Should Germany reach the quarter-finals at the Ice Hockey World Championships in Finland and Latvia, there will be a prestige duel with archrival Switzerland again. The USA celebrated a smashing victory.
The Confederates also won their preliminary round match against the Czech Republic 4-2 (1-1, 2-0, 1-1) and are thus the first in Group B in Riga. So far, the Swiss have won all six preliminary round games, including against record world champions Canada (3:2).
Germany is hoping for fourth place
Germany can only qualify for the quarter-finals after fourth in Group A in Tampere and would need to travel to Latvia for Thursday’s knockout game. In the previous semi-finals in 2010 and 2021, Germany had won the quarter-finals against Switzerland.
Only if Germany’s main competitor Denmark wins its two remaining games against the title favorites Sweden (Monday) and Finland (Tuesday) and scores at least five points, would Germany also win the last preliminary round game against outsiders France (Tuesday / 11.20 a.m.) that miss the quarterfinals.
USA doesn’t give France a chance
The USA showed no weaknesses in the 9-0 (3-0, 1-0, 5-0) against France. The Americans are still in first place with the optimal number of points. In the Swiss group, Slovakia, third at the Olympics, kept hopes alive of reaching the quarter-finals after the hard-fought 1-0 (0-0, 1-0, 0-0) against newly promoted Slovenia.