PYEONGCHANG, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The unified Korean team was held back from the women's ice hockey quarterfinals with a 1-4 loss to Asian champion Japan on Wednesday at the PyeongChang Olympics.
Heesoo Randi Griffin, 29, a naturalized half-Korean forward, made the historic goal at the second period for her team, first of its kind in the Olympic history. With three losses, however, the Unified team had to compete for the seventh place of the event with Japan.
In another game of Group B, Switzerland beat Sweden 2-1 to qualify into a quarterfinal playoffs.
Eight teams are divided into two groups for women's competition in PyeongChang. With two victories in hand, Canada and the United States were ranked the first and second in higher-ranked Group A respectively. Finland settled for the third and the Olympic Athlete of Russia (OAR) for the fourth.
On men's part, a resilient Slovenia came from behind to beat the United States, Vancouver silver medalist, 3-2 in a prolonged game. The Americans started strongly to lead 2-0 by the end of the second period, but the Slovenians fought back with two goals in the third period to take the game into overtime, when Jan Urbas launched to the decisive shot to win the game.
In another game of Group B, Slovakia beat the OAR 3-2 to lead the group, followed by Slovenia in the second place. The United States is ranked third and the OAR the fourth.
Twelve teams are competing in men's competitions. Canada, Switzerland, South Korea and the Czech Republic are in Group A, while Sweden, Norway, Germany and Finland are in Group C.
