The IIHF World Championship, which really is a busy schedule of a tournament, has narrowed the field down to the quarterfinals with the close of games today. Canada (John Tavares) and USA (Kyle Okposo, high-five proponent and generally relentless performer in this tourney) finished 1-2 in their group after the U.S. dumped Switzerland today.
The U.S. will face co-host Finland -- whom the U.S. blasted in the group stage -- on Thursday, while Canada takes on Slovakia. One interesting quarterfinal will be Norway, which lit up lesser teams including Denmark (Frans Nielsen), facing undefeated Russia.
It's been a disappointing tournament for the Swiss and especially Nino Niederreiter after he injured his ankle against Slovakia, (IPB with a link to some Swiss press on that injury), causing him to miss today's final preliminary game. Nonetheless, Switzerland has still secured a spot for the Sochi 2014 Olympics. (Will the NHL let players like Nino and Mark Streit go?) Germany, Latvia and Denmark are among the teams that will need to enter via a qualifying tournament in February 2013.
Chat up the IIHFs and tonight's NHL playoff game here.