Puck Worlds

IIHF Annual Congress: Jamaica, Qatar Added to IIHF

2012-05-18T20:37:57Z

There's a lot of news coming out of the IIHF's Annual Congress that is worthy of notation. First off, it's time to welcome the new additions to the official list of hockey playing nations: Qatar and Jamaica. Qatar has participated in a couple of tournaments in recent years, including sending a team to the Asian Winter Games in Kazakhstan in 2011. Jamaica, however, is a relatively recent phenomenon that has gained a lot of steam amongst Americans and Canadians of Jamaican descent. Qatar has two rinks, 70 players total and a five team national league, and apparently has a hockey school that had over 100 participants, according to the IIHF. The membership is conditional on the completion of an audit by the IIHF. Jamaica, only granted associate membership, has one rink with 20 registered players, not enough to form their own league as of yet. When they are able to form a national league, full membership and participation in IIHF sanctioned tournaments will be considered (upon completion of an IIHF audit). The Jamaican bid apparently has wealthy backers, and Puck Daddy has a good feature on the Jamaican program's rapid growth during the past year. Jamaica becomes just the fourth North American and first Caribbean nation admitted into the IIHF.

The second bit is a passionate speech on the role of sport in bridging political divides by IIHF President René Fasel, speaking about the mounting pressure from the European Congress and members of the United States government to take the World Championships away from Belarus in 2014. I tend to agree with Fasel here, although I'd make sure there was a contingency plan in place for 2014 should some of the internal violence in Belarus erupt into an outright revolt. There has been a lot of political upheaval in the country and if governments are advising their citizens not to go there for their own safety, one has to wonder how safe of an environment it would be for international athletes. Fasel worded the speech as part of a praise of human rights and democracy, so one has to wonder how some member nations perceived that view at the meeting.

Thirdly is the timetable for the 2012-13 IIHF Championship season, including the IIHF U18 & U20 World Championships, Men's World Championships, Women's World Championships, Women's World U18 Championships, and Olympic Qualification tournaments for both Men and Women. The preliminary schedule is available here.

Of note, Georgia will be entering a men's team in the World Championships next year for the first time, after becoming an IIHF member in 2009.

IIHF Quarterfinal Recap: Hockey Season's Best Day?

2012-05-18T08:00:02Z

It's tough to find a single day in the hockey calendar as exciting and full of top quality play as the quarterfinals of the IIHF World Championships. Sure, the Stanley Cup Playoffs provides drama on a nightly basis, and the World Junior tournament kicks into high gear in the semifinals, but getting four back-to-back-to-back-to-back matches in a row that leaves you buzzing is hard to top. For all the valid criticisms about the World Championships' quality during the round robin, once the quarterfinals kick in you're treated to an unprecedented wave of top notch, gut wrenching action. It's too bad that the North American hockey world doesn't tune in to the degree that it should.

So for a third straight year, we're all in with a European Final Four. Canada losing to Slovakia was shocking on a lot of levels, but in a sixty minute contest, coming out of the gate flat and then taking costly penalties late are usually enough to take even the best put together clubs down. Whether you agree that Ryan Getzlaf deserved to be tossed from the game for his kneeing of Juraj Mikus or not, it's tough to argue against the fact that it was definitely knee to knee contact and worthy of a penalty. Even a two minute minor would have given Slovakia the 4-3 lead it needed, the only difference in that scenario would've been Canada getting to have a numerical advantage when they pulled Cam Ward in the final minute to tie it up. For yet another year, it wasn't Canada's tournament after all. The World Championships can be cruel, but in this case, it was pretty fair in how it unfolded.

Slovakia will face the Czech Republic, who yet again came up with their best performance with elimination being the alternative. Sweden carried the play for stretches, and looked to be ready for a full onslaught when they capitalized with a late 2nd period goal by Henrik Zetterberg followed by an early 3rd period goal from his Red Wings teammate Jonathan Ericsson. But the Czechs rebounded with incredible resolve after that shocking turn of events, thwarting any perceived momentum shifts with a strong third period in which they were rewarded with some late heroics of their own. Milan Michalek, who I called out as a player the Czechs needed to produce to move on in the preview, made a great play coming off the boards that was similar to Zetterberg's goal in how it unfolded to win it for the Czechs in the third. Your new top three in the World Rankings will be between the Czechs, Finland and Russia as a result.

