LIEPAJA/MARIBOR – Norway won Group B of the Women’s Olympic Pre-Qualification after two games and moved onto the final qualifying stage.
 
After beating Great Britain, Norway also won its key game against Austria, 1-0. Camilla Hille scored the lone goal at 32:54. The Scandinavians dominated their opponents with 40-26 shots on goal and Henriette Sletback missed an earlier lead with her penalty shot at 3:44.

Goaltenders Jorid Dagfinrud Oiestad and Christine Smestad, who came in after the goal, kept the Norwegian cage clean and had 16 and 10 saves respectively.
 
Austria and Great Britain can’t overtake the Norwegians in the standings after losing their head-to-head games to Norway . Host Slovenia also missed their chance to win the tournament by losing to Great Britain, 5-1.
 
Click here for scores and stats of Group A.
 
Slovakia is the favourite to win Group A in Liepaja. After blanking Latvia, 2-0, in the first game, the Slovaks also beat Italy. After two games, Slovakia remains the only undefeated team. Nikoleta Celarova, Iveta Karafiatova and Petra Pravlikova found the net in the 3-1 victory, Anna de la Forest de Divonne scored the 2-1 goal for Italy.
 
Host Latvia shut out Croatia, 9-0. Inese Geca-Miljone scored four goals, Iveta Koka three, and Julija Mihejenko and Sarma Pone one goal each.
 
Despite the three-point advantage of Slovakia, three other teams (Italy, Croatia, Latvia) still have the chance to win the tournament.
 
Click here for scores and stats of Group B.