Hosts Finland reached the semi-finals of the Ice Hockey World Championships on Thursday by beating Slovakia, who took part in the Olympics. After trailing 2-0, the Finns had the upper hand 4-2 (1-2, 1-0, 2-0). Opponents in the semifinals will be the USA, who defeated Switzerland 3-0 (2-0, 0-0, 1-0).
In the other games on Saturday, Canada and the Czech Republic will duel for second place in the final. Canada kept the chance to successfully defend their title despite being 3-0 down. The 27-time champion beat Sweden 4: 3 (0: 2, 0: 1, 3: 0, 1: 0) after extra time in Tampere, Finland, and thus reached the semifinals.
The turning point came in the final third
Only in the final third did the Canadians make up for the gap, two goals not being scored until the 59th minute. Drake Batherson scored the winning goal after 43 seconds of overtime. On Saturday, the North Americans will play in the semifinals for a place in the final. The pairings for the semi-finals are only determined after all quarter-final games have been completed.
With another gold medal, Canada can become the sole record world champion ahead of Russia, which was excluded from the tournament as a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The eleven-time world champion Sweden missed out on the medals again a year after the sensational preliminary round failure at the World Championships in Riga.
World Cup trip for Germany ended
Shortly before, there was an abrupt end for the German selection. After a strong group phase, coach Toni Söderholm’s team lost 4-1 (0-2, 0-1, 1-1) in the Czech Republic and were eliminated in the quarter-finals.