China stays as Netherlands promoted to Women's Division 1 Group A

World
Europe

China got the third consecutive defeat in the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship Division I Group B tournament in Beijing on Friday, losing 2-1 to Kazakhstan and staying at the same group level for next season.

Both sides in the game played aggressively, but the first goal did not come until midway through the second period when Larisa Sviridova's backhand gave the Kazakh's the lead. Three and half minutes later, the visitors doubled their lead thanks to Galia Nurgaliyeva excellent wrist shot.

China then called a time-out to get on the board with two and a half minutes remaining in the second period. After a scramble in front of the net, China kept the puck in the zone.

The shot was tipped off the crossbar and Ma Rui poked it in the net. But that was not enough to level the match as Kazakhstan won 2-1.

"Both of us knew that this game was our last and was very important, so we played very hard, but were too disorganized," said Kong Minghui, China's forward.

Finally, China finished the tournament in fourth place with two wins and three losses, including a 3-0 win to Latvia, a 5-2 win to the Republic of Korea (ROK), a 0-4 loss to the Netherlands and a 1-2 loss to Poland, staying in the Division 1 Group B.

Earlier on Friday, the Netherlands faced Poland to decide the winner of Group B. The Dutches came in unbeaten while Poland had three wins and one loss.

Netherlands captain Savine Wielenga opened the scoring 30 seconds into the second period. Then the Netherlands doubled their lead midway through the third period when Isabelle Schollaardt set up for Zoe Barbier. 2-0 was the final score.

The Netherlands earned promotion to Division 1 Group A with a perfect 5-0 record. Meanwhile, the ROK beat Latvia 4-1 and the Europeans are relegated to Division 2.