Russia had the easiest task in the quarterfinals, but they were up against a Norwegian team that were playing probably the best hockey we've ever seen from that country at this tournament. A 2-0 first period lead evaporated but Russia never panicked, carrying the play and getting a soft goal to open the third period off the stick of tournament standout Alexei Yemelin. The Russians outhsot Norway 32-12 over the last forty, clearly showing their superiority in getting goals from players throughout their lineup (Ovechkin, Popov, Yemelin, Zherdev and Nikulin).

And then there was that Finland-USA game. Drama in hockey doesn't play out much better than this game did. A player that American coach Scott Gordon unsuccessfully couldn't make into a NHL regular made the difference with two goals, as Jesse Jonesuu found open space in the final ten seconds against a group of American players that probably shouldn't have been on the ice in such a key moment. Finland, who generally has to work incredibly hard for their offence, got a late gift by maintaining pressure and making one smart read from behind the goal to send the arena, city and country into a frenzy. Next up: Russia. Might as well get them out of the way now, right?

After the jump, a quick summary of the placements from 5-46 in this World Championship season:

2012 World Championships
Rank	Country	New World Rank
5	Canada	5 (-1)
6	Sweden	4 (-1)
7	United States	6 or 7* (0 or -1)
8	Norway	8 (+1)
9	France	14 (0)
10	Latvia	11 (+1)
11	Switzerland	9 (-2)
12	Germany	10 (-2)
13	Denmark	12 (+1)
14	Belarus	13 (-2)
15	Italy	16 (+1)
16	Kazakhstan	17 (-1)
17	Slovenia	18 (0)
18	Austria	15 (0)
19	Hungary	19 (+1)
20	Japan	22 (0)
21	Great Britain	21 (0)
22	Ukraine	20 (-1)
23	Korea	28 (+3)
24	Poland	23 (0)
25	The Netherlands	24 (+1)
26	Romania	27 (+1)
27	Lithuania	25 (-1)
28	Australia	32 (+2)
29	Estonia	26 (0)
30	Spain	29 (0)
31	Croatia	30 (-3)
32	Iceland	35 (+1)
33	Serbia	31 (-1)
34	New Zealand	37 (+1)
35	Belgium	36 (-1)
36	China	38 (+1)
37	Bulgaria	33 (-1)
38	Mexico	34 (-1)
39	Israel	40 (0)
40	South Africa	41 (+1)
41	Turkey	39 (-2)
42	DPR Korea	45 (0)
43	Luxembourg	43 (0)
44	Ireland	42 (-1)
45	Greece	44 (0)
46	Mongolia	46 (0)

*The final USA ranking depends on if Slovakia reaches the World Championships Final or not. If Slovakia reaches, the USA will be ranked second, if Slovakia loses to the Czechs on Saturday, USA will remain the 6th seed.

The United Arab Emirates are ranked 47th in the world and were the only nationally ranked program that did not participate in the World Championships program this year. They did, however, win the Challenge Cup of Asia, an IIHF event that does not contribute any world rankings points.

IIHF Worlds: Quarterfinals Open Thread

2012-05-17T07:00:21Z

It's finally, mercifully, all about the gold now. The new tournament format really didn't do a lot for me, to be honest, with little momentum built throughout the tournament and the fans in the host cities didn't take to it for a variety of reasons, either. Unequal teams were playing each other in most games, and the final day of the tournament ended up serving only one match of any intrigue. If I had a vote at the IIHF Annual Meeting, I'd definitely be voting for a return of the progressive round robin system that served the Championships the past couple of years, which had the ability to raise the importance of each game in succession.

