FRIBOURG, Switzerland — Already assured of top spot in their pool, Canada finished off their preliminary round at the world hockey championship with a 3-2 win over Czechia on Tuesday.
Canada’s reward for finishing as the top seed in Pool B? Another knockout game against the archrival United States.
The defending champion Americans squeaked into the playoffs after finishing fourth in Pool A with a 4-1 win over Austria.
That set up a rematch of the gold-medal game from this year’s Milan-Cortina Olympics, which the U.S. won 2-1 in overtime. The teams also met in the final of the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off, with Canada winning 3-2 in overtime.
Decorated centre Sidney Crosby and young captain Macklin Celebrini combined to score Canada’s first two goals of the game as the favourites battled back from a 2-0 deficit. John Tavares scored the winner midway through the third period.
The quarterfinals are scheduled for Thursday. Sweden versus Switzerland, Finland versus Czechia and Latvia versus Norway are the other matchups.
Americans knock off Austria
The United States set up the quarterfinal showdown by beating Austria.
Connor Clifton, Ryan Ufko, Paul Cotter and Matthew Tkachuk scored against Austria, and Will Borgen registered two assists. Devin Cooley made 25 saves in net.
The victory lifted the defending champion to fourth place in Group A. That means it next faces Canada, which topped Group B.
“I liked our game overall and thought our goaltending was excellent,” U.S. head coach Don Granato said. “We look forward to the challenge ahead in facing Canada on Thursday.”
Clifton found the top corner of the net 5:34 into the game and fellow defenseman Ufko doubled the advantage by one-timing a slap shot from the point 45 seconds later.
Cotter made it 3-0 just 67 seconds into the middle period before Tkachuk buried a rebound on power play at 31:52. It was Tkachuk’s fourth goal in four games since he joined the team last week.
Simeon Schwinger scored for Austria, which finished sixth.
In Zurich, Ken Jager scored his second goal on a power play with 3:13 to go in host Switzerland’s 4-2 win over Finland.
Switzerland, with seven straight wins and all in regulation, dominated Group A with 21 points, three more than Finland.
Attilio Biasca and Jager gave the Swiss an early 2-0 advantage before Finland’s Aleksander Barkov scored twice in the second period.
After Jager’s second, Nico Hischier added an empty-netter.
Sweden, the bronze medalist from the last two editions, beat Slovakia 4-2 in Group B in Fribourg to advance to the quarterfinals.
Ivar Stenberg, a top prospect for next month’s NHL draft, scored the winning goal, Anton Frondell and Jakob Silfverberg had goal apiece and Oliver Ekman-Larsson sealed the win with an empty-net score.
Sweden clinched fourth place and will next face either Switzerland or Finland — those two square off later Tuesday to determine the Group A winner.
Slovakia finished fifth and didn’t advance.
Latvia reached the quarterfinals by routing Hungary 8-1, moving to third place in Group A. Germany dropped to fifth and is eliminated.
Norway, which has already qualified for the last eight for the first time since 2012, needed overtime to down Denmark 4-3 in Group B action in Fribourg.