most notable people on the women’s side are probably the coaches. Marco Liberatore coached the first team for 11 seasons, while the Under-18s have been coached by Massimo Fedrizzi since 2016, who will take over from Liberatore in 2022.

biggest game

Giovanni Baroni could claim to have scored Italy’s first goal in World Championship play, and it was the match-winner. Italy played only one match in 1930, losing 2-0 to Hungary. The first game in 1933 was a shutout loss to Austria, 3-0, but the next day Italy defeated Romania 2-0, with Baroni scoring late in the first period.

In the early years, certainly Italy’s biggest victory came at the 1936 Olympics, when Gianni Scotti’s goal in overtime gave the team a 2-1 victory over the United States in group play.America won the bronze medal and Italy finished tied for 7th place.^th.

They remained undefeated in the 1981 WM B Pool, held on Italy’s home ice in Urrutijay, and the hosts were promoted to the A Pool for the first time since 1959. The key to the group victory was a 4-1 victory over Poland, who finished in second place.

One of the most famous matches played by Italy wasn’t even a victory. It was his 3-3 draw with Canada on April 21, 1982, at the World Championship in Tampere, Finland. What made it famous? First, Canada’s lineup included Wayne Gretzky, Dale Hawerchuk, Bob Gainey, Bobby Clark, Kevin Lowe, and many other superstars of the NHL. The Italians were led by Canadian-born goaltender Jim Corsi, who was the best player on the ice, stopping 50 of 53 shots. Canada led 1-0, but Italy tied the game. Canada led 2-1, but Italy tied the game again. In the third, Italy took the lead and Canada had to fight back for a tie. Up front, captain Rick Bragnaro matched Corsi. He scored a 2-2 goal with one second left in the second period — shorthanded, too — and assisted on Italy’s other two goals. Gretzky, the tournament’s leading scorer, did not score in the game. That was a highly unlikely outcome.

On April 7, 1991, Italy defeated Norway 4-3 to take the top spot in the Men’s World Championship B Pool and secure promotion for 1992. This was the beginning of the team’s greatest success. They remained in the top pool for 11 consecutive seasons and also qualified for the 1994 Olympics. Many of these teams were coached by Brian Referee, and their long-time captain was Robert Oberlauf.

Despite the loss, the team’s most recent tournament match was the 1994 World Championship on home ice. The team won three out of five games in the qualifying round in Bolzano, finishing third in the group behind Canada and Russia and advancing to the quarter-finals for the first time, and still only. They lost 7-2 to Sweden in that game in Milan, but picked up their sixth win.^th-Our ranking was the highest ever.

On February 14, 2006, Sabina Florian made history for Italian women by scoring her team’s first Olympic goal on home ice in Turin. After suffering shutout losses in her first two games, Florian scored in a 5-1 loss to Russia.

hall of fame player

Many stars have represented Italy in IIHF competition, but one name has a bigger presence on the ice than any other: Enrico Carcaterra. Although he played for his country in the 1930s, it was for his post-playing accomplishments that he became the first and only player to be inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame as a builder in 1998. did. He served on the Italian Olympic Committee and represented Italy. He was active in many meetings of the IIHF and was also president of the Italian Ice Sports Federation, later he also served as president of the FISG (Federazione Italiana Sport del Ghiaccio).

Lucio Topati became the inaugural recipient of the Richard “Bibi” Torriani Award in 2015, after competing in 10 top-level world championships and four Olympic Games.

2023-24 season

Italy will host the Men’s World Championship, Division IA next April, with the aim of finishing in first place and gaining promotion to the top pool in 2025. Meanwhile, the U20 team finished third in the IB last month, and the U18 team will also play in the IB in Tallinn, Estonia in April. The senior women’s team is scheduled to play IB in Riga, Latvia at the end of March, while the U18 women’s team finished second behind Japan just a few weeks ago.

Look at the numbers

biggest victory—10-2 vs. Great Britain, April 29, 1994, Men’s World Championship
biggest loss—31-1 vs. USA, February 1, 1948, Olympics
world rankingMale – High 13 (2007), Low 19 (3 ​​times)
world rankingFemale – High 11 (2006), Low 20 (3 times)