BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhua) — Coming again from a surprising semifinal defeat, the younger Chinese crew regained momentum to take the bronze in Beijing 2022 Para ice hockey after beating South Korea 4-0 on Saturday.
With targets from Wang Zhidong, Shen Yifeng and Li Hongguan, China made a its Para ice hockey breakthrough in its Paralympic debut by a extremely aggressive recreation on the National Indoor Stadium.
“We are all super happy, and super excited,” stated Wang after the sport. “We just tried to play the best possible way we could and play our own roles on the ice.”
South Korea made the primary shot simply 38 seconds into the sport and was blocked by Chinese goalkeeper Ji Yanzhao.
Assisted by Shen and Zhu Zhanfu, Wang broke the impasse within the fourth minute after his shot was deflected in entrance of the purpose.
Shen added one other for China only one minute into the second interval with a surprising solo play, after the 23-year-old stole the puck from a South Korean participant on the finish board and dribbled previous protection gamers to ship the puck residence.
A couple of minutes later, Jung Seung-hwan of South Korea was injured and obtained remedy on the ice in addition to rounds of applause from the native crowd, whereas Shen was penalized for butt-ending Jung.
China performed a extra aggressive fashion within the closing interval and compelled a complete of 12 saves from South Korean goalkeeper.
Li made it 3-0 lower than two minutes to time after a sequence of exchanges by each groups inside China’s attacking zone.
Shen scored his second purpose of the sport with 11.5 seconds left in a counterattack as he despatched the puck into an empty web to safe the win.
With the victory, China turned the third Asian crew to take a medal in Para ice hockey, following silver medalist Japan at Vancouver 2010 and bronze medalist South Korea at PyeongChang 2018.
“Before the game our coach told us not to pay attention to the score, but just to see it as normal training,” Wang stated. “We just need to organize every attack, try to score every goal, and then defend every time.”
“Thanks to our logical support team, therapists and maintenance technician, they’ve worked so hard for us,” Shen stated. “Because of them, we can fully enjoy the game on the ice, to play, and to win the medal.”