Chris Jones reports from Milan.
It was Italy’s victory. It was Canada’s, too.
The Italian women’s hockey team, Olympic qualifiers only as hosts, beat Japan 3-2 on a thrilling Monday morning in Milan, earning them an improbable quarterfinal appearance.
As the final anxious seconds ticked away, Daniele Sauvageau, the team’s Canadian general manager, looked at 35-year-old Laura Fortino, a gold-medal winner with Canada in 2014 who now wears Italian blue, both with tears in their eyes.
For the 63-year-old Sauvageau, a Hockey Hall of Fame coach and builder and the general manager of the PWHL’s Montreal Victoire, it was the purest form of celebration, the culmination of another grand adventure in the game she loves.
Three years ago, Sauvageau was approached by the Italian Ice Sports Federation to build a competitive team out of limited parts: There are fewer than 500 women registered to play in Italy, and Milan didn’t have an ice rink. The Italians appeared in one previous Olympics, in Torino in 2006, when they lost 16-0 to Canada and finished eighth.
Italy defeats Japan to advance to their 1st Olympic women’s hockey quarterfinals
Sauvageau took the job and began scouring the world and her hockey memories for possible talent. She began a list of names and realized that she might be able to make a decent team. “I thought, ‘These players have more potential than anyone might believe,’” she said.
One of her first calls was to Fortino, who was playing with Team Harvey’s on the PWHPA’s Dream Gap Tour circuit, having played her last game for Canada in 2019. To qualify to play for Italy, Fortino would have to spend two seasons in the Italian domestic league. She decided to go for it, moving first to Bozen, and then to Caldaro.
Now, she looked at Sauvageau before leaping into the arms of her teammates in Milan.
“It’s magical,” Fortino said. “To be a part of this group is a privilege and an honour for me. I couldn’t be prouder of every single girl on this team. The story that’s been written here — I’m just so happy to be a part of it.”
Soon after Sauvageau took the Italian job, the PWHL was founded, and she joined the Victoire. She wanted to keep her international commitment, but Montreal, out of necessity, became the unlikely home base for an even unlikelier team.
More players joined, including Montreal-born Kayla Tutino, who came out of retirement and opened the scoring in last week’s win over France, and Calgary native Gabriella Durante, who was outstanding in goal against Japan.
She had played for the University of Calgary Dinos not long ago. Now she had won for Italy.
“That will be a core memory for me,” Durante said. “I’m never going to forget that game.”
She was far from alone.
Last October, Sauvageau hired Eric Bouchard, an assistant coach with Shawinigan, to be Italy’s head coach; one of his hires was Pier-Alexandre Poulin, brother of Canada captain Marie-Philip, as an assistant.
Together they held a weeks-long camp in Montreal over December and January, working on hockey basics but also instilling in their players the sort of ambition that helps make history.
“Nobody thought we would have a chance to win here,” Bouchard said now that they had, his voice nearly gone. “We wanted to shock the hockey world and that’s what we’re doing.”
For Sauvageau, true success will mean expanding the hockey world as well as shocking it. She’s made sure that Italians — unhyphenated Italians — have key roles on and off the ice, as coaches, as physiotherapists, as media liaisons, and, most important, as players.
Matilde Fantin, a 19-year-old from Como who scored twice against Japan, is among those who have blossomed under mentors like Fortino.
“She’s going to be a tremendous player,” Bouchard said.
Italy will play its final Group B game against Germany on Tuesday. That result, combined with Group A’s battle for seeding, will determine its quarterfinal opponent. No one involved wanted to look past Germany, but Canada is a real possibility.
“I haven’t tapped into that, to be honest,” Fortino said.
Sauvageau will see it as another chance to make something lasting.
“I’m someone who thinks about the next step,” she said. “I’m not here to do a hit-and-run and leave. We — I’ll say we, the Canadians — are seen as hockey experts, and the Italians have trusted us. We’ve seen them getting better, week after week, and we’re growing the game.”
When the players began piling into each other in celebration, the capacity crowd took to its feet. “Italia! Italia! Italia!” new fans of a new team cried.
Sauvageau looked down at her arms and tried to rub away the gooseflesh.
“I’ve seen a lot of things,” she said, “but that also means I realize how special this is.”
It was a victory for hockey most of all.