We're hear now, and for the most part, we're hear with little surprises. Canada and Russia won their groups, Norway won out amongst the world's mid-level powers to nab a quarterfinal spot, and Slovakia returns just in the nick of time to qualify for the Olympics. We're left with four matches that should be competitive, or in the very least a bit more than what we saw for most of the past couple of weeks.

Quarterfinal 1: Canada vs. Slovakia (12:00 PM CEST, 6:00 AM EST)

Putting Canada in an early game isn't really the most conducive to getting hockey's founding nation into this tournament, but that's the tradeoff with putting the host nations in prime time. Duncan Keith might be the tournament's best player so far, notching an astonishing 11 points to lead the Canadians while playing over 21 minutes a game, which is a bit of a breather for Keith compared to the NHL but quite a lot in an IIHF tournament with 7 or 8 defencemen dressed. John Tavares leads the Canadians up front as is becoming the custom each spring, but the Canadians' true strength is in its depth, with scoring coming from three lines and defending coming from three pairs. Which means it will take the customary 'total team effort' for Slovakia to stop Canada, which they are more than game for. Michal Handzus arrived late but has been a stabilizing force down the middle for Slovakia, who have been involved in close games each time they've stepped on the ice. After close losses to open the tournament to Canada (2-3) and Finland (0-1), Slovakia reeled off five straight wins with only a 5-1 win over Belarus that gave them breathing room. 30 year old netminder Jan Laco has been great in his IIHF debut, though it should be noted that great goaltending and having Zdeno Chara lead your team in icetime have had some sort of relationship to each other for a number of years now. Can they stop Canada, or will it be another hard fought loss like in Vancouver 2010?

Preliminary Round Result: Canada 3, Slovakia 2.

Quarterfinal 2: Russia vs. Norway (2:45 CEST, 9:45 AM EST)

Russia has been making fools out of everyone this tournament, and they keep getting stronger the further we go into the tournament. Adding Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin on Pavel Datsyuk's wings for the last round robin game is downright criminal, but we're all better for it. Evgeni Malkin is keeping a firm grip on the 'Best Player in the World' status he earned this year in the NHL, with a ridiculous performance against Sweden topping anything we've seen in this tournament in the past couple of years. The team has been giving up a decent amount of shots (not surprising since they've been leading most games since puckdrop), over 31 per game on average, but their goaltending has been quite strong, led by Semyon Varlamov. That'll be important to stop the offensive juggernaut that has been Norway this tournament. It still feels weird saying that, but no team in Stockholm scored more goals than Norway and they boast the tournament's leading scorer in Patrick Thoresen. 35 year old defenseman Mats Trygg, a noted non-scorer, has been playing with the hammer of Thor himself with five goals this tournament. Jonas Holos is averaging 27 minutes a night on the blue line while Lars Haugen keeps building up a strong IIHF resumé with his second strong tournament in a row as Norway's #1 goalie.

Preliminary Round Result: Russia 4, Norway 2.

Quarterfinal 3: Finland vs. USA (5:30 CEST, 11:30 AM EST)

This is the main event in Helsinki, and it could very well be the defending champions' last stand. Finland has had a hard time finding consistency so far, opening the tournament with consecutive 1-0 wins, finally finding some offence in the middle of the round robin before being blitzed by this USA team 5-0. NHL stars Mikko Koivu, Jussi Jokinen and Valterri Filpulla are doing their part mostly, but Mikael Granlund has been stunningly silent so far. I don't expect that to last much more than 7 games, to be honest, so the Americans may not know what they're stepping into at Hartwall Areena. One thing we do know we'll see is a lot of Max Pacioretty for the Americans. With twelve points and 22 shots on goal, we've seen a lot out of Pacioretty so far, and his linemates Bobby Ryan and Paul Stastny are the offensive catalysts of Team America. What we're also seeing in Team USA is the development of some pretty strong young blueliners. Jack Johnson is providing the leadership and big minutes, but Alex Goligoski, Cam Fowler and Justin Faulk are providing the sizzle. Is this team too young to compete for a medal against a Finnish team that has been there, done that? I wouldn't be so sure about that. FInland will try and wear the Americans' top players down and keep this one close to the very end.

