Alright, after Saturday's action, here's how I see it going down:
The US is playing quite well. They're the only team to get a point in a game with Slovakia (a 3-3 tie) and well set for the Qualifying round.
Here's how it works:
There are 6 teams each in Groups E/F.
Preliminary round games against teams who advanced to this round count and you don't play those teams again. You end up with 5 games on your record. The top four teams from E and F advance to the semi-finals (and get an automatic Olympic berth). The four semi-final games are the standard #1 seed in E vs. #4 seed in F, #2E vs. #3F, etc.
Here's Group F (the group of death as it is called). I'm including seed, team, GP, record, pts. Remember, you end up with 5 GP:
1 SVK 3 2-1-0 5
2 FIN 4 2-1-1 5
3 SWE 3 2-1-0 5
4 USA 3 1-1-1 3
5 RUS 4 1-0-3 2
6 DEN 3 0-0-3 0
-Slovakia, Finland and Sweden are guaranteed to advance because Russia and Denmark can't pass them, so they can't finish worse than fourth.
-Slovakia and Sweden have the inside track for the #1 seed as they have two games left and Finland only has one. Slovakia plays lowly Denmark today while Sweden gets the USA. Then they play each other on Monday.
-Finland and Russia only have one game left each, and they play each other on Monday. If Russia wins, it will have four points.
-The USA has two games left: Sweden and Denmark. If Team USA gets two points, they're into the semis and Olympics. Beating Denmark would help. We have the tie-breaker with Russia (head-head record) so one point would almost guarantee advancing, even if Russia beats Finland.
-Denmark must beat Slovakia and the USA, and hope Sweden beats the USA and Finland beats Russia to have a chance of advancing.
Most likely final standings in Group F? 1. SVK, 2. SWE, 3. FIN, 4. USA, 5. RUS, 6. DEN
That's nice for the Olympics, but lousy for the semifinals as we'd end up playing the #1 in Group E, the Group I predict finishing: #1. CZR, #2 CAN, #3GER, #4 LAT, #5 AUT, #6 SUI.
That would mean Semi-Finals of CZR-USA, CAN-FIN, SWE-GER, SVK-LAT,
Quarterfinals of CZR-SWE, CAN-SVK
Finals of Czechs vs. Slovaks.
Sorry, Marc. Hey, they did get a couple of goals today. That's something, right?
It sounds like it was just a tough tournament for them. France doesn't have a bad team, just not good enough to really compete with the big boys of ice hockey. When they are unlucky, as they were this time around, it just turns out badly. C'est la vie, they'll do better next time. This was very good experience if nothing else.
We were so much better at the last Olympics. We had a great game against Switzerland. Then, we got beaten twice, but scored some beautiful goals. After that, I don't remember.
I'll probably watch that game vs. Switzerland again (I taped it). It was one of our best games in a great competition since Albertville 1992 (where we had a very good game against team USA and finished 8th).
7/11/01-1/23/03.
Caps Hockey.....ain't worth shit.
"This is America! And in America, if something sucks, you're supposed to be able to get your money back."-Stan Marsh
I'm the Weeping Willow,and I approve of this post.
France got a 2-2 tie in their final game vs. Japan. Maurice Rozenthal scored, at last! We're 16th. But both teams will have to qualify for the Olympics.
France, Japan settle little in concluding tie
In a game between the two teams that have already been relegated for 2005, the only additional storyline in today's 2-2 tie between the Japanese and French was that it determined who would place 15th and go to Division I, Group A (Japan) and who would finish 16th and go to Division I, Group B (France).
The Japanese scored their two goals 28 seconds apart in the first period, the first coming on a 5-on-3 situation when Kengo Ito drilled a one-timer over the glove of Cristobal Huet at 9:41. Moments later, Fumitaka Miyauchi's harmless-looking shot was deflected in front by a French defender and slid between the legs of Huet.
The French replied with two quick goals of their own midway through the second period. On their first goal--and third of the tournament in six games--they controlled a faceoff deep in the Japanese end and Olivier Coqueux slid a nice backhand pass in front to Anthony Mortas, who managed to squeeze the puck between the legs of Yutaka Fukufuji. On the next faceoff, they stormed back into the Japanese end and Maurice Rozenthal walked out from the boards and drilled a shot to the short side which surprised Fukufuji.
The French continued to press and had two more great scoring chances, one by Arnaud Briand and the other by Xavier Daramy, but the period ended 2-2.
The third was an uneventful 20 minutes, and the game ended with nothing changing in the standings. The 15th place finish for the Japanese was their best ever at the top level of the World Championships, though both countries must still qualify if they hope to compete at the 2006 Olympics.
