The final playoff participants for the 2026 World Ice Hockey Championship have been determined: the USA and Sweden.
Both teams, including the current trophy holders, the Americans, had to win head-to-head matches against direct competitors to reach the quarterfinals: the USA played Austria, and Sweden played Slovakia.
The Americans, who had limited themselves to only one victory in regular time in the previous four rounds, could not allow overtime – in that case they would have finished outside the top 4.
Ultimately, by the middle of the match, the USA had a four-goal lead over the Austrians (one goal in most games). Austria conceded one goal by the end of the match, but finished the group stage in sixth place, outside the playoff zone.
The United States, which won its third World Cup title in 2025, avoided a rare group stage exit. The last time the Americans failed to make the top eight was in 2010, when they finished 13th.
World Cup 2026. 7th round
USA — Austria — 4:1 (2:0, 2:1, 0:0)
Pucks: Clifton, 6, Ufko, 7, Cotter, 22, Tkachuk, 32 — Schwinger, 37
Sweden's national ice hockey team. REUTERS/David W Cerny
Slovakia started the championship with four wins and were confident of staying in the playoff zone. However, the