Preliminary Round Result: USA 5, Finland 0.

Quarterfinal 4: Sweden vs. Czech Republic (8:15 CEST, 2:15 PM EST)

The last game in Stockholm this year is a doozy: the home team takes on a traditional superpower in the Czechs, who seemed to be turning things around near the end of the round robin. For the Tre Kronor, it's a chance at redemption in front of the home fans after their embarrassing showing against Russia in the biggest draw of the tournament to date. Loui Eriksson might just be able to attain the stardom he richly deserves if he continues this hot tournament up, while Henrik Zetterberg continues to be... Henrik Zetterberg. Erik Karlsson is continuing his offensive dominance from the blueline, but the Swedes have not been as solid throughout the lineup as they have been in years past. The late addition of Nicklas Backstrom at centre might help that significantly. For the Czechs, balance hasn't been the issue, but there has yet to emerge a dominant star to lead this team in this tournament up front. Ales Hemsky has been the closest to that up front, but Tomas Plekanec, Martin Erat, David Krejci and Petr Nedved have taken those roles at times as well. Milan Michalek has yet to make an impact, but like Granlund for Finland, I expect we'll be seeing something out of him before the tournament's up, and if we don't, the Czechs won't be in it very long. Hands up if you had Petr Caslava and Jakub Nakladal as the Czechs' leading defensemen before the tournament began.

Preliminary Round Result: Sweden 4, Czech Republic 1.

Let's get down to business and start thinking about some medals!

IIHF World Championships: Preliminary Round Closes Tuesday

2012-05-15T07:00:15Z

Here's our last open thread of the preliminary round, with only one game that means a lot for the tournament going forward, but a few significant games to watch for Olympic qualification as well as tournament seeding. Let's break them down a bit more than usual:

Canada vs. Belarus (11:15 AM CEST, 5:15 AM EST)

Belarus is in really tough for a result here that will change their fate. With only three points earned in this tournament, Belarus has avoided relegation but is likely to see their World Ranking slip to 13th place, which would mean that they don't get to host one of the Olympic Qualification tournaments next year. Canada needs points here to secure top spot in the Helsinki Group, although we don't know how much of an advantage that really is with any of the United States, Finland, Slovakia, or possibly France as the team's quarterfinal opponent on Thursday.

Norway vs. Denmark (12:15 PM CEST, 6:15 AM EST)

Norway is in the quarterfinals, and will be facing either Sweden or Russia as a result. Pick your poison, Norway. The result is obviously a tremendous achievement, so it'll be interesting to see how the team reacts now that it knows this game is little more than academic. Denmark is also coming off a high, avoiding relegation after defeating Latvia yesterday for their first win of the tournament. A win here would clinch being the home team next February for the Olympic qualifiers, which would be significant especially since the NHL players Denmark relies on heavily at the World Championships won't be available for that event, so every advantage will be appreciated. A Denmark win could vault the team into 11th in the IIHF World Rankings, which would be a new high for the emerging hockey nation.

Slovakia vs. France (3:15 PM CEST, 9:15 AM EST)

Here's Tuesday's big show. Can France pull off the unthinkable and make the quarterfinal? France has had some flirtations with the best in the hockey world in the past but this would definitely be their best result in a generation if they could pull off the regulation win here. Slovakia won't be easy, with big Zdeno Chara's presence seemingly giving the fading power a much needed boost just in time to qualify for Sochi 2014. A point or three here would do just that, and then the team can focus on their potential quarterfinal opponents. Canada, Finland, or the USA await.

Czech Republic vs. Germany (4:15 PM CEST, 10:15 AM EST)

Martin Erat arrives just in time for this one for the Czechs, who might be able to choose their quarterfinal opponent if Norway beats Denmark. Russia is the top seed in their pool, while Sweden is the second seed, so we'll see if the Czechs have a preferred opponent or not. Germany has other concerns, though. The team will be looking to finish strong in order to qualify for the Olympics. It's been a poor showing for the team, particularly the 12-4 drubbing they took to Norway, and they should be looking to take something positive away from this experience which hasn't offered much of that to date.

