China's remarkable Para ice hockey rise continues as USA target fourth consecutive gold

Pucks flew, music pumped, nets rattled, the stadium shook: China's Paralympic Winter Games Para ice hockey debut went off like a dream.

A 7-0 win over Slovakia on Saturday (5 March) delighted a raucous home crowd in Beijing and they hailed their new sledge-hockey hero Shen Yifeng who scored four goals - living up to his nickname 'Little Whirlwind.'

China's second game was just as impressive as they defeated Czech Republic 5-2 on Sunday to advance to the quarter-finals with 23-year-old Shen netting his fifth goal in two games.

"I am very excited, I cannot express my feelings in words. It is a big stage for us to play and for me to score four goals, it's difficult to express my feelings now," said an overwhelmed Shen.

What makes China's rise all the more remarkable is that the team was only formed in 2016. So how have they come so far so fast?

"We have the very best coaching team," continues Shen. "We are a close team, and a young team, and we are very confident. The reason we have progressed so fast is that we are very diligent."

China play their last Group B game on Tuesday against an Italy side still seeking a place in the playoffs.

The tournament favourites are three-time defending champs USA and their star man Declan Farmer after two comprehensive wins out of two in the stronger Group A to reach the semi-finals.

The Americans dismantled perennial rivals Canada 5-0 in their opener before Jack Wallace's hat-trick propelled them to a 9-1 thrashing of Republic of Korea on Sunday.

China's Para ice hockey team

Every Para ice hockey player has a story to tell.

Shen was involved in a train accident in 2005 and later had both legs amputated, his 22-year-old teammate Wang Zhidong - who already has four assists in Beijing - has an impairment resulting from a high voltage accident when he was seven.

Captain Cui Yutao is the senior team leader at 36. A para-cyclist previously, he got involved in ice hockey when China won the hosting rights for the Beijing Games.

"What attracted me to Para ice hockey was its power of unity, its cooperation and its passion which is the most important thing," he told the IPC.

Yu Jing is the only woman in the hosts' 18-strong Para Ice Hockey squad making her just the third female Para Ice Hockey player to take part in the Paralympic Winter Games.

Norway's Brit Mjaasund Oeyen at Lillehammer 1994 and Lena Schroeder at PyeongChang 2018 came before her.

While China has little to play for on Tuesday, Italy need a win to be sure of a place in the quarter-finals and they will be high on confidence after Sunday's dramatic shootout victory over Slovakia.

The game starts at 16:35 Beijing time (09:35 CET).

China v Italy - "I'm not afraid to play with that atmosphere in front of thousands of people"

There were blood, sweat and tears at the Italy-Slovakia game on Sunday.

David Korman scored Slovakia's first-ever Paralympic goal right at the end of the second period before Gianluigi Rosa levelled with six minutes to go.

After 45 minutes of pulsating action, and five minute of overtime, it all came down to the first shootout of these Games, and it was all simply too much for some.

"I was crying at the end from the tension," Italy defenceman Andrea Macri said, wiping the blood from a wound he picked up earlier.

He wasn't the only one struggling to hold it together with 24-year-old Nils Larch on the ice to take the fourth penalty for Italy, knowing that if he scored the game belonged to Italy.

"I was blank," Alex Enderle, Larch's best friend, said. "I wasn't even sure if I could watch."

Luckily the coolest man in the stadium was Larch, who flipped puck from stick to stick before burying it in the net.

"I just like to take penalty shots," he said afterwards, casually.

The other Italian hero was 39-year-old 'keeper Julian Kasslater who had never set foot on Paralympic ice before, but was called into action when first-choice goaltender Gabriele Araudo was forced off with an injury early in the third period.

Kasslater saved two penalty shots to help Italy to the win.

"A lot of emotions," Macri told Olympics.com a day after Slovakia and a day before the game against China.

"There was a lot of sweat, it was so hard and I'm still so, so proud of my team-mates because they they did an amazing job."

Now Italy face an unbeaten Chinese side that has scored 12 goals in two games and will have a local partisan crowd in a packed stadium against them.

"I'm not afraid to play with that in front of thousands of people," says Macri, a Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018 veteran.

"I hope that tomorrow there will be a real Paralympic atmosphere, I'm so happy about that."

USA make statement in opening two games

Meanwhile, defending champions USA made a stomping start to the competition by beating eternal rivals Canada by 5-0, then dismantling Korea 9-1 to guarantee their safe passage beyond the group stage.

Declan Farmer scored the overtime goal that gave the U.S. gold four years ago at PyeongChang 2018 and picked up where he left off in Beijing.

A goal and three assists against their northern neighbours made Farmer the USA's highest Paralympic point scorer in history, and he's still only 24.

Even the Canadians were taking their hats off to him.

"He is an excellent player. He has shown it for many years now," Canada's captain Tyler McGregor said after their opening Group A match.

"He has a high hockey IQ and always seems to be around the net. He is a guy that we have to target and shut him down [but] we were not able to do that today."

Farmer's teammates weren't all that surprised either.

"He doesn't have to say a lot, he can just do it and the rest of us just jump in behind and follow on," said U.S. coach David Hoff.

"He's so important to us in that way. Very fun to watch, especially when you are wearing the same colour as him."

Farmer added five more points - two goals and three assists - to his tally in the demolition of Korea with Jack Wallace bagging a hat-trick.

Evan Nichols, the youngest player on the U.S. roster at 17, had a Paralympic debut to remember with three assists, while captain Josh Pauls matched that feat.

Wallace said, "To have a team with this many good players on it’s a privilege to play (on).

"The selflessness that has to come with that, to be willing to relinquish some of your ice time to make sure everyone is getting as much ice time as possible, everyone on this team has bought into that."

With 14 goals scored and just one against in two games, the U.S. have a fourth straight Para ice hockey title in their sights.