The Maple Leaf team led 5-1 at the start of the third period. Later, the Slovaks could only afford to score two goals. The result was determined 50 seconds before the final siren by the aforementioned Paul.

In another match, Switzerland, which had a successful group stage, defeated Germany 3-1 and advanced to the semi-finals. Germany is the silver medalist at last year’s World Championships.

Far fewer goals were scored in Thursday night’s session. The tournament hosts competed with the Americans to advance. Pavel Zacha scored a goal for the Czech national team in the second half, much to the delight of the home fans. The Boston Bruins forward took advantage of the power play. In the latter part of the match, the American team did not leave the opponent’s half for long periods of time. The Czechs defended brilliantly, notably thanks to goalkeeper Pavel Dostal, who stopped 36 shots. The Americans removed the goalkeeper at the end, thanks to which their rivals were able to make the score 2-0, but the puck bounced off the post.

The Czechs qualify for the second time in three years. Before this match, they had only won two of the last six meetings against the USA.

Sweden, who were the only team to collect full points in the first phase of the tournament, took a long time to score in the Finnish goal. She didn’t even use the power play three times. The third period was tied 1-1. In overtime, Joel Eriksson was the lucky scorer for the Three Crowns.

Quarter-final results:

Canada – Slovakia 6:3 (2:1, 1:0, 3:2)
Switzerland – Germany 3:1 (2:0, 0:1, 1:0)
Sweden – Finland 2:1 after extra time. (0:0, 0:0, 1:1 – 1:0)
USA – Czech Republic 0:1 (0:0, 0:1, 0:0)

Read also:

• World Hockey Championships 2024. The Polish national team said goodbye to the elite [WYNIKI BIAŁO-CZERWONYCH]

/ empe, PAP