China Eyes Championship after 5-0 Win Over Croatia

Chinese captain Wu Guofeng scored twice to inspire China to a 5-0 victory against Croatia in a round robin match to decide the top three places at the World Ice Hockey Pool C Championships here Friday night, making a chance for China to win the championship since its attendance in the tournament in 1972.

Yin Kai put a low slap shot from the right circle past Croatian goaltender to break the deadlock for China at 16:29, accounting for the lone goal in the opening period.

Defenseman Wang Dahai scored a power play goal 3:11 after the game resumed and Wu Guofeng added another 57 seconds before the buzzer to make China lead 3-0 at the end of the second period. Wu, the 28-year-old center who was born in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, and Meng Xiangsen contributed one goal each in the third to seal China's victory.

The Chinese team, which finished second in the tournament in 1981, set a clash with Hungary on Saturday for another try towards the championship.

"The game with Hungary will be real tough, but we will try our best," Chinese head coach Wang Jingang said after the match. In Friday's other games, Svedavicius Arturas and Skadauskas Valdas scored two goals in the last three minutes of the third period to help the Lithuanians tie with Romania 5-5 in a fourth-to- sixth play-off, keeping alive their hopes of making the final berth of the next Pool B championships.

Yugoslavia and Bulgaria played to a 3-3 draw in a match to decide the seventh to ninth places.

The nine-squad tournament will end on Sunday.

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