Ice hockey-Gritty Sweden beat China 2-1 to keep hope alive
BEIJING, February 7 (Reuters) – A sad Swedish team took their first victory in the Olympic ice hockey for women on Monday, which gave the hosts China 2-1 to keep their chances of advancing in the tournament.
China’s Kang Mulan started the shooter with a fantastic individual effort early in the first period, but Sweden’s Felizia Wikner-Zienkiewicz responded in the second and hit the Chinese goalkeeper Zhou Jiaying on his glove on a penalty shot.
Forward Josefin Bouveng found the nets just over a minute later to give what turned out to be the narrow margin of victory.
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China played in front of a very enthusiastic – albeit limited – home crowd at Wukesong Sports Center and pulled their goalkeeper with less than three minutes left of the match but could not break through Sweden’s strong defense with the extra skater.
“Our players really showed their mettle, especially at the end of this match,” said Swedish head coach Ulf Lundberg.
“We wanted the first (goal) but China did it and we had to be even stronger to turn the match around.”
Sweden will have less than 24 hours of rest before taking on Nordic rival Denmark on Tuesday in their final preparatory round for the Olympics.
“It’s tight and I knew it was going to be tight,” Lundberg said. “It’s good for women’s hockey. It’s going to be a tough match tomorrow but we have confidence now after this match.”
The result was a bitter disappointment for China, which a day earlier had overthrown rival Japan in a tense penalty shootout.
“I’m so proud of my team,” China captain Yu Baiwei told reporters. “I think we did a good job the last three games and we beat Japan and it was a big win for us.”
Earlier in the day, Denmark beat the Czech Republic 3-2 and Canada recorded a routine 6-1 win against the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). That matchup featured a chaotic and confusing start, as the Canadian team refused to take the ice for nearly an hour while waiting for the opponents’ COVID-19 test results. Read more
Players eventually took the ice with masks due to “safety and security issues”.
At the National Indoor Stadium, Switzerland recorded its first victory in the tournament and beat Finland 3-2.
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Reporting by Amy Tennery in Beijing, further reporting by Steve Keating; Edited by Bill Berkrot
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