Japan National Women’s Hockey Team – Page 2

Le Mi (Hannah Miller) scored the lone goal in the shootout to lift China to a hard-fought 2-1 upset over Japan in Group B action on Sunday at the Wukesong Sports Centre.

”I’m so happy for my teammates that we could win this game,” said a tearful Baiwei Yu, the Chinese captain. “I’m so proud to be part of Team China.”

Japan, despite the loss, goes through to the 2022 Olympic quarter-finals with the single point.

China’s playoff hopes are surging too. China secured two or more points for the second straight game and sits third in Group B with five points. The Chinese got their first Olympic home-ice win ever with a 3-1 victory over Denmark, which, like Sweden, remains pointless through two games.

In the first period, the Japanese withstood a strong Chinese push. Coach Yuji Iizuka’s players showed their characteristic speed and discipline in the second and third, but China refused to give in. This was a strong, gritty outing for the host nation, which sits 20th in the IIHF Women’ s World Ranking, while Japan is sixth.

In regulation time, Baozhen Hu (Maddie Woo) scored her first Olympic goal for China.

For Japan, assistant captain Akane Hosoyamada added her first Olympic goal. The Japanese are aiming to improve on their previous best Olympic finish (sixth in 1998 and 2018).

“It was a high-speed, high-skilled game, back and forth,” said Hosoyamada. “We had some chances, they had some chances, and just one more went in for them.”

China wraps up its Group B slate with an important game against Sweden on Monday. Japan goes up versus the unbeaten Czechs on Tuesday.

“It will really be a battle, the toughest battle,” said Iizuka. “We expect our players to come out hard and clinch first place.”

This was a duel between two top goalies, and China’s Jiaying Zhou got the better of Fujimoto, a three-time Olympian. Japan outshot China 33-30.

“Winning today’s game just means we can play more games, and I just want to be ready for tomorrow’s game [against Sweden],” said Zhou, who stopped all five Japanese shootout attempts she faced. “We’re just trying to think about tomorrow’s game already.”

Versus Japan, China came out with an honest, determined effort, putting plenty of pucks on Fujimoto and not making it easy for the Japanese to exit their zone. The Japanese netminder had to be alert when leading Chinese scorer Qiqi Lin (Leah Lum) tipped a drive by top blueliner Yuting Wang (Jessica Wong) on net near the eight-minute mark.

“We knew they were going to come out hard,” Hosoyamada said. “They’re definitely a good team and they’ve got some skilled players.”

About a minute later, an unfortunate knee-on-knee collision between Chinese assistant captain Mengying Zhang and linemate Beika Li (Rebekah Kolstad) in the Japanese zone left Zhang crumpled on the ice. A stretcher was summoned and Zhang was carried off.

The Chinese responded to their teammate’s injury by redoubling their efforts, but Beika Li’s woes continued. She was in the box for an illegal hit when Hosoyamada opened the scoring on the power play at 18:02, unleashing a laser wrister that beat Jiaying Zhou high to the stick side, as captain Chiho Osawa provided the screen.

This was the first power play goal the Chinese have conceded at these Olympics, coming on their seventh disadvantage. On the very same sequence, Le Mi took another illegal-hit minor, and Japan went straight back to the woman advantage, although this time it was fruitless.

The Chinese, loaded with veterans from the KRS Vanke Rays of the Russian Women’s Hockey League, kept throwing their weight around excessively, as Ni Lin (Rachel Llanes) got penalized for the same infraction in the second period.

Both teams’ battle level remained high as the scoreless middle frame wore on, with leaders like Japan’s Chiho Osawa and China’s Yuting Wang fearlessly blocking shots. The sense of desperation added to the drama.

Just 1:06 into the third period, China knotted the score on a broken play. Beika Li finally got rewarded when her shot deflected off Japanese blueliner Shiori Koike and a kneeling Fujimoto bobbled the puck, enabling Baozhen Hu to pop into it a half-empty net. The Wukesong Sports Centre erupted with joy.

A few minutes later, China narrowly failed to take the lead as a dangerous-looking 3-on-1 rush came to naught. With under 10 minutes left, the Chinese hemmed Japan in its own end for stretches. Still, the Japanese came close to ending it in regulation when Chiho Osawa and Haruna Yoneyama buzzed the Chinese net with just over a minute left.

“I think we just had bad luck there,” Hosoyamada said. “The bounces didn’t go our way. I think we’ve gotta just keep playing our game moving forward and hope that luck comes our way.”

End-to-end action ensued during overtime with great chances on both sides. For China, Le Mi’s net drive carried the puck over the line. She fell into Fujimoto and the naturalized forward’s leg then bumped it in. But after a video review, the officials said no goal. Meanwhile, Jiaying Zhou stood tall when Japan’s Shiori Koike got a clearcut breakaway with a minute left.

“I know there was probably a goal set for the team [before the tournament], but for myself, I wasn’t thinking about that,” said Zhou. “I just wanted to do my best.”

