2017 World Para ice hockey Championships, Italy v Germany, Game Highlights

Earlier in the day, Italy shut out Germany, 5-0, as star forward Sandro Kalegaris and 19-year-old Nils Larch both scored twice to vault Italy to fourth place in the tournament standings with six points.

“It was a great game and a nice result, but it wasn’t that easy to pull off,” Larch said. “We’re so happy we were able to pull it off and get another three points in the standings.”

Two-time Paralympian Gianluigi Rosa struck first for Italy in the game, finding the net 3:36 into the contest off a pass from Larch to register his first goal of the event. Then with 6.9 seconds remaining in the first period, Kalegaris ripped an emphatic wrist shot just past the pipe for a score, assisted by Greg Leperdi and Valerio Corvino.

Larch connected for a score midway through the second stanza and then again halfway through the third period, with his second goal coming off a pass from another 19-year-old, Christoph Depaoli.

Kalegaris finished off the scoring for Italy just over five minutes later, connecting for his team-leading fourth goal of the tournament with a helper from Leperdi.

Italy’s Gabriele Araudo, a 2011 European champion, stopped all 13 shots that came his way to record the shutout, while Germany’s Simon Kunst racked up 22 saves on the day.

Frank Rennhack, who has been competing in Germany’s domestic league since he was 12, led the German effort with four shots on goal.

The 2017 World Para Ice Hockey Championships are taking place from 11-20 April in Gangneung, South Korea, which is the ice sports venue city for the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games. The tournament also serves as the Paralympic Test Event, with the top five finishers automatically qualifying for the PyeongChang 2018 Games.

All games from the 2017 World Para Ice Hockey Championships are being streamed live at www.Gangneung2017.com, and live statistics and results are available at www.paralympic.org/gangneung-2017/schedule-results.

Photos will be made available for media to download throughout the tournament on the IPC’s Flickr account.