The Olympic men's ice hockey tournament starts in Beijing on Wednesday, February 09, 2022. The German men's national team will take part in the action on Thursday, February 10, 2022. Then the team of national coach Toni Söderholm will play its first group game against Canada. But what is the game format of the Olympic ice hockey tournament? We'll summarize the most important information for you.
Ice hockey: Twelve nations are fighting for Olympic medals
A total of twelve men's national teams are taking part in the 2022 Olympics. They are divided into three groups of four teams each. The division and qualification for the tournament was based on the positions in the world rankings. Eight teams and host China qualified directly. The remaining three places were determined in eleven qualifying tournaments, which were ultimately won by Denmark, Latvia and Slovakia. The German men's national team is seeded in Group A and will face the teams from Canada, the USA and host China.
The group phase is a round-robin game - for Germany, this means that there will be matches against Canada, the USA and China. After the group phase, the twelve teams will be divided into a new seeding list (places 1 to 12) based on their results - firstly by their position within their group, then by points, goal difference, goals scored and finally by their position in the world rankings.
Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament: Who will reach the quarterfinals?
The three group winners and the best group runner-up qualify directly for the quarter-finals. The remaining eight teams will play the remaining four quarter-final places among themselves in a playoff mode. The fifth on the seeding list meets the twelfth, the sixth against the eleventh, the seventh against the tenth and the eighth against the ninth. The winners of these games will then face one of the four top-seeded teams in the quarterfinals. The quarterfinal winners advance to the semifinals; The winners there reach the final, the losers play for the bronze medal.
Olympia 2022: Schedule of the German men's national team
10.02.2022/21/10 | 14:10 (German XNUMX:XNUMX) | Canada – Germany
12.02.2022/16/40 | 09:40 (German XNUMX:XNUMX) | Germany - China
13.02.2022/21/10 | 14:10 (German XNUMX:XNUMX) | UNITED STATES - Germany
The groups at a glance (seeding list)
| Gruppe A | Gruppe B | Gruppe C |
| Kanada (1) | Olympische Athleten Russland (2) | Finnland (3) |
| USA (6) | Tschechien (5) | Schweden (4) |
| Deutschland (7) | Schweiz (8) | Slowakei (9) |
| China (12) | Dänemark (11) | Lettland (10) |