Japan and China will go head-to-head for first place when the 2026 IHF Ice Hockey Women’s Asia Championship wraps up on Saturday in Oskemen.

In Friday’s Day 2 tournament action, the Japanese team continued its dominance with a 7-0 win over Korea. Then, in the late game, China took down Kazakhstan by a score of 6-0.

All games are available live and on demand on IIHF.tv.

Here’s more from Friday’s games.

Game 1: Japan 7 – Korea 0

The Noro twins led the way in a four-goal first period as Japan skated to a comfortable win over Korea to kick off Day 2.

Riri Noro was named Japan’s best player in the game after logging two goals and an assist. Her sister Rio Noro also got on the scoresheet with her first goal of the tournament.

Japan’s other goals came from Yumeka Wajima, Rui Ukita, Wakana Kurosu and Haruka Toku.

Shots on goal were 52-7 for Japan. Sooyeon Jo got the start in net for Korea, making 36 saves over two periods of action. Sewon Ahn took over in the third, stopping nine of 10 shots.

After Miyuu Masuhara earned a shutout in Japan’s opener against Kazakhstan on Wednesday, her teammate Kiku Kobayashi matched her with another clean sheet against Korea.

Japan also dominated puck possession from the opening puck drop. Wajima got the scoring started at 4:16 of the first period when she took a pinpoint pass from Riri Noro on a 2-on-1, then beat the goaltender Jo cleanly over her left shoulder.

The Noro sisters then added to the lead with a power-play tally each. First, Rio scored at 7:58 when she chased down a loose puck at the goalmouth. Riri followed up at 13:24 when she corralled a rebound off Jo’s pads.

Less than three minutes later, Riri added her second of the game at even strength — a powerful one-timer from low in the right face-off circle.

Japan added two more even-strength goals in the second period, and one more on the power play early in the third to close out the scoring.

Korea’s captain, Selin Kim, was named the best player of the game by her team. The outcome is an improvement for Korea, which lost 12-0 to Japan at this event one year ago.

Game 2: China 7 – Kazakhstan 0

With 1,155 fans on hand at the Boris Alexandrov Sport Palace, Kazakhstan was stymied by Chinese goaltender Guimin Lai in a 6-0 loss.

The final score does not tell the full tale of the contest. The shots on goal margin was a narrow 35-33 in favor of China. Lai was named the best player in the game for her team.

Defender Aida Olzhabayeva was named Kazakhstan’s best player of the game.

After losing 5-0 to China one year ago, the Kazakh hosts kept the game close in front of their home fans. They gave up just one goal in the first period, an unassisted effort by Jinglei Yang, but failed to capitalize on a power-play opportunity late in the opening frame when defender Shuqi Zhang was whistled for hooking.

Shots in the second were even at 12-12. But after the Kazakhs successfully killed their first penalty of the game, China’s Biyang Zhang and Wenxaio Yue each scored their first of the tournament before the end of the middle frame.

Early in the third, after veteran Kazakh centre Malika Aldabergenova was assessed a five-minute major for boarding, the Chinese capitalized with a pair of power-play goals. Later, with 8:18 left to play and Kazakhstan back on the kill, Yuwei Tian added one more man-advantage marker to close out the scoring.

Tournament Scoring Leaders

With one day of competition remaining, Japan occupies 11 of the top 12 spots in the scoring race. Haruka Toku leads the way with two goals and three assists for five points. She’s followed closely by Riri Noro (3-1-4) and Yumeka Wajima (1-3-4).

Outside of Team Japan, the highest scorer is Chinese defender Qinan Zhao. She has a goal and an assist so far.

Standings After Day 2

Japan: 2-0-0-0  6 pts

China: 1-1-0-0  5 pts

Korea: 0-0-1-1  1 pt

Kazakhstan: 0-0-0-2  0 pts

The tournament wraps up on Saturday. Japan and China will play for first place in the standings (1400 hrs local time: UTC+5), then Korea and Kazakhstan will play for third. (1730 hrs local time).

For more stats and the full schedule, visit IIHF.com.