MILAN — The quarterfinal scenarios for the men’s hockey tournament will be set as the qualification round has four games on the slate at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Canada, USA, Slovakia and Finland await the winners of the Feb. 17 matches.
Germany knocked off France, and will play Slovakia. Switzerland defeated host Italy, and will face Finland.
The winner of Denmark against Czechia moves on to play Canada, the tournament’s top seed after the preliminary round.
The Americans will be the last to know who they play in the quarterfinals on Feb. 18, facing the winner of Sweden-Latvia.
The match of the day likely will turn out to be Sweden-Latvia. Sweden is a hockey power, but has not played well at the tournament, and there are questions about the goaltending of Filip Gustavsson (two games) and Jacob Markstrom, who played in the three preliminary games. Latvia is an underdog, but a plucky one.
Germany 5, France 1
The Germans ran out a three-goal lead in the first period, and while they did not look dominant against massive hockey underdog France, they advanced to meet Slovakia in the quarterfinals. Leon Draisaitl began the scoring 3:40 into the game, with Frederik Tiff’s and JJ Peterka adding goals in the first period. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, a 40-year-old with 700 NHL games on his resume, put France on the board early in the second period. The French replaced Julian Junca with Antoine Keller to start the second period. Joshua Samanski put Germany back up by three goals before the period ended.
‘I think first period was great,’ Tim Stützle said. ‘Then we kind of just managed to lead. Maybe a couple too many turnovers, but [Philipp Grubauer]was great in net again and helped us out. Everybody sacrificed, so it was a big win for us.’
The French pulled their goalie with about two minutes to play for an extra attacker. Nico Sturn took advantage to add an empty-net goal with 56 seconds to play.
‘I think he deserves to play,’ Hugo Gallet said. ‘Honestly, it’s a little bit frustrating for our own federation to suspend him. I think maybe they make that decision based on something that happened in the past in another league. Honestly, I’m behind him. We needed him. He is a big part of our team, and they took a really good player from us for tonight.’
Antoine Keller said that, ‘I think we are a big family. When we come together, we come as brothers, and we just got rid of one of our brothers, so it’s a joke from the French Committee Olympic. We need this player. We needed him today, and they just take it from us for something that just like happens every week in any hockey game, so I think that’s a joke.’
Switzlerland 3, Italy 0
Switzerland moves on to play Finland in the quarterfinals. The Swiss led on goals from Philipp Kurashev and Roman Josi after two periods against the host country. Nico Hischier scored around six minutes into the second period.
Olympic men’s hockey scores, schedule today
Germany 5, France 1
Switzerland 3, Italy 0
10:40 a.m. – Czechia vs. Denmark, group qualification playoff on Peacock
3:10 p.m. – Sweden vs. Latvia, group qualification playoff on USA, Peacock
Where to watch Olympic men’s hockey
Watch Olympic men’s hockey on Peacock
How the Olympics men’s hockey tournament works
The 12 teams are divided into three groups. They are:
Group A: Canada, Switzerland, Czechia, France
Group B: Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Italy
Group C: USA, Germany, Latvia, Denmark
Teams play one game each against the other three teams in their group. Countries get three points for a regulation win, two for an overtime win, one for an overtime/shootout loss and zero for a regulation loss.
After the preliminary round is complete, teams are seeded 1 through 12 under the following criteria:
Higher position in the group
Higher number of points
Better goal difference
Higher number of goals scored for
Better IIHF world ranking
The top four teams (group winners and best second-place team) get a bye to the quarterfinals. Teams 5-12 play in a qualifying round, with the winners going to the quarterfinals.
Playoff qualification games are on Feb. 17, quarterfinals are Feb. 18 and semifinals are Feb. 20.
The bronze medal game is Feb. 21 and the gold medal game is Sunday, Feb. 22.