BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The Division 1 Group B tournament of 2019 IHHF ice hockey women's world championships opened here on Saturday with a 3-0 victory to the host team China.

It's not a very easy game for China, given the truth than Latvia is two places higher than China on IHHF world rankings. However, China dominated the game.

Chinese girls made as many as 61 shooting attempts through the game, while Latvia only finished nine.

China dominated the first quarter but could not make any goal. The second period saw the first goal of the game when Lu Shuang finished her first goal.

Latvia tried to recover from the deficit, only to see Lu finish another personal goal in the final period to extend the lead to 2-0.

Latvia played the final five minutes without any goalkeeper, and China made full use of the opportunity to get the third from Fang Xin who help China seal the victory.

"I'm happy for the players." said Jakob Kolliker, head coach of China.

"It's the opening game, and it's special. They work very well and they are patient enough."

"We didn't make full use of our opportunities," said Lu after the game. "We are a great team and we could have done a better job."

In Saturday's other two games, Netherland beat South Korea 5-2, while Poland outscored Kazakhstan 5-3.

China's national women's ice hockey team has played at three Winter Olympics, and made it to fourth place in 1998. However, the team failed to make it into the 2018 Winter Games.

China will take on South Korea on Sunday.