Philippe Bozon against the coach who fired him from the NHL – Hockeyarchives

It was a shock announcement in world hockey last month: Mike Keenan, the only coach to win both the NHL and the KHL, signed on as national coach of Italy, a non-elite team world! If the Canadian has chosen what seems to be an ultimate challenge, it is for the same reason as his last commitment in 2017 for the Kunlun Red Star (where he was fired after a few months): the prospect of the Olympic Games. Like China before it, Italy is the next host of the Winter Olympics, in 2026 in Milan and Cortina.

Since leaving Beijing five years ago, Keenan’s only news was the news of his prostate cancer, which he has since overcome. It is therefore good news but also a surprise to see him working again, when he has just celebrated his 73 years. From the French point of view, we were intrigued by his possible reunion with Philippe Bozon: it was Keenan – then a coach with a tough and sulphurous reputation – who had ended the Frenchman’s NHL career by arriving on the bench of the Blues from Saint Louis. The face-to-face will not take long…

Six days after his arrival at the training camp in Bolzano (the Italian staff had made the selection in his place for this first tournament since he did not yet know the players), Mike Keenan played his first final. However, it started with an overtime loss against Ukraine. But Italy then beat the Slovenians, and the latter then gave them a boost by beating the Ukrainians in extra time. When they no longer had control of their destiny, the Italians therefore had the good surprise of qualifying for the final, where they found France, who had beaten them after a match with great suspense at the last World Cup. .

Italy therefore has a revenge to take, and it gets busy very quickly. After two and a half minutes, Baptiste Bruche lost the puck at the entrance to the neutral zone against Pascal Brunner, who exchanged with Marco Sanna and opened the scoring with a wrist shot from mid-distance, on the plate side. Then the French team was penalized for being too many and the ex-Mulhousien Phil Pietroniro deceived the current Mulhouse goalkeeper, Quentin Papillon, for a second time with a shot swept into the left circle. Led 0-2 in just over four minutes, the Blues must react, without their attacking leader of the previous days Guillaume Leclerc, left to rest this evening. Davide Fadani makes two good saves in front of the young Grenoble residents Aurélien Dair and Dylan Fabre. It was finally another member of the Brûleurs de Loups, Adel Koudri, who reduced the score from close range on the rebound of a shot from Fabre on a quick counter-attack. But a minute later, Italy had already regained their two-goal lead with a floating shot from the blue line by Dylan di Perna.

This avoidable third goal got the better of Papillon, whom Philippe Bozon replaced at the break with Julian Junca. The French returned to the ice much stronger and clearly dominated. A shot by Kevin Bozon (pictured above) hit the post. Tomas Simonsen finds the back of the net after five minutes on a magnificent action: he overflows Demetz on his right wing, transplants in front of the cage and scores from the backhand. But thereafter, Julian Junca also has a lot of work and is illustrated in particular against Zanetti. The score of 2-3 remains unchanged for a long time.

In the middle of the third period, Italy concedes two almost consecutive penalties. After Dante Hannoun’s high stick, it was the Frigo-Sanna duo who got the best opportunity in numerical inferiority. But while Di Perna is in jail (tripping) and the Italians are changing lines, Julian Junca raises quickly to Spinozzi’s stint on the offensive blue line for Dylan Fabre. He shone technically in this match, and he finally scored his first goal for the France team by placing his cross shot under Fadani’s mitt.

A second excess of France (!) in the last minute puts them in difficulty at the start of extra time, but they come out of it and the game ends on penalties. The victorious feints of Amiénois Simonsen and Bruche are very beautiful, but do not equal that of Pascal Brunner who concludes with a hand after a nice left-right feint. On the sixth shot, Aurélien Dair tries to respond with a symmetrical movement, well executed, but Davide Fadani does not let himself be fooled and blocks the puck with the toe of his boot. The frills are over: Enrico Miglioranzi ends the session without embarrassment, with a big slap in the skylight, and offers Italy a victory in a tournament, which had not happened to him for… more than ten years! Mike Keenan has therefore made a success of his debut and Philippe Bozon will not have been able to savor his distant revenge.

Designated players of the match: Tomas Simonsen for France and Phil Pietroniro for Italy.

France – Italy 3-3 (1-3, 1-0, 1-0, 0-0) / 2-3 on penalties
Sunday November 13, 2022 at 6:30 p.m. at the Tüskecsarnok in Budapest. 349 spectators.
Referees: Attila Nagy and Márton Németh (HON) assisted by Gergő Árkovics and Barna Kis-Király (HON).
Penalties: France 6′ (2′, 2′, 2′, 0′); Italy 6′ (0′, 2′, 4′, 0′).
Shots: France 35 (13, 9, 11, 2); Italy 41 (10, 18, 10, 3).

Score evolution:
0-1 at 02’28: Brunner assisted by Sanna
0-2 at 04’06: P. Pietroniro assisted by Trivellato and Mantenuto (digital sup.)
1-2 at 16’11: Koudri assisted by Fabre and K. Bozon
1-3 at 17’16: Di Perna assisted by Petan
2-3 at 25’09: Simonsen assisted by Thiry and Matima
3-3 at 51’48: Fabre assisted by Spinozzi and Junca (num. sup.)

Shoot to the net :
Italy: Miceli (arrested), Petan (successful), Brunner (successful), Maia (arrested), Fabre (arrested).
France: Matima (stopped), Simonsen (successful), Bruche (successful), Mantenuto (stopped), Frigo (stopped).
Additional shooters: Dair (F, stopped), Miglioranzi (I, successful).

France (4′ for excess)

Forwards:
Aurélien Dair – Fabien Colotti – Bastien Maia
Dylan Fabre (+1) – Adel Koudri – Kevin Bozon (+1)
Baptiste Bruche (-1) – Jordann Bougro (-1) – Cédric Di Dio Balsamo (A)
Rudy Matima – Gabin Ville (2′) – Tomas Simonsen

Defenders:
Kevin Spinozzi (-1) – Fabien Bourgeois (A)
Ivan Esipov (+1) – Thomas Thiry (C, +1)
Enzo Guebey – Enzo Cantagallo (-1)
Lucien Onno

Guardian :
Quentin Papillon then at 20’00 Julian Junca

In reserve: Jules Boscq (D), Guillaume Leclerc, Théo Gueurif, Loïc Farnier (A).

Italy

Forwards:
Luca Frigo (+1) – Alex Petan (+1, 2′) – Daniel Frank (C)
Angelo Miceli – Daniel Mantenuto – Marco Zanetti
Ivan De Luca (-1) – Dante Hannoun (-1, 2′) – Marco Insam (-1)
Marco Sanna – Tommaso Traversa (A) – Pascal Brunner (+1)

Defenders:
Enrico Miglioranzi (A, +2) – Dylan Di Perna (+1, 2′)
Alex Trivellato – Phil Pietroniro
Lorenzo Casetti (-1) – Peter Spornberger (-1)
Patrik Demetz – Gregorio Gios

Guardian :
Davide Fadani

Substitute: Jacob Smith (G). In reserve: Justin Fazio (L), Daniel Glira, Cameron Ginnetti (R), Michele Marchetti, Hannes Kasslatter, Leonardo Felicetti, Daniel Gellon (A).