[PyeongChang 2018] Joint Korean team to face Switzerland in women's hockey classification match

Published : Feb 17, 2018 - 15:05 Updated : Feb 17, 2018 - 15:05

The joint Korean women's hockey team will face Switzerland in the first classification match Sunday.

Switzerland lost to the team of Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) by 6-2 in the quarterfinals on Saturday at Kwandong Hockey Centre in Gangneung and was relegated to the classification contest against Korea at 12:10 p.m. Sunday.

This will be a rematch of the first Group B contest between the two in the preliminary round last Saturday, when Switzerland pounded the overmatched Korea 8-0.

(Yonhap)

The winner of Sunday's game will move on to the fifth-place game at 4:40 p.m. Tuesday, while the loser will drop to the seventh place game at 12:10 p.m. Tuesday.

Anna Shokhina opened the scoring for OAR at 7:22 in the first period, but then Switzerland scored just 48 seconds into the second period to tie the score, as Alina Muller picked up her seventh goal of the tournament.

At 11:47, Lara Stalder's power play goal put Switzerland ahead 2-1, but OAR leveled the score about two minutes later on a goal by Viktoria Kulishova.

OAR then went up 3-2 at 18:53 in the same period with Liana Ganeyeva's power play goal. Then the rout was on in the final period, as OAR poured in three unanswered goals -- by Yelena Dergachyova, Shokhina and Olga Sosina.

Korea and Japan, the two bottom feeders from Group B, were relegated to the classification stage after losing their first two preliminary games. Japan then defeated Korea 4-1 to take the third seed in the group. Japan will face the loser of the Sweden-Finland quarterfinals game scheduled for later Saturday.

Canada and the United States, the top two seeds from Group A, have advanced directly to the semifinals. They will be joined by Switzerland and the winner of the Sweden-Finland showdown. (Yonhap)