HARBIN, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Unbeaten Kazakhstan dominated Japan 5-0 in the men's ice hockey final to claim its third consecutive gold at the Asian Winter Games in Harbin on Friday, while Japan successfully defended its women's title with a perfect record.
In the men's final, Kazakhstan's Andrey Buyalskiy opened the scoring in the first period, followed by goals from Dmitriy Breus and Roman Starchenko in the second. Kirill Panyukov netted twice in the last period to seal Kazakhstan's commanding victory. South Korea secured the bronze after defeating China 5-2.
"Our performance at the Winter Asiad was outstanding and exceeded our expectations," said China goalkeeper Chen Shifeng. "We are a young team with no players over 30, so I think we have a promising future."
On the women's side, Japan secured back-to-back Asiad hockey golds with an 8-1 win over China in the final round-robin match. Kazakhstan and China took silver and bronze respectively.
"The result is disappointing, but we have to accept it," said China captain Yu Baiwei. "What we can do is recognize the gap, train harder to overcome our weaknesses, and improve our skills." ■
