How the Olympic men's hockey tournament works and what Canada needs to do
Canadians can still clinch bye to quarter-finals
By Tim Wharnsby, CBC Sports
With the final day of the men's Olympic hockey preliminary round upon us, the door is still ajar for Canada to earn a bye into the quarter-finals.
The Canadians, who suffered a 3-2 shootout loss to the Czech Republic on Saturday after beating Switzerland 5-1 in their opener, close out the preliminary round against the host South Koreans on Sunday at 7:10 a.m. ET.
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In Olympic hockey, three points are awarded for a win in regulation time, two for an overtime or shootout victory, one for an overtime or shootout loss and zero for a regulation loss. Canada sits in second spot in Group A with a 1-0-1-0 record and four points. The Czech Republic (2-1-0-0) clinched top spot in the group with Sunday's 4-1 win over Switzerland.
No teams are eliminated at the end of group play. All 12 teams advance to the knockout stage. The top team in each of the three groups, and the team with the next-best record overall, each receive a bye straight to the quarter-finals.
The bottom eight finishers face off in the four-game playoff qualification round, with the four winners advancing to the quarter-finals.
The playoff qualification round takes place Tuesday in Korea (that's Monday night and Tuesday morning back in Canada) and the quarter-finals go Wednesday in Korea (Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in Canada).
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Despite now being unable to win their group, the Canadians can still advance straight to the quarter-finals by finishing with the best record by a non-group winner. To do that, they'll first need a regulation win over South Korea and a regulation result in the Sweden-Finland game.
Canada would have seven points with a regulation win, but six with an overtime or shootout victory. If the Sweden-Finland game isn't settled in regulation, the losing team would finish with seven points.
Should a points tie between Canada and either Sweden or Finland occur, the first tie-breaker is the head-to-head game. Since Canada is in a different group than the two Scandinavian countries, the second tie-breaker — goal differential — would be required. Canada has a plus-three mark heading into the South Korea game, compared to Finland's plus-seven and Sweden's plus-five.
Plenty of Canadians on South Korean team
As for Canada's outlook for its final group-stage game, South Korea has lost both of its contests so far in regulation—2-1 to the Czechs and 8-0 to Switzerland.
Canada clashed with South Korea at the Channel One Cup in Moscow back in mid-December. Even though the Canadians outshout South Korea 57-10, they only managed a 4-2 win.
Matt Dalton was terrific in goal for South Korea. Dalton hails from Clinton, Ont., and is one of six born-and-raised Canadians on coach Jim Paek's team. Paek was born in Seoul, South Korea but moved to Canada with his family when he was one.
He played junior for the Oshawa Generals and helped them win the 1986-87 Ontario Hockey League championship. He also spent a season with the Canadian national team before joining Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins in time for their back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 1990-91 and 1991-92.
Besides Dalton, the other Canadians on South Korea include forwards Michael Swift (Peterborough, Ont.), Alex Plante (Brandon, Man.) and Brock Radunske (New Hamburg, Ont.) as well as defencemen Bryan Young (Ennismore, Ont.) and Eric Regan (Whitby, Ont.). Young and Swift are cousins.