It’s day X! The group stage is over. Now it’s time to get down to business. The quarter-finals of the ice hockey world championship in Finland are on the program for this Thursday. The quarterfinals of Eishockey–WM in Finland combines the eight favorite teams of the tournament. Finland, Canada, the USA, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany also occupy places one, two and four to nine in the world rankings. In between lies that of the WM excluded Russia.
At 3.20 p.m. the Czech Republic will face Germany. The Czechs finished the group stage in third place behind Finland and Sweden. In the last group game there was a 0:3 defeat against Finland. For the first time at this World Cup, the Czech Republic is relying on a foreign coach. The Finn Kari Jalonen should lead the Czechs back to the long-awaited medal. Most recently, the Czech Republic took third place at the 2012 World Cup and thus bronze.
The Czech Republic is the favorite in the game. However, Germany will not be underestimated, especially since the DEB selection has played the best preliminary round of the World Cup so far. It will also be a duel between two Finnish coaches. In Germany, Toni Söderholm is the boss on the bench. In Group A they finished second behind Switzerland.
The Swiss secured victory in their group with a 4:3 win after a penalty shoot-out against Germany. Switzerland is the only team still undefeated in this World Cup. A good omen for the Swiss is that in their only first preliminary roundWM-Place the advance to the final followed. At the 2013 World Cup, however, they had to bow to the Swedes in the final. However, the USA is always dangerous, especially in knockout games.
Host Finland has so far marched through the tournament as planned. The overtime defeat against Sweden was just a small downer. The Finns meet Slovakia in the quarterfinals. The Slovaks secured a place in the knockout stages with a convincing 7-1 win over Denmark. The reigning Olympic champion still goes into this game as a favourite. For “Suomi” the quarter-finals should just be another step towards the title double from the Olympic and WM-Be gold, as only the Swedes had managed to do in 2006.
