Japan beat the United States 6-3 in the men's ice hockey competitions at the Harbin Universiade on Wednesday.

Japan will play Czech Republic to compete for the fifth place in the men's ice hockey while the USA will face the host China to vie for the seventh place on Thursday.

"It's an important match for us. We did well in the power play and the transition was fluent too,"said Mahon Mark, head coach of the Japanese team.

"I was very disappointed with the lost. Japan played well and we deserved the lost," told the head coach in American team Joe Augusine.

"We didn't prepare well for the match against Japan and I should take the responsibility," he added.

The Japanese were brought unbridled joy as Motoki Sakagami scored the first goal on a power play at 6:10 of the first period.

Their joy didn't last long as Krannich Kyle and Jason O'bannon scored, through power play and equal strength respectively, at 12:52 and 17:09 for the USA in the same period to take the lead.

However, the Americans could not continue their domination as two Japanese forwards Tanaka Ryo andKonno Mitsuyoshi added two goals at 25:07 and 30:29 both through power plays to finish the second period at 3-2.

Though Johnny Liang scored in the third period,the American's hope were completely dashed after Japan made three more shots to seal the victory at 6-3.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2009)