United States vs. Switzerland (7:15 PM CEST, 1:15 PM EST)

The Americans have had a fairly positive tournament to date, beating the two favourites in their pool in Canada and Finland, although they lost to Slovakia and were the only team to not get a full three points against Kazakhstan, who finished 16th. They've been an exciting team to watch with a lot of young stars like Max Pacioretty and Justin Faulk leading the way. The Swiss' tournament has been dreadful, and now the team faces the very realistic prospect of not earning automatic qualification to the Olympics. A win here would do a lot to help their cause, but the highest they can finish is 10th in this tournament and a win today may not even ensure that.

Sweden vs. Latvia (8:15 PM CEST, 2:15 PM EST)

Why not close out this round with a packed house full of exuberant home fans with a lot of hard-partying Latvian fans who have made the ferry ride from Riga? Yeah, those Latvian fans are making headlines for their antics, but this is their last chance to see their team and let's hope they aren't too upset about that fact. The game is meaningless for Sweden, but for Latvia it's about a chance at hosting an Olympic qualifier, which I'm sure will be well attended.

Stay up to date in the comments section throughout the day.

Norway Qualifies for 2014 Olympics in Sochi

2012-05-15T04:10:04Z

You've got to hand it to the Norwegian hockey program, they've built a good team despite some long odds against it.

There is only one Norwegian player who saw NHL action this past year: Mats Zuccarello of the New York Rangers, who was limited to 10 games. Yet after qualifying for the 2010 Olympics as the 12th seed (finishing 10th), Norway has reeled off three consecutive quarterfinal appearances at the World Championships to vault themselves into the top 8 in the IIHF World Rankings, and as a result will be given an automatic berth in the 2014 Olympics. Head Coach Roy Johansen has managed to find a balance between playing what internationally renowed players the country does have (Patrick Thoresen, Jonas Holøs, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen, Per-Åge Skrøder) and lesser known quantities like Mads Hansen and Morten Ask into a consistent performer, even at times an overachiever. 35 year old defender Mats Trygg has four goals this tournament after having two goals during the entire Elitserien campaign, for example, while the team's starting goaltender Lars Haugen has played all of one game in a top league in his career (for Dynamo Minsk of the KHL).

The Polar Bears are a bit of a rag-tag collection that is hanging just outside the elite of the international hockey scene, and in fact has been outperfroming Slovakia in recent years. So congratulations to an under the radar program on a tremendous achievement... I know I wasn't exactly expecting this. They also became the first non-traditional power to score over ten goals in a World Championship game this century, defeating Germany 12-4 on the weekend.

Tuesday's games wrap up the preliminary round of the World Championships, and there's only one game that matters in terms of determining who will keep playing on Thursday, as France has surprised observers by making their final game against Slovakia matter. A French upset in regulation would vault one of the IIHF's founding nations into the quarterfinals for the first time since 1995. The more probable results of a Slovakia win or OT loss would send Slovakia to the quarterfinals with an Olympic berth secured. Here's a breakdown of where things stand Olympic wise:

Qualified: Finland, Sweden, Russia, Czech Republic, Canada, United States, Norway.

Could Still Qualify (2 of these teams): Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland, France*

Potential Qualification Tournament Hosts (2 of these, plus last place of above group): Latvia, Denmark, Belarus, France*.

Anyone in the bottom two groups has a lot at stake on Tuesday, as does France, although France would require more than just making the quarterfinals in order to leapfrog anybody, and would need to win gold in order to have a chance at a Top 9 World Ranking and automatic qualification. A French gold medal (as hard as that would be to believe) would tie them in rankings points with Slovakia, with France getting the tiebreaker due to a better result in the most recent tournament. Final qualification for the 2014 Olympics would be determined next February in three separate tournaments.

Norway avoids that scenario, and that's a great accomplishment for a nation that wasn't in much of a position to dream of such a thing four years ago.

