After thrashing Britain 8-0 in their opening game yesterday, reigning European champions and top seeds Italy prevailed in a much tighter contest against Japan with goals from Bruno Balossetti and main man Florian Planker helping them overcome the 2013 Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships B-Pool silver medallists 2-1.

"We knew it would be a hard game because Japan have grown up a lot as a team in the last couple of years," said Planker, who now tops the scoring charts with three goals and two assists.

"They had some chances and were able to push with a score finally, and at the end it took a little bit of luck for us to keep them from doing it again."

After overcoming defending B pool world champions Germany 2-1 in their first outing, Sweden handed Britain their second heavy defeat of the tournament as goals from Niklas Rakos, Rasmus Lundgren, Peter Ojala and a brace apiece for Per Kasperi and Niklas Ingvarsson saw the men in yellow emerge 7-0 winners over a British side, whose hopes of appearing in Sochi next March already look over.

While only shipping six goals in their first two matches compared to Britain's 15, Germany's hopes of making the Paralympic cut are also in serious jeopardy after they went down to an impressive looking South Korean side 4-1.

Bernhard Hering's solitary strike was too little too late for the German's as they had no answer to the speed and skill of the South Koreans lead by star man Seung-Hwan Jung, who bagged two goals and is carrying on the form that saw him recognised as one of the players of the tournament at the World Championships A-Pool in Goyang earlier this year.

Seung Hwan Jung was the star man for South Korea as his two goals helped his side overcome Germany on day two in Turin