SHANGHAI/VALMIERA – The Danish women’s national team also defeated Austria, 1-0, and just needs one more point against Italy to advance to the Final Olympic Qualification. China is in a similar situation in the other group and needs one point in the deciding game against France.

Austria – Denmark 0-1 (0-0, 0-1, 0-0)

VALMIERA – Denmark entered the tournament as the lowest seeded team after going through the preliminary qualification, but just two days into the tournament, the victory is already within their grasp. After defeating host Latvia 4-1, the Danes also upset Austria with a 1-0 win.

Austria outshot the Danes 31-21, but Henriette Østergaard scored the only goal of the game during a box play at 15:30 of the second period.

On the other side Kamilla Lund Nielsen kept her goal clean and earned a shutout with 30 saves. She already had 20 of 21 shots saved in the game against Latvia.

The wins show a clear upward trend for the Danes. They have been ranked behind both Austria and Latvia in the last four Women’s World Championships.

The teams will now have a one-day break before the last round on Sunday. Denmark leads with six points before Austria and Italy with three points each.

The Danes need one more point against Italy to clinch the tournament win. If Italy wins in regulation time, Austria and Italy have the chance to advance instead of Denmark but are then depending on the final score.

Click here for scores and stats.

Italy – Latvia 3-0 (1-0, 2-0, 0-0)

VALMIERA – Host Latvia suffered another loss against a lower-ranked team. Despite 26 shots on goal the Latvians didn’t manage to overcome Italian netminder Giulia Mazzocchi.

The Azzurri did it better. Mia Campo Bagatin opened the scoring at 17:20 for the team that plays at Division II Group A level, two tiers below the Latvians.

At 2:32 of the middle frame Beatrix Lager extended the lead and just 19 seconds later Eleonora Dalpra made it 3-0 for Italy.

The game started to become rougher with many minor penalties, but the score did not change and Italy remains at least theoretically in contention for first place.

Click here for scores and stats.

France – Netherlands  3–4 (1-0, 1-2, 1-1, 0-0, 0-1)

SHANGHAI – The Netherlands came back from an opening day loss to China to defeat France in a shootout, 4-3, at the women’s Olympic Pre-Qualification Tournament Group E. Savine Wielenga had the game winning shootout goal as her team managed to sneak out a victory despite being outshot by a whopping ration of 66-19.

The Dutch women came back from an early two-goal deficit to tie the game 2-2 in the second period. Defender Zoe Barbier and forward Bieke van Nes scored the goals.

In the third period, France went back up by a score thanks to a goal from Lore Baudrit 13:28 into the frame. Then with just over a minute left in the game, Mieneke de Jong scored her second goal of the tournament, sending the teams to overtime. With no winner declared in the extra period, the teams went on to the shootout.

Lara Escudero for France and Barbier for the Netherlands took home the Best Player awards. Credit should also go to Dutch goaltender Claudia van Leeuwen, who stopped 63 of 66 shots on net from France. During the shootout she stoned the first two French shooters, the third, forward Soline Fohrer, missing the net.

France drops to 1W-1L, the same record as the Netherlands, the loss benefited most of all the host Chinese, who are undefeated in two games after beating Great Britain.

Click here for scores and stats.

Great Britain – China 0–5 (0-2, 0-2, 0-1)

SHANGHAI – China’s women’s national team took another big step forward in the Olympic Pre-Qualification tournament Group E, winning its second game 5-0 over Great Britain.

Liang Tang scored two goals and earned Best Player honours. Captain Rui Sun had four points (1 goal, 3 assists), while Minghui Kong and Mengying Zhang rounded out the scoring for the Chinese. Sun is the tournament's leading scorer with seven points in two games.

Great Britain has now allowed 12 goals and has yet to score one. They will face the Netherlands in the final game, but their Olympic dreams are over.

China has two wins and only needs one more point against France to advance to the women's Final Olympic Qualification stage while the French need a win in regulation time against China to move to the next round.

The Netherlands and Great Britain are out from the race for first place.

Click here for scores and stats.

ADAM STEISS
MARTIN MERK