The Japanese are on the verge of relegation.
Japan lost the first game of a best-of-three relegation series against Switzerland yesterday afternoon, falling 3-1 on McArthur Island.
Game 2 goes tomorrow at 1 p.m., also on McArthur Island.
It was the Japanese that opened the scoring on Friday, with Yurie Adachi putting a shot past Swiss goaltender Florence Schelling just 1:49 into the first period play.
But the goal seemed to wake up the Swiss, with Anja Stiefel scoring the equalizer, her first goal of the tournament, at the seven-minute mark. Switzerland’s leading scorer Christine Hueni later slipped a shot past Nana Fujimoto to give the nation its first lead of the relegation series.
In the second, Lara Stadler extend the lead to 3-1, the eventual final score, again beating Fujimoto, this time less than three minutes into the frame.
The Swiss outshot the Japanese by a 27-15 margin and two of the nation’s three goals came with the man-advantage.
Schelling made 14 saves in the victory, while Fujimoto stopped 24 shots.
The loser of the series will be relegated to Division 1 Group A for the 2017 IIHF Women’s World Championship. Its place in the elite division will be taken by Germany, which won the Division 1 Group A tournament earlier this week.