Kazakhstan’s men’s national team had a flair for the dramatic on Sunday at the 2027 Asia Championship. Needing to secure just one point in its final game of the tournament against Korea to win gold, Kazakhstan played the Koreans through three scoreless periods and an extra five-minute overtime period, eventually winning the game 1-0 in a shootout.
The victory gave Kazakhstan its third-consecutive gold medal at this event, which is only three years old. A Korean win in regulation would have seen Korea, Kazakhstan and Japan all finish in a tie with six points, but it was not meant to be.
The Snow Leopards took gold, Japan won silver and Korea grabbed bronze. Winless China rounded out the event and finished in fourth place. Here’s a look at the two games that made up the final day of the Asia Championship in Jeonju, Korea.
Kazakhstan 1, Korea 0
This game was all about the goaltenders, as Kazakhstan’s Vladislav Nurek and Korea’s Suhoon Choi both recorded shutouts. The unfortunate part was one of these goalies would have to take a loss and in this case it was Choi.
The game was even throughout the 60-minute regulation, with Korea holding a 10-8 shots advantage after the first, the teams each firing nine shots on goal in the second, and Kazakhstan outshooting Korea 5-3 in the third. Both teams had 22 shots on goal over three periods.
Late in the third, Korea’s Sihwan Kim was assessed a five-minute major penalty for boarding, giving Kazakhstan a glorious chance to win the game. The Kazakhs couldn’t convert during the one minute five seconds left in the third with the man advantage, so the powerplay carried over to overtime.
There, Kazakhstan had a number of great looks as the powerplay switched to a 4-on-3 for almost four minutes.
Dias Gusseinov sent a nice pass to the front of the crease to Sayan Daniyar but Daniyar wasn’t able to tip the puck in.
Kazakhstan maintained control of the puck after the near-miss and had three additional Grade A looks. Danil Butenko’s point shot was stopped by Choi and the rebound went right to Kazakhstan’s forwards who had not one, but two incredible chances to win the game but somehow Choi kept the puck out. Then, without a stick, Choi made perhaps his best save of the game, stretching out to his right to absolutely stone Butenko who fired a one-timer from the top of the circles.
The shootout followed a five-man format but would last 18 shooters as both Choi and Nurek did splendid work.
Chong Min Lee and Artur Gross both started the scoring on the first two shots before five-straight shooters – Korea’s Minjae Kwon, Sangyeob Kim and Geonwoo Kim, along with Kazakhstan’s Gusseinov and Mazim Mukhametov – couldn’t convert.
Yevgeniy Rymarev gave Kazakhstan a brief 2-1 lead but Minjoon Huh answered right back for Korea and the teams were tied 2-2 after the initial five rounds, meaning more shooters were needed to decide a winner.
In the ninth round of shooters, Gusseinov took the puck wide to his left, then skated inside as he approached the Korean goal and smartly slid the puck between the legs of Choi. Needing a goal to extend the game, Sihwan Kim would also take the puck wide and skate to the middle, but hit shot aimed at the top corner was stopped by Nurek, who immediately raised his arms and looked to the heavens to end a thriller of a hockey game. His teammates then poured onto the ice to celebrate gold.
Japan 4, China 1
The Chinese saved its best performance for last at the Asia Championship, playing favoured Japan to a scoreless first period. It wasn’t until the 17:36 mark of the second that Japan finally cashed in a goal, with Chikara Hanzawa sneaking in from the corner and sending a nice pass to the slot to Sota Isogai, who one-timed the puck in on a powerplay.
China’s Shifeng Chen faced 41 shots in net and did his best to keep things close. But three even-strength goals by Japan in the third from Teruto Nakajima, Ryosuke Miura and Kotaro Tsutsumi broke the game wide open and gave Japan a 4-0 lead.
Yuyang Hou scored with under a minute to play to end Eiki Sato’s shutout bid in the Japanese net but that would conclude the scoring.
Japan’s lone loss came on opening day of the tournament as they fell narrowly 3-2 to Kazakhstan, the game that made the difference between gold and silver for the runnersup.
Top players from the tournament
China’s Chen was named top goalkeeper as he sported a 0.9209 save percentage and 3.67 goals against average in three games. Chen faced 139 shots during the tournament, by far the most of any goaltender. Japan’s Issa Otsuka was next in that stat line with 66 shots faced.
Japan’s Riku Ishida (five assists and a plus-four rating) was named top defender and Mukhametov of Kazakhstan, with two goals and two assists and a plus-two rating, was the event’s top forward.
All game replays and highlights from the 2027 Asia Championship are available on IIHF.TV.
