Already assured of top spot in their pool, Canada finished its preliminary round at the world hockey championship with a 3-2 win over Czechia on Tuesday in Fribourg, Switzerland.
Canada’s reward for finishing as the top seed in Pool B? Another knockout game against the arch-rival United States.
The defending champion Americans squeaked into the playoffs after finishing fourth in Pool A with a 4-1 win over Austria.
That set up a rematch of the gold-medal game from this year’s Milano-Cortina Olympics, which the U.S. won 2-1 in overtime. The teams also met in the final of the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off, with Canada winning 3-2 in overtime.
Decorated centre Sidney Crosby and young captain Macklin Celebrini combined to score Canada’s first two goals of the game as the favourites battled back from a 2-0 deficit. John Tavares scored the winner midway through the third period.
The quarterfinals are scheduled for Thursday. Sweden versus Switzerland, Finland versus Czechia and Latvia versus Norway are the other matchups.
Americans Connor Clifton, Ryan Ufko, Paul Cotter and Matthew Tkachuk
scored against Austria and Will Borgen registered two assists. Devin Cooley made 25 saves in net.
Clifton found the top corner of the net 5:34 into the game and fellow defenceman Ufko doubled the advantage by one-timing a slap shot from the point 45 seconds later.
Cotter made it 3-0 just 67 seconds into the middle period before Tkachuk buried a rebound on power play at 31:52. It was Tkachuk’s fourth goal in four games since he joined the team last week.
Simeon Schwinger scored for Austria, which finished sixth.
Sweden, the bronze medalist from the last two editions, beat Slovakia 4-2 in Group B in Fribourg to advance.
Ivar Stenberg, a top prospect for next month’s NHL draft, scored the winning goal, Anton Frondell and Jakob Silfverberg had goal apiece and Oliver Ekman-Larsson sealed the win with an empty-net score.
Sweden clinched fourth place and will next face either Switzerland or Finland as they square off later Tuesday to determine the Group A winner.
Slovakia finished fifth and didn’t advance.
Latvia reached the quarterfinals by routing Hungary 8-1, moving to third place in Group A. Germany dropped to fifth and is eliminated.
Norway, which has already qualified for the last eight for the first time since 2012, needed overtime to down Denmark 4-3 in Group B action in Fribourg.
