Sochi 2014 - The tournament so far......

Sochi 2014 - The tournament so far......

Editorial note: I must apologise for only writing one half of the preview I promised. I have a real job in the real world. Who knew?

Today, 16th February, we come to the end of the preliminary round and start to see how the knockout stage will shape up. The first set of games start on Tuesday, the 18th, as the teams seeded 5th-12th fight for the right to join the top four seeds in the quarter finals.

GROUP A

The two shocks coning from the group containing host nation Russia is not that they've finished 2nd, but two defeats suffered by Slovakia. The 8th ranked team in the world were on the receiving end of two crushing losses at the hands of 6th ranked USA and 17th ranked Slovenia, Slovenia's first ever Olympic hockey win.

Americans dominate the top point scoring table with four different skaters in the top ten overall, Phil Kessel (4G 3A), T.J. Oshie (1G 3A), Joe Pavelski (1G 3A) and James van Riemsdyk (0G 4A). David Backes and Paul Stastny the only other players with more than one goal. Russia has five players on one goal (Kovalchuk, Malkin, Ovechkin, Belov and Nichushkin) and one player on two goals, Pavel Datsyuk.



GROUP B

No surprises in this group as the reigning Olympic champions top the 2nd ranked team in the world. It was always going to be Canada and Finland topping this group since the draw was made.

Canadian coach Mike Babcock has been busy shuffling line combinations about over the last four days. Montreal goalie Carey Price with two wins in net, including this evenings crucial overtime win over the Finnish. Defenseman Drew Doughty had four goals including both against Finland. All of Canada's goal scorers ply their trade in the Western Conference, Doughty (LA), Carter (LA), Weber (NSH), Benn (DAL) and Getzlaf (ANA).

Canada head into the knockout round as the 3rd seed and Finland as the 4th.

GROUP C

World number one and one of the strongest favourites pre tournament, Sweden, top the group with a 100% record and head into the knockout stage as the 1st seed.

One surprise that jumps out is the Czechs finishing in 3rd and that they could only manage a win against Latvia, the 2nd lowest ranked team in the tournament. Talking of Latvia, they will face the
Swiss again on Tuesday.


Scoring leaders after the Preliminary Round

KNOCKOUT STAGE PREVIEW

The qualification playoffs, or wildcard round, is on Tuesday. The four winners play against a team from the top four seeds on Wednesday. The semi finals are on Friday with the bronze medal game on Saturday, before the gold medal is contested for at the Bolshoy Ice Dome on Sunday.

These are the dates and UK times of the rest of the tournament.

Qualification playoffs (Tuesday 18th):

Russia vs Norway 8am
Switzerland vs Latvia - 12:30pm
Slovenia vs Austris - 5pm
Czech Republic vs Slovakia - 5pm

Quarter finals (Wednesday 19th):

Sweden vs Slovenia/Austria - 8am
Finland vs Russia/Norway - 12:30pm
Canada vs Switzerland/Latvia - 5pm
USA vs Czech Republic/Slovakia - 5pm

Semi finals (Friday 21st): Noon, 5pm

Bronze medal game (Saturday 22nd): 3pm

Gold medal game (Sunday 23rd): Noon

EDIT (17th Feb): The games for the first two rounds have been allocated to the time slots above.

Just the prospect of the Canada/US semi final is making my mouth water. This is where it really steps up a level. Unless Russia can cause an upset I can't see anyone other than the top four as the last four.

Hope all of you watching have enjoyed the games so far, and other sports. (GO JENNY JONES!!! GO LIZZY YARNOLD!!!)

Enjoy the rest of the games and the hockey.

Psst..... we're nine days from NHL action returning!!!