Final Standings
KAZ 2-1-0-0 8 PTS
JPN 2-0-0-1 6 PTS
KOR 1-0-1-1 4 PTS
CHN 0-0-0-3 0 PTS
The victory gave Kazakhstan its third-consecutive gold medal at this event, which is only three years old. A Korean win in regulation would have seen Korea, Kazakhstan and Japan all finish in a tie with six points, but it was not meant to be.
The Snow Leopards took gold, Japan won silver and Korea grabbed bronze. Winless China rounded out the event and finished in fourth place. Here’s a look at the two games that made up the final day of the Asia Championship in Jeonju, Korea.
Kazakhstan 1, Korea 0
This game was all about the goaltenders, as Kazakhstan’s Vladislav Nurek and Korea’s Suhoon Choi both recorded shutouts. The unfortunate part was one of these goalies would have to take a loss and in this case it was Choi.
The game was even throughout the 60-minute regulation, with Korea holding a 10-8 shots advantage after the first, the teams each firing nine shots on goal in the second, and Kazakhstan outshooting Korea 5-3 in the third. Both teams had 22 shots on goal over three periods.
Late in the third, Korea’s Sihwan Kim was assessed a five-minute major penalty for boarding, giving Kazakhstan a glorious chance to win the game. The Kazakhs couldn’t convert during the one minute five seconds left in the third with the man advantage, so the powerplay carried over to overtime.
There, Kazakhstan had a number of great looks as the powerplay switched to a 4-on-3 for almost four minutes.
Dias Gusseinov sent a nice pass to the front of the crease to Sayan Daniyar but Daniyar wasn’t able to tip the puck in.
Kazakhstan maintained control of the puck after the near-miss and had three additional Grade A looks. Danil Butenko’s point shot was stopped by Choi and the rebound went right to Kazakhstan’s forwards who had not one, but two incredible chances to win the game but somehow Choi kept the puck out. Then, without a stick, Choi made perhaps his best save of the game, stretching out to his right to absolutely stone Butenko who fired a one-timer from the top of the circles.
The shootout followed a five-man format but would last 18 shooters as both Choi and Nurek did splendid work.
Chong Min Lee and Artur Gross both started the scoring on the first two shots before five-straight shooters – Korea’s Minjae Kwon, Sangyeob Kim and Geonwoo Kim, along with Kazakhstan’s Gusseinov and Mazim Mukhametov – couldn’t convert.
Yevgeniy Rymarev gave Kazakhstan a brief 2-1 lead but Minjoon Huh answered right back for Korea and the teams were tied 2-2 after the initial five rounds, meaning more shooters were needed to decide a winner.
In the ninth round of shooters, Gusseinov took the puck wide to his left, then skated inside as he approached the Korean goal and smartly slid the puck between the legs of Choi. Needing a goal to extend the game, Sihwan Kim would also take the puck wide and skate to the middle, but hit shot aimed at the top corner was stopped by Nurek, who immediately raised his arms and looked to the heavens to end a thriller of a hockey game. His teammates then poured onto the ice to celebrate gold.
Japan 4, China 1
The Chinese saved its best performance for last at the Asia Championship, playing favoured Japan to a scoreless first period. It wasn’t until the 17:36 mark of the second that Japan finally cashed in a goal, with Chikara Hanzawa sneaking in from the corner and sending a nice pass to the slot to Sota Isogai, who one-timed the puck in on a powerplay.
China’s Shifeng Chen faced 41 shots in net and did his best to keep things close. But three even-strength goals by Japan in the third from Teruto Nakajima, Ryosuke Miura and Kotaro Tsutsumi broke the game wide open and gave Japan a 4-0 lead.
Yuyang Hou scored with under a minute to play to end Eiki Sato’s shutout bid in the Japanese net but that would conclude the scoring.
Japan’s lone loss came on opening day of the tournament as they fell narrowly 3-2 to Kazakhstan, the game that made the difference between gold and silver for the runnersup.
Top players from the tournament
China’s Chen was named top goalkeeper as he sported a 0.9209 save percentage and 3.67 goals against average in three games. Chen faced 139 shots during the tournament, by far the most of any goaltender. Japan’s Issa Otsuka was next in that stat line with 66 shots faced.
Japan’s Riku Ishida (five assists and a plus-four rating) was named top defender and Mukhametov of Kazakhstan, with two goals and two assists and a plus-two rating, was the event’s top forward.
All game replays and highlights from the 2027 Asia Championship are available on IIHF.TV.
Final Standings
KAZ 2-1-0-0 8 PTS
JPN 2-0-0-1 6 PTS
KOR 1-0-1-1 4 PTS
CHN 0-0-0-3 0 PTS