VANCOUVER - The dream final of the 2010 Olympic men's hockey tournament - Canada v. Russia - is no more, and the United States enters the playoff round as the top seed with a smooth road to the semi-finals.
That much was determined Sunday upon the conclusion of preliminary-round play at Hockey Canada Place. Sweden's 3-0 victory over Finland prevented its arch-rivals from earning first place, and because the Swedes didn't win by a six-goal margin, the U.S. receives top billing in the quarterfinals.
The result also loads up one side of the draw, a bracket consisting of Sweden (the defending Olympic gold medallist), Russia (the two-time defending world champions), and Canada (the pre-tournament favourites and home team).
Canada faces a difficult road if it is to advance to the gold-medal game. The Canadians will have to defeat Germany, Russia and probably Sweden or Slovakia to get to Sunday's championship game.
The 12 tournament teams were seeded based on their opening-round performance and Canada, second to the U.S. in Group A, ended up a disappointing sixth.
Since only the top four teams receive a bye to Wednesday's quarter-finals that means Canada has to play in Tuesday's qualification round. As the sixth seed, the Canadians will play Germany, the 11th seed, at 4:30 p.m. PT (7:30 p.m. ET) at Canada Hockey Place.
The United States, with nine points out of nine and a plus-9 goal differential, topped the seeding chart followed by Sweden (nine points, plus-7), Russia (seven points, plus-7), Finland (six points, plus-6), Czech Republic (six points, plus-3), Canada (five points, plus-7), Slovakia (five points, plus-5), Switzerland (three points, minus-2), Belarus (three points, minus-4), Norway (one point, minus-14), Germany (no points, minus-9) and Latvia (no points, minus-15).
Tuesday's other qualification games involve Switzerland versus Belarus (Noon PT, Canada Hockey Place), Czech Republic against Latvia (7 p.m PT UBC Thunderbird Arena) and Slovakia against Norway (9 p.m. PT Canada Hockey Place).
On Wednesday the United States will play either Switzerland or Belarus, Sweden will play either Slovakia or Norway and Finland will face either the Czech Repulic or Latvia.