The Chinese women are faring better so far than the unified Korean team did in PyeongChang. In 2018, the Koreans were defeated 8-0 by Switzerland, 8-0 by Sweden, and 4-1 by Japan in their first three games.

In their lone previous Olympic meeting, China beat host Japan 6-1 in 11 February 1998 in Nagano. That year, China hit its senior IIHF peak with fourth place. These Asian rivals have split their four Women’s Worlds meetings, with China winning in 2000 (3-0) and 2004 (5-2) and Japan in 2008 (3-1) and 2009 (2-1).

In the second game for both of these Group B teams, Japan went to 2-0 after a 6-2 win over Denmark, whose record drops to 0-2. The Japanese beat Sweden 3-1 on Thursday and were fresh after a day off, while the Danes were playing their second of back-to-backs after a heartbreaking 3-1 loss to China in a game that was tied 1-1 heading into the final minute of regulation time.

As was the case in their team’s first game, Japan’s Toko sisters, Haruka and Ayaka, were a big part of the offence and a treat to watch play together, anticipating each other’s place on the ice with ease. Forward Haruka led all players with three points and defender Ayaka had two. Shikori Koike and Hikaru Yamashita also had two-point games.

“For a lot of our players, this is the third Olympics,” Japanese head coach Yuji Iizuka said about his team’s dominant first two games. “They have that experience from Sochi and PyeongChang, and we’re benefiting from that. This is what we’ve been working hard for together, and like a lot of teams here, our goal is a medal.”

The Danes had high hopes of being competitive in this game following their match-up in last summer’s World Championship, which Japan won 1-0 in a very evenly-played game. However, after a cautious first half of the opening period in this one, Japan quickly took command of the game with three goals in a span of 3:04.

“I think we were the better team in the first five minutes, but then we gave up too many odd-man rushes and breakaways and we can’t do that at this level, especially against Japan,” said Danish captain Josefine Jakobsen. “They’re a quick team, fast players, and unfortunately, that’s what happened today and that’s something we have to be better at.”

The first goal came at 10:36 as Hiraku Yamashita chased down a loose puck in the Danish zone, cut inside and beat Cassandra Repstock-Romme with a beautiful forehand deke.

“My strong point is skating fast, and I try to use that to the team’s advantage,” said Yamashita. “I saw the puck there and I was only thinking, ‘Skate faster!’ When I got to it, the puck went up on its side and I was trying to get it to settle down. I don’t know if it was such a great move, I was only trying to somehow get it past the goalie.”

Just 1:22 later, Haruka Toko won a puck battle along the boards and skated in on goal. She drew a delayed penalty as a Danish defender tried to restrain her but stayed strong on the puck and beat Repstock-Romme between the legs to make it 2-0.

The Japanese kept coming and 1:42 after that, it was yet another goal off the rush. This time, Rui Ukita took control of the puck at her own blueline, using her speed and body position to easily fend off a couple of Danish stick-check attempts, and scored on a backhand deke.

Trying to curb the onslaught before it got out of hand, Danish coach Peter Elander called a timeout at that point and also made a goaltending change. Repstock-Romme, who was fantastic in the team’s opening game against China, was lifted after allowing three goals on 12 shots in this game, and replaced by Lisa Jensen.

“I just needed to get them to settle down and start playing the right way because we couldn’t continue to play like that. They were just killing us with their skating,” said Elander. “I took Cassandra out because it wasn’t going right for her, but the chances against her were too big. We did better after that but we were in a big hole.”

Less than three minutes into the second period it was 4-0 when Ayaka Toko took a pass from her younger sister, then teed up and blasted a shot from the point that hit the top-left corner of the net, as close as you can get to the post and crossbar without touching either.

Denmark finally got on the board just shy of the game’s midpoint. Nicoline Jensen made a stretch pass to Mia Bau at the far blueline. Receiving the pass in full flight, Bau skated down the left wing, waited for Fujimoto to go down and fired a perfect shot high to the short side.

Japan restored its four-goal lead in the dying seconds of the middle frame on the power play when Akane Shiga’s shot hit a stick and looped over Jensen’s glove.

With the outcome firmly in hand, the Japanese tallied a sixth time with 12 minutes to play when Yamashita sent a backhand pass out of the corner to Haruna Yoneyama, who beat Jensen to the short side.

“I wanted to score myself,” Yamashita smiled. “I was going to shoot but I was in a little too deep and then I saw Haruna on the backside, and I passed to her and she scored.”

Then Jakobsen scored a power-play goal with just 5.4 seconds to play, taking a shot from the slot that went off a body in front, but that just made the final score a bit more respectable.

“It’s always exciting to get your first goal in the Olympics,” said Jakobsen. “It was only five seconds left, but it was on the power play and that’s something we can bring into the next game.”

Japan is back in action tomorrow and will try to remain perfect against China, while Denmark gets a day off and will try for its first win on Monday against Czechia.

“They’re a really good team with a lot of talented players,” Iizuka said about the Olympic host team. “We have to focus on our defence and be ready to take advantage of whatever offensive chances we get.”

Source: iihf.com