Czech, Russia, Sweden, Canada power into men's hockey quarter-finals

The Czech Republic, the Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR), Canada and Sweden reached the quarter-finals of the men's ice hockey at the PyeongChang Olympics on Sunday.

Czech beat Switzerland 4-1 to top Group A and the OAR entered the final eight by finishing the first in Group B, reports Xinhua news agency.

In a confrontation between the Sochi silver and bronze medal winners, Sweden, with a laborious win over Finland 3-1, got into the quarter-finals as No. 1 in Group C.

Defending champion Canada, with an easy 4-0 win over hosts South Korea, also secured a berth in the quarter-finals as the best second-ranked team among the 12 teams.

The rest of the eight teams -- the United States, Switzerland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Germany, Norway and South Korea -- will compete for another four seats for the quarter-finals.

On the women's part, Sochi bronze winner Switzerland will fight against Asian champion Japan for the fifth place after upsetting a unified Korean team 2-0.

The Japanese overcame Sweden in overtime 2-1. So, the Swedes and Koreans will play for the seventh place.

Defending Canada will face the Olympic Athlete from Russia, while the United States will take on Finland in the semi-finals on Monday.

--IANS

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