Japan won’t be returning to the IIHF Women’s World Championship next season.
The Japanese lost 4-0 to Switzerland in Game 2 of the best-of-three relegation round series on McArthur Island yesterday afternoon, losing their spot in the 2017 world championship in Plymouth, Mich.
The Swiss won back-to-back games in the series — 3-1 on Friday — and staved off relegation in 2016. The European nation outscored the Japanese 7-1 in the relegation round.
Evelina Raselli picked up her first point of the two-game series in the first period, opening the scoring midway through the frame to put Switzerland out to a 1-0 lead.
A little more than a minute into the second, Anja Stiefel extended the lead to 2-0, beating Japanese goaltender Akane Konishi, who was seeing her first action in the 2016 world championship.
Lara Stadler scored in 1:14 later, her third point of the night and seventh of the tournament, to put the Swiss ahead 3-0. She would also factor in on the Swiss’ fourth goal.
Switzerland’s Christine Hueni picked up points on all four of her team’s goals on Sunday — she scored the empty-net marker to make it 4-0 — bringing her team leading total to 10 points, including four goals, in five games.
At the other end of the ice, Swiss goaltender Florence Schelling stopped all 20 Japanese shots for the shutout. Konishi finished the night with 19 saves on 23 shots
http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/swiss-sweep-series-japan-relegated/
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