IIHF World Championships: Time Running out on Denmark, Latvia, and France

2012-05-14T11:00:49Z

We're into the final two days of the IIHF World Championships, and there isn't a lot left to settle (but how about those Norwegians). Perhaps the biggest story in the games remaining is not who is going to make the quarterfinals, as there are only two teams outside the top four in their group that have a slight chance of making it, but whether Denmark can avoid being relegated with two games to play. Denmark has been in the top group of the IIHF World Championships since 2003, but a shocking OT loss to Italy in the tournament's second game has put the emerging hockey nation (and potential 2017 host nation) in a state of peril for now. They definitely aren't giving off the impression of a team that deserves the fate (they haven't lost a game by more than two goals) but without a win against either Latvia or Norway today or tomorrow the country would find itself skipping the top level for at least a year. And Norway just put a 12 spot up against Germany yesterday, who Denmark lost 2-1 to on Saturday.

Frederik Andersen, Denmark's star young goaltender, had an off week at the worst time for his country, but can redeem himself with a win if he gets that opportunity (backup Simon Nielsen looked good in his one appearance). The team is heavily reliant on their NHL talent, and one wonders how much energy players like Philip Larsen, Lars Eller and Frans Nielsen will have tomorrow if the team can't get a win against Latvia on Monday.

Game	Team 1	Team 2	City	CEST Start	EST Start
47	Belarus	France	Helsinki	3:15 PM	9:15 AM
48	Latvia	Denmark	Stockholm	4:15 PM	10:15 AM
49	Kazakhstan	Finland	Helsinki	7:15 PM	1:15 PM
50	Italy	Russia	Stockholm	8:15 PM	2:15 PM

France and Latvia are the two countries currently outside the Top 4 in their group that still have a shot of reaching there. Latvia sits at 6 points, and has two games to play with Norway and the Czech Republic sitting at 10 and 11 points each, both within reach. France sits at 6 points with two games to play and Slovakia, their opponent tomorrow, is the team they are trying to catch at 12 points. If France were to win today against Belarus in regulation, they could reach the quarterfinals by beating Slovakia in regulation as well, which would be a tremendous feat for the country.

So Denmark faces the prospect of avoiding relegation playing two highly motivated teams that are similar in ability to them. Latvia can still reach the quarterfinals, and if Latvia were to beat Denmark, Norway would need points against Denmark tomorrow to make sure Latvia couldn't catch them (Latvia's final game is the preliminary round closer against Sweden tomorrow).

From Game 49 and on, we enter the final games of the preliminary round for each team. Kazakhstan will try and avoid relegation with a win against Finland, who have clinched a quarterfinal berth, while Italy will try and do what no one else has been able to: get a point off of Russia. Italy is, of course, currently in 7th place, but if Denmark were to beat Latvia today they would need to at least get points off of Russia in order to have a chance of staying in the top group (I won't outline every scenario here). Russia has already clinched the first seed in the Stockholm group.

Join us in the comments during the day for updates.

IIHF World Championships: What's Done, and What's Ahead

2012-05-11T12:01:06Z

This will be a double-up post, acting as both a refresher and a look ahead at the rest of the tournament. It'll also serve as Friday's Open Thread for today's action.

With four games in the books, it's time to start looking at the possibilities for the tournament that's left. Here's your standings:

2012 IIHF World Championships Standings
Rank	Helsinki Group	Record	Pts	GD	Rank	Stockholm Group	Record	Pts	GD
1	Finland	4-0-0-0	12	+11	1	Sweden	4-0-0-0	12	+10
2	Canada	3-0-1-0	10	+6	2	Russia	4-0-0-0	12	+9
3	United States	2-1-0-1	8	+6	3	Czech Republic	2-1-0-1	8	+2
4	Slovakia	2-0-0-2	6	+2	4	Latvia	2-0-0-2	6	+1
5	Switzerland	2-0-0-2	6	+1	5	Norway	1-0-1-2	4	-1
6	Belarus	1-0-0-3	3	-3	6	Germany	1-0-0-3	3	-3
7	France	1-0-0-3	3	-13	7	Italy	0-1-0-3	2	-11
8	Kazakhstan	0-0-0-4	0	-10	8	Denmark	0-0-1-3	1	-7

