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

PyeongChang (South Korea) Feb 18 (IANS) 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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