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Posted: Mon February 9, 1998 at 8:11 a.m EST France 5, Japan 2 -----------------Christian Pouget snapped a 2-2 tie with 2:55 to play and Philippe Bozon and Serge Poudrier scored shorthanded goals into an empty net in the final minute as France defeated Japan , 5-2, sending Belarus into the championship round of the men's Olympic tournament. Belarus defeated Germany , 8-2, earlier today, leaving Japan as the only other Group B team with a chance of advancing. The hosts needed to beat France and win Tuesday's game against Belarus . With Takeshi Yamanaka in the penaly box for interference, Pouget took a pass from Poudrier and flipped a backhander past Japan ese goalie Dusty Imoo. Japan (0-2) went on the powerplay a minute later and Imoo was pulled for an extra attacker, but Japan was unable to score the equalizer. Bozon scored his second shorthanded goal of the game with 58 seconds remaining and Poudrier put the game out of reach 35 seconds later. The late flurry disappointed a partisan crowd of 9,930 who were hoping to witness a Japan ese victory. For a while, it looked like it might happen. Ryan Fujita gave Japan a 1-0 lead 7:36 in the game and Ryan Kuwabara, a second-round pick of the Montreal Canadians in 1990, restored the one-goal lead later in the period after Bozon had knotted the game at 1-1. Stephane Barin tied the game at 2-2 midway through the second period. Francois Gravel stopped 19 of 21 shots for France (1-1), which concludes preliminary-round play Tuesday against Germany . Imoo turned aside 20 of 23 shots.
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