In general, the favourites are doing as expected this tournament, with a bit of a dogfight going on in the Helsinki Group and an open battle for the final quarterfinal spot emerging in the Stockholm Group with Latvia currently ahead. It's far from over for Denmark, who have been facing the possibility of relegation since their shocking OT loss to Italy in Game 2, but they'll need to get a win quickly. Here's what the schedule is for each team remaining, after the jump:

**Schedule By Team**
Team	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue
Finland
Canada
United States
Slovakia
Switzerland
Belarus
France
Kazakhstan
Sweden
Russia
Czech Rep.
Latvia
Norway
Germany
Italy
Denmark

There's a lot to take in, but the battles for first place in each group will essentially be decided on Friday, while the lower spots will be a bigger battleground after that. Denmark has three winnable games to escape the basement, but are still in tough. Heck, if they win all three they could make the quarterfinal. Italy is doubtful to get any more points at this point considering their schedule. I give the edge to Norway for their remaining schedule for 4th place in the Stockholm group, but they need to beat Latvia on Saturday to stand a chance. The Americans are focusing on making the quarterfinals, but they still have an outside shot for first in their group. Slovakia and Switzerland on Sunday as well as USA and Switzerland on Tuesday will be the key games in the Helsinki Group for the final playoff spots. Latvia has to take on Scandanavia for their remaining schedule, while Germany will probably have to beat Denmark and Norway back-to-back to get back to the quarterfinals.

It'll be an exciting finish. Here are today's games presented in normal format:

Game	Team 1	Team 2	City	CEST Start	EST Start
33	Kazakhstan	United States	Helsinki	3:15 PM	9:15 AM
34	Italy	Czech Republic	Stockholm	4:15 PM	10:15 AM
35	Finland	Canada	Helsinki	7:15 PM	1:15 PM
36	Russia	Sweden	Stockholm	8:15 PM	2:15 PM

Keep up to date in the comments section throughout the day.

IIHF World Championships: Day Seven Open Thread

2012-05-10T11:30:03Z

We're a week into action at the IIHF World Championships, with teams wrapping up their fourth of seven games in the preliminary round today. What have we learned thus far?

The host nations of Finland and Sweden are doing their part... they're both undefeated and could both be leading their groups as a result so far. Traditional powers Russia and Canada are right there with them, and after that, it's a bit of a free for all. Despite this, the crowds are remaining dismal for the early games, but hopefully the final weekend and the quarterfinals will see more sellouts.

Kazakhstan looks to be on the road to relegation while in the Stockholm group, right now last place is occupied by Denmark, but there is a ways to go for that to change. Latvia and the Czech Republic play today with a quarterfinal berth possibly at stake, while the Americans, Slovaks, and Swiss are in a tight battle for the final two spots in the quarterfinals in the Helsinki pool. Here are today's games:

Game	Team 1	Team 2	City	CEST Start	EST Start
29	United States	Belarus	Helsinki	3:15 PM	9:15 AM
30	Denmark	Russia	Stockholm	4:15 PM	10:15 AM
31	France	Finland	Helsinki	7:15 PM	1:15 PM
32	Czech Republic	Latvia	Stockholm	8:15 PM	2:15 PM

Unfortunately, the IIHF has stopped streaming the games live on YouTube, and the streams will now air on a 30 minute delay. This experiment is running into issues with the countries that have exclusive broadcast rights awarded and is ridiculously unfortunate... I can't imagine why anyone would want to watch it on YouTube if they had access to the game on their TV at the time. Hopefully in future tournaments these issues are resolved and live streaming becomes normal for those of us that want to watch as many games as possible, particularly the ones that aren't being broadcast by the rights holders.

Join us for updates of the action as it happens, even if we can't catch it on YouTube live.