The Slovakians defeated Great Britain 1-0 in their final preliminary round game while the Czechs continued their formidable record as they brushed aside Japan 2-0 in a rehearsal of tomorrow when the same two matches will take place.

The contenders for the gold medal at the four-team tournament were decided on Wednesday, November 30 with Japan and Czech Republic scheduled to play each other in the final after each secured enough points to progress.

Slovakia and Great Britain are scheduled to play for bronze.

The latter game takes on added significance as the top three countries from the B-Pool will progress to the Qualification Tournament for the Pyeongchang 2018 Paralympics.

In their match, two goals in a sensational opening period helped the Czech Republic inflict defeat on Japan.

Double Paralympian Pavel Kubes scored for the first time at the tournament with a goal assisted by Michal Geier, who has been an integral part of his team’s attack in Tomakomai.

Exactly 10 minutes later, team captain Zdenek Safranek double his side's lead after he was assisted by Jiri Raul.

The Czech Republic increased the pressure on their opponents, producing 15 attempts on the Japanese goal. 

However, Japanese goaltender Kazuya Mochizuki was in sublime form for the hosts as he went on to win Japan’s Best Player award.

Before this clash, it was Slovakia who gained the upper hand for their bronze medal match after they earned a narrow 1-0 win over Great Britain.

The bronze medallists from 2015 put pressure on their British opponents straight away, creating a host of chances early on.

It was Milos Vecerek’s first period goal, following a scramble in front of the net, that secured his country's victory.

“The fact that this game was not going to decide much meant the team did not play at full intensity, did not try hard enough, did not fight the battles until the end, did not crash the net like in other games," said Slovakian forward Martin Joppa.

“The whole team will have to improve on the effort for tomorrow, we need to work on full power.

"We need to crash the net more because today we had a lot of chances that we did not use up. 

"We just had shots but no one was there for the rebound or to deflect them.”

Earlier this week, it was announced that a total of 10 sports, which are governed by the IPC, will undergo name and competition changes as part of an extensive rebrand.

The alterations to the names of the disciplines, including ice sledge hockey changing its name to Para ice hockey, came into effect immediately.

The change to Para ice hockey comes as a result of requests made by the sporting community to remove the word "sledge" due to it having a different meaning in different languages.