World champion Australia completed its all-win sequence in the round-robin league competition of the 25th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament by posting a comfortable 3-0 victory over Canada. Captain Mark Knowles (16th minute), Blake Govers (33rd) and Flynn Ogilvie (36th) scored for Australia, which did not press at their top pace to conserve energy for Saturday's final encounter.
Australia logged the tally of maximum 18 points from six outings, while Canada finished on five points and slipped behind Pakistan, which today scored a 4-1 triumph over bottom-finisher Japan.
Pakistan’s win boosted its points tally to six, but it still failed to make it to the top-four place in the league standings, thereby dashing its chances of claiming a medal. Pakistan will take on Canada in the playoff for the fifth and sixth spots on Saturday.
Australia supreme after first quarter
After being held goalless in the first quarter, captain Knowles opened the account for Australia in the 16th minute with a penalty corner conversion and Govers doubled the lead by flicking on target three minutes into the second half. Ogilvie’s strike in open field play rounded off the Australian scoring by finding the mark from a crowded goalmouth melee.
Canadian captain Scott Tupper squandered a chance to reduce the margin as he failed to convert a penalty stroke in last minute of play.Later in the day, Pakistan spanked Japan, which finished the tournament without a point.
Two field goals from Pakistan striker Muhammad Arslan Qadir in the last quarter took the fight out of Japan, which had narrowed the lead to one goal when Shota Yamada converted a penalty corner in the 48th minute.
Pakistan had earlier asserted its authority through open play strikes by Muhammad Irfan Jr in the 20th minute and Rizwan Ali in the 24th minute.
The scores:
Australia bt Canada 3-0
Pakistan bt Japan 4-1
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