Before facing Canada on Sunday at the World Hockey Championship, Italy lost sharply to Switzerland on Saturday.
• Read also: World Championship: Canada bends, but resists
A 5-2 defeat was suffered by the Italian team, which could at least count on its goalkeeper Andreas Bernard, author of 42 saves.
New Jersey Devils forward Nico Hischier hit the mark while teammate Calvin Thurkauf scored twice.
Daniel Glira and Dante Hannoun were Italy’s only scorers, in a losing cause, in the third period.
Winner of Germany by the score of 5 to 3 to start the tournament on Friday, Canada is part of a rather weak group A. In addition to Germany and Italy, there are also Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark, Kazakhstan and France.
After the duel against the Italians on Sunday, the Canadian team, led by Claude Julien, has an appointment with Slovakia on Monday.
Denmark have nine times
Denmark pulled off the performance of the day, in one of six games on Saturday, tossing the ropes nine times in a 9-1 win over Kazakhstan.
San Jose Sharks forward Joachim Blichfeld stood out, scoring a third of his team’s goals, completing a hat trick. Nikolaj Ehlers of the Winnipeg Jets also did well with three assists. However, it was defenseman Lukas Mauridsen who was the most productive, with four points, all of them assists.
Goaltender Frederik Dichow, a Montreal Canadiens prospect for Denmark, did not participate in the game, instead playing second fiddle to Sebastian Dahm. The latter made 25 saves in the victory.