What a start to the eliminations playoffs! The Qualifiers saw two upsets and set up an exciting Quarterfinals. Slovenia, who has been the Cinderella story of this tournament, defeated Austria 4-0. This is Slovenia’s first appearance in the Men’s Olympic Hockey tournament since becoming an independent nation. Slovenia faces a very tough match-up in the Quarterfinals against Sweden.

The other upset of the day saw Latvia defeat Switzerland 3-1. Latvia has only one NHL player, Zemgus Girgensons from Buffalo, on the team and is coached by Buffalo interim coach Ted Nolan. They now battle against Canada in the Quarterfinals as they push for gold.

The Czech Republic defeated Slovakia 5-3 in a close game. Team Czech’s last goal was an empty netter and momentum at the end of the game was swinging quickly towards Slovakia. The game was much closer than the score indicates. Team USA will see the Czechs in their Quarterfinal match-up.

The remaining Qualification game saw Russia shut out Norway 4-0. The Olympic host nation shoulders a lot of expectations and Russia has invested a lot of money in the Olympic games with the hopes for a Hockey Gold Medal. They now face what I believe to be the toughest road to a medal. They will face a competitive Finland team in the Quarterfinals. If they make it through the Fins they will likely have to go through Sweden and either Canada or Team USA in their quest for Gold. Their game against Finland will be an exciting match-up and will likely be a close contest.

All the teams that qualified  today will be on short rest as they face four tough teams in the Quarterfinals, who will be well rested after two days off. Sweden, Finland, Canada, and the US have all shown great scoring ability and have goaltending depth to match.

Dekes and Dangles was 50% on our Qualification Round picks. See actual results and our picks below!

Playoff Picks

Actual Results Tracker