After three years of struggle, the Italian National Hockey Team will finally return to the top level of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championships for 2026. This triumph comes at a perfect time, as they also qualify for the 2026 Olympics in Milan as the hosts, meaning they’ll get to participate against NHL players in two major international tournaments next year.
Related: Against the Odds: The Journey of the Italian Ice Hockey Team
In order to advance, Italy had to finish in the top two of this year’s Division IA World Championships, which started on Apr. 27th. They secured points in all but one game: a regulation win over Japan in the opener, a shootout loss to Ukraine, a regulation victory against Poland, a regulation loss to the United Kingdom (U.K.), and a dominant regulation win over Romania today, clinching enough points for promotion.
It was a surprise to the hockey world when Jukka Jalonen, former coach of the Finnish national team, accepted the position to take the reins of Italy. His defense-first coaching style earned Finland gold at three IIHF World Championships, despite typically looking weaker than their opponents on paper. Excluding an outlier 5-1 loss to the U.K., Italy averaged just 1.5 goals against per game in their other four contests. And they finished with a plus-7 goal differential.
As it stands, the Italians will be in a tough group for the Olympics in February, as they’re slated to join Canada, Sweden and Switzerland in Group A. Even if they don’t scratch out a win against those NHL-laden lineups, they can still make a name for themselves by keeping it close and building off that momentum at the World Championships in May. Their last win at the top level of the Worlds came in 2019, when they beat Austria 4-3 in a shootout.
This also guarantees that Italy will finish among the top 16 in the IIHF World rankings for 2026, with a chance to finish much higher; they haven’t been in the top 10 since 1997, when they beat Latvia, Germany and France at the top level, while tying with Norway.
