Following a defeat to Slovakia in their opening game, Finland bounced back with an important victory over rivals Sweden, and they looked to be building real momentum as they cruised into a big lead after 20 minutes against the Italians.
The dealock was broken in the seventh minute when Artturi Lehkonen played the puck from behind the net to Mikko Rantanen, who drew the defencemen and goaltender before shipping the puck across to Sebastian Aho, who provided the simple tap in.
Rantanen was the provider for Finland's second - Mikael Frycklund had been called for hooking, and the Leijonat made full use of the powerplay, cutting the Italy defence open with sublime passing, as Miro Heiskanen found Rantanen, who squared for Mikael Granlund to score in the 10th minute.
Less than a minute later, it was 3-0, as Italy gave Kaapo Kakko too much time and space on the left side to pick his spot and pick out the top corner of Damian Clara's net. The Finns added no more goals in the first period, at the end of which they led the shots on goal count 13-2.
That had become 23-2 when the relentless Finns added their fourth goal four minutes into period two, as Niko Mikkola took aim from the blue line, and his shot was deflected past Clara by Joel Kiviranta.
Less than four minutes later, it was 5-0, as Italy failed to clear their zone, allowing Eetu Luostarinen of the Florida Panthers to find the Seattle Kraken's Kakko in space, and he rifled in his second of the game.
Kakko's club teammate Eeli Tolvanen had the puck in the net again, but following a coach's challenge, the goal was disallowed. However, Finland needed only wait a couple more minutes for number six, as a sweeping attack resulted in Luostarinen setting up Granlund to get his second goal.
Italy head coach Jukka Jalonen, who guided Finland to gold in Beijing four years ago, elected to bring in Davide Fadani for Clara at the start of period three, but the new goaltender was picking the puck out of his net just a minute later.
A tripping call against Marco Zanetti didn't help matters, as Heiskanen took aim from a central position just inside the blue line, and fired through the crowd and into the bottom corner.
Getting back to full strength was no great help to the Azzurri either, as they again gave up cheap possession inside their zone, and this time Lehkonen had space to shoot, and once again the unsighted Fadani could do little about it.
Lehkonen added a third point to his personal tally two minutes later, when he and Aho created a two-on-none in front of the Italian goal, and he drew Fadani before teeing up Aho for a simple finish and a 9-0 lead.
After three goals in under four minutes, Finland had to wait nearly 10 minutes for the next goal - and double figures - to arrive, and it arrived in style. Haula won an attacking face-off, which Armia collected and buried past the goaltender in a heartbeat.
Haula and Armia then combined to create the final goal in the last three minutes, with the latter providing a wonderful reverse pass for the arriving Kiviranta to make the final score 11-0 to Finland.
Finland had 62 shots on goal in the game to Italy's 15. Rantanen, Lehkonen and Kakko led the game with three points each.
With Slovakia, Finland and Sweden finishing on six points each, it's Slovakia who take first place owing to having the best goal difference in the matches between the trio.
A +11 goal difference in total for Antti Pennanen's men gives them a great chance of being the best second-placed team and going directly to the last eight, but they must wait for tomorrow's results to be certain.
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