Canada beats China 11-0 in group stage of 2008 IIHF World Women Championship

HARBIN, Northeast China, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Top-seeded Canada beat China 11-0 in its second Group A match in the 2008 IIHF World Women Championship here Sunday night, depriving the host's opportunity of automatically qualifying for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

China, defeated by Russia 5-3 on Saturday night, was kicked out of the top six in the IIHF World Ranking.

Canada, winner of the last IIHF World Women Championship and other eight championships, pushed China to focus on defense throughout the game.

With two losses in the preliminary round, China, along with Germany and Japan, will play a round-robin delegation round. The last-placed team at the end of the round will relegate to the 2009Division I Championship.

In today's other two games, the United States crushed Switzerland 7-1 in its second preliminary-round game of Group B. With a win over Germany on Friday, the Americans got a ticket for the qualifying-round games for top three.

Finland of Group C scored in extra-time to edge Sweden 3-2, and will go along with the United States and Canada into the next round. Russia, Switzerland and Sweden will compete for fourth berth.

Qualifying-round games will begin next Tuesday.