Canada thumps South Korea to seal Para ice hockey semifinal spot

After USA and China secured their placement into the next round on day two, there were four more places left for the teams going into the final day of round robin on Tuesday (8 March) at the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing.

PyeongChang 2018 silver medallists Canada booked a place in the semifinals with the host nation and Czech Republic picking the other victories on day three.

HAT-TRICK HERO DUNN

Ken Babey's team bounced back from their opening 5-0 loss to the USA by beating South Korea 6-0 in Group A on Tuesday's opening game.

"It's just as much mental as it is physical when you get to these little, short tournaments and you want to be on the up the whole way," Greg Westlake said.

"It's about peaking at the right time, making that gold-medal game, and then doing those things that we do well as a team."

Canada got into the lead in the middle of the first period when Liam Hickey scored after an assist from James Dunn. The 21-year-old Dunn got himself on the scoresheet only 21 second later to double Canada's lead.

The two-time World Championships silver medallist, Dunn continued in fine form for the rest of the game completing a hat-trick. Tyler McGregor and Billy Bridges scored the other two goals for Canada to complete the victory.

After recording only three shots against the USA, South Korea managed to get one more in their second game. Their efficiency is proving to be a great problem as it was at the Ostrava 2021 World Championships A-Pool.

South Korea will play for a semifinal spot against Italy on Wednesday (9 March) at 16:35 (local time) in the qualifying finals.

CONFIDENT CZECHS

Italy ended third in Group B losing the last group stage game against China 6-0. The host nation scored after only 16 seconds into the first period. Zhidong Wang got himself on the scoreboard early in the game.

Xuesong Bai, Dianpeng Qiu and Guangjian Hu scored three more goals for China in the first period. Qiu and Wang added two more in the second period to set the final result.

“We have to fight for a place in the semifinals and if we do, we’ll likely meet USA or Canada. We’ve not met these teams before and we know they’re the best in the world. So we have to be very careful in how we approach that match," Wang said after the game.

China will play the Czech Republic on Wednesday at 20:05 (local time) for a place in the semifinal where the defending champion USA waits for its opponent.

In the final group stage game, Czech Republic sealed their spot on Wednesday's qualifying finals with a 3-0 win over Slovakia.

“I am happy to win the match. It could be a little bit better next time," said the scorer of first goal Zdenek Krupicka.

Pavel Kubes scored in the second period with Michal Geier confirming the second spot in Group B for the Czechs.

"China are a very good team but we can win the match if we play how we need to,” added Krupicka.

Slovakia's goalie Eduard Lepacek was outstanding once again recording 16 saves, but could not avoid a third straight loss. Slovakia placed seventh in their first-ever Paralympic appearance.

Live streaming and live results from Beijing 2022 will be available on Paralympic.org. You can follow all the action, behind the scenes and news on World Para Ice Hockey social media channels on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.