Czech, Russia, Sweden, Canada power into men's hockey quarterfinals
Xinhua,February 18, 2018 Adjust font size:
PYEONGCHANG, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Czech Republic, the Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR), Canada and Sweden have reached the quarterfinals of men's ice hockey at the PyeongChang Olympics on Sunday.
Czech beat Switzerland 4-1 to top Group A and the OAR entered to the final eight by finishing the first in Group B. In a confrontation between the Sochi silver and bronze medal winner, Sweden, with a laborious win over Finland 3-1, got into the quarterfinals as No. 1 in Group C.
Defending champion Canada, with an easy 4-0 win over the host South Korea, also secured a berth in the quarterfinals as the best second-ranked team among the 12 teams.
The rest eight teams the United States, Switzerland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Germany, Norway and South Korea will compete for another four seats for the quarterfinals.
On women's part, the Sochi bronze winner Switzerland will fight against Asian champion Japan for the fifth place after upsetting a unified Korean team 2-0. The Japanese overcame Sweden in overtime 2-1. So, the Swedes and Koreans will play for the seventh place.
Defending Canada will face the Olympic Athlete from Russia, while the United States will take on Finland at the semifinals on Monday. Enditem