Japan¡¯s women¡¯s ice hockey team, Smile Japan, blanked France 3-0 behind goalie Nana Fujimoto¡¯s 25 saves in their opening game at the world championships in Espoo, Finland, on Thursday.
Mei Miura opened the scoring for Japan when she netted a backhander from point-blank range in the eighth minute of the second period after a nice pass from Rui Ukita. Japan took a 2-0 lead just three minutes later when Ayaka Toko scored from the slot on a pass from Chiho Osawa.
The score remained 2-0 for Japan until less than seven minutes remained in the third period when Akane Hosoyama notched the final goal on a power play following a pass from Shiori Koike.
¡°Once we got our first goal it created momentum for us, but I think if they scored first I couldn¡¯t tell you if the outcome would have been the same,¡± Hosoyamada told The Japan Times.
¡°Nana kept us in the game and we were able to clean up the rebounds,¡± added Hosoyamada. ¡°In this tournament, to put the pucks in the back of the net we need to have traffic in front and hunt for the rebounds just like we did against France.¡±
Japan is in Group B in the 10-team championship along with France, Germany, Sweden and the Czech Republic.
Japan will play Germany on Saturday in its next group-stage game.
Group A is comprised of the United States, Canada, Russia, Switzerland and Finland.
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