GANGNEUNG, Gangwon Province -- Three North Koreans, including one new face, will dress for the joint Korean female hockey team's first classification match against Switzerland at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Sunday.
At least three out of 22 players in the lineup for each game here must be from North Korea, as per terms set by the International Olympic Committee for the combined team last month. And head coach Sarah Murray went with forwards Kim Un-hyang and Kim Hyang-mi, and defender Jin Ok. The puck drop is 12:10 p.m. at Kwandong Hockey Centre in Gangneung, host of all ice events during the Olympics.
Kim Un-hang played in each of the past three games, while Kim Hyang-mi played once in the preliminary round. Jin is making her first appearance.
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The joint Korean women`s hockey team practices at Kwandong Hockey Training Centre in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, on Saturday. (Yonhap) |
During the preliminary round, Murray used three North Koreans in each of her first two games and then had four in the lineup for the third game.
This is a rematch of Korea's first-ever Olympic match from Feb. 10. Switzerland prevailed 8-0 then against a clearly overmatched Korea, but Murray has said her players will be more mentally ready for the second go-around.
And for the first time in the tournament, Murray only used her North Korean players on the bottom two lines, after spreading them across the second to fourth lines.
Kim Un-hyang is on the third line next to Han Soo-jin and Choi Yu-jung. Jin will be the seventh defenseman, and Kim Hyang-mi will be the 13th forward.
She also tinkered with the first line for the first time, replacing winger Choi Yu-jung with Choi Ji-yeon, who is second on the team with six shots on goal.
The second unit features two Canadian-born forwards, Danelle Im and Caroline Park, along with Korean-American Randi Heesoo Griffin. Korean-born U.S. adoptee Marissa Brandt will play defense, while the usual forward, South Korean-born Kim Hee-won, is expected to be on the blue line as well.
South Korean forward Jung Si-yun, a healthy scratch over the first three games, will be making her Olympic debut.
The winner of this match will move to the fifth-place contest, while the loser will drop to the seventh-place match. The other classification game pits Sweden against Japan, with the puck drop at 4:40 p.m. on Sunday.
The 23 South Korean and 12 North Korean players have been training together since late January. While the IOC bent the rules so that Korea could have 35 players on its entry -- all other nations have 23 -- the game roster of 22, with 20 skaters and two goaltenders, was left unchanged.
Aside from injured forward Lee Eun-ji, there were two South Korean healthy scratches: forwards Lee Yeon-jeong and Cho Mi-hwan. (Yonhap)
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