The top seeds are mostly playing to form in the men’s Olympic hockey tournament so far, setting up a quarterfinal round where the top hockey-playing nations in the world will begin to square off in a bid to make the medal rounds.
Despite somewhat surprising losses by both Canada and the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR), the two joined fellow powerhouses Sweden and the Czech Republic as the four teams to earn byes into the quarterfinal round of the knockout stage. That left the remaining eight teams to battle for the remaining four places on Tuesday.
USA Advances Past Slovakia
The highest-profile match was that between the United States and Slovakia. Both teams starting in Pool B, and in their round-robin matchup, the Americans escaped with a tight 2-1 victory. There would be nowhere near as much drama in their knockout round contest: after a scoreless first period, the United States jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second, and won decisively by a final score of 5-1.
According to American forward Mark Arcobello, one of the few players on the team with NHL experience, the college players who have been key in powering the USA offense have shown composure beyond their years.
“They look like pros. They don’t look like college players,” Arcobello told ESPN. “They’re smart players. So I knew right away they were going to be pretty good.”
Norway Upsets Slovenia to Reach Quarterfinals
One of the biggest upsets of the tournament came when Norway pulled off a 2-1 overtime victory over Slovenia to reach the quarterfinals. It’s the first time that Norway has scored any win in men’s Olympic hockey since they hosted the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer. The game was also notable for the fact that Slovenian player Ziga Jeglic was scratched from the game after becoming the third athlete to test positive for performance enhancing drugs at this year’s Winter Olympics.
Finland moved on to the quarterfinals with a 5-2 victory over South Korea, though it wasn’t easy: the Finns held only a 3-2 lead over the lightly-regarded host team heading into the third period. Finally, Germany defeated Switzerland 2-1 in overtime to secure the final quarterfinal spot.
The remaining teams are a laundry list of pre-tournament favorites: of the eight countries remaining, Norway is ranked the lowest in the world at ninth. And with everything going to form, the odds remain similar to what they looked like before the first puck was dropped.
OAR (-105) remains the favorite according to the oddsmakers at bwin, while Sweden (+400), Canada (+525), and Finland (+675) are also considered potential gold medal winners. That means the most impactful quarterfinal matchup may be the one between Canada and Finland, as the loser will be out of the running for a medal.
The other two traditional powers, the Czech Republic (+1050) and the United States (+2200), are considered dark horses, and will face each other in the quarterfinal round. The outsiders are Germany (+8000) and Norway (+25000), the only two remaining teams that aren’t part of Olympic hockey’s traditional “big six.” Norway in particular will have a tough road to a medal: they would first have to defeat OAR in the quarterfinals, where the Russian athletes are an overwhelming -10000 favorite to send the Norwegians home.
