Japan’s hopes for a spot in the quarterfinals of the women’s hockey tournament were dashed with a 2-1 loss to host Russia in a preliminary-round game at Shayba Arena on Tuesday night.
The result moved both Russia and Sweden in the quarters, while Japan is relegated to the classification round.
Russia opened the scoring with 8 minutes and 21 seconds left in the first period when forward Tatyana Burina stole the puck then quickly flipped a shot past Japan goalie Nana Fujimoto from the point.