The group stage in the 2015 IIHF World Championships is finished and the quarterfinals are played Thursday May 14. We have seen some exciting hockey, an excellent crowd and international super stars at the ice in Prague and Ostrava during the first week of the tournament.
Schedule for the quarterfinals
Two of the quarter finals are played in the afternoon and two in the evening Thursday 14th of May, Central European time.
USA – Switzerland, 15:15
Canada – Belarus, 16:15
Sweden – Russia, 19:15
Finland – Czech Republic, 20:15
We predict that USA, Canada, Sweden and Finland will go through to the semifinals that are played Saturday May 16. That means that Canada will face Finland and Sweden USA. Hopefully we get to see a dream final between Sweden and Canada on Sunday.
Final standings, group stage
In the last round Canada beat Austria 10-1. It was the best team of the tournament against the worst. It really wasn’t Austria’s day. Since France beat Latvia after a shootout Austria gets eliminated from the tournament next year, together with Slovenia from group B. Canada has a perfect 7 win record with 49 goals. They have done, in average, 7 goals per game and only let in 2 per game. Sweden is trailing behind in second place while the host nation Czech Republic got the third spot.
Group A:
Canada 21p
Sweden 16p
Czech Republic 15p
Switzerland 10p
—
Germany 7p
France 5p
Latvia 5p
—
Austria 5p
In group B, USA lost a 3-0 lead against Slovakia who got a 4-3 lead in the last game. However, USA showed good morale, tying the game and scoring the decisive goal in overtime, making it a 5-4 win. That places them in top of the group. The battle for the second place were fought between Finland and Russia. The winner got to face Czech Republic in Prague (and, probably Canada in the semifinal) while the loser had to face Sweden in Ostrava. We got to see two teams fighting to win in an even battle were Finland tied the Russian lead twice. Finnish goalkeeper Pekka Rinne was outstanding in the shootout, making sure Finland won and grabbing the second place in the group.
Group B:
USA 17p
Finland 16p
Russia 15p
Belarus 14p
—
Slovakia 9p
Norway 6p
Denmark 4p
—
Slovenia 3p
Now we are taking a day off at Wednesday, looking forward to some more great hockey action Thursday May 14th when the quarterfinals are up!
