A bunch of dudes and Noah Cates will be playing a lot this week!
While the Women’s Hockey gold medal game is set for February 17 — Team USA vs. Team Canada, the best rivalry in sports! — the Men’s tournament qualifying games begin late tonight. Before the bracket starts to shape up, let’s take a look at where things stand now that group play has wrapped up.
Group A
- USA
- Canada
- Germany
- China
Team USA made their way to the top of the Group A standings on the back of an undefeated run against their opponents. The Americans made easy work of Team China first with an 8-0 win, which was followed up by a big 4-2 win over Team Canada and a 3-2 win over Germany.
Group B
- ROC
- Denmark
- Czech Republic
- Switzerland
ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) has earned the top spot in Group B after a near-perfect round of group play. Their wins over Switzerland and Denmark were enough despite a surprising 6-5 loss to the Czech Republic. That game was a fun one.
Group C
- Finland
- Sweden
- Slovakia
- Latvia
Team Finland also went undefeated in their group, starting with a dominant 6-2 win over Slovakia. A 3-1 win over Latvia and 4-3 win over Sweden rounded out the effort for the Finns and got them into the top spot.
The playoff qualifying tournament begins tonight (late tonight, so late, too late) at 11:10PM with Slovakia vs. Germany and Denmark vs. Latvia. Yes, both games are being played at the same time. The rest of the games will be played Tuesday morning (locally), with Czech Republic vs. Switzerland at 3:40AM and Canada vs. China at a very reasonable 8:10AM. All times are Eastern. If you want to get in on the betting action before the qualifiers, head on over to DraftKings and see how you can spice things up. Responsibly, please.