USA beats Italy 14-1 at the Milan Cortina Paralympics, beating attendance record for Hockey from Salt Lake 2002

USA vs Italy Hockey game at the Milan Cortina Paralympics. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

MILAN, Italy — The ice hockey docket had four games on Saturday at the Milan Cortina Paralympics. USA beat Italy 14-1, Canada beat Slovakia 8-0, Czechia beat Japan 3-0, and China beat Germany 12-0. The tournament is coed, however the only two women in the entire 2026 Paralympics in Hockey are from China and from Slovakia. The Salt Lake 2002 Paralympics has held the record for spectator attendance for a single hockey game at the gold medal match, until this USA v. Italy game.

The pool play was a party atmosphere with DJ-directed crowd singalongs switching from America’s “Ice Ice Baby” to Italy’s “Volare.” 

Within the first 25 seconds Italy scored against the United States, setting up what many thought would be an interesting game, but the early goal seemed to light a fire under the American team as they were sure not to let it happen again.

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All photos: TownLift // Michele Roepke

Josh Pauls, the USA Team Captain told TownLift and other reporters after the game, “Pressure is a privilege. So, it’s a privilege to be here, and it’s a privilege to represent the United States of America at the Paralympic Games.” 

Pauls is in hot pursuit of a fifth Paralympic hockey gold medal while, more importantly to him, leading his team to defend it’s title as Paralympic Champions.

“We have to earn everything we have going forward. This team’s different than any other other teams we’ve had. We just have such a camaraderie, and it’s the most unselfish I’ve ever played on.” 

The Milan Cortina Olympics saw both the USA Men and Women’s hockey teams get the gold. Pauls said that, yes, it would be historic and amazing to add a Paralympic gold to the count, but that they were gonna take one game at a time.

Play was physical in all four games with the occasional fight, plenty of intentional direct contact between athletes, and frequent loud sounds of sleds steering into sideboards. Players would have to skate temporarily with one stick often, after becoming separated from their second one.

USA’s Head Coach David Hoff said that when they saw the schedule months ago they were excited to play Italy first in their home nation, especially after playing in Beijing four years ago during the pandemic with no oversees spectators. “We figured it was gonna be a lot of fun playing Italy, and it certainly was a great environment today. A cool start for us today to be in an atmosphere like this, for sure.”  

Hoff spoke about the potential medal match-up as the Paralympic tournament progresses saying that Canada and the U.S. have a rivalry which is strong at every level of the sport” Olympics, Paralympics, men, women, NHL, Stanley Cup, NCAA, youth, you name it, and it’s an exciting event.

At one of the intermissions for the USA v Italy game, the lights were turned town and while the zambonis cleaned the ice, over the P.A speakers played John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Everybody turned on their cell phone flashlights and swayed to the tune, singing the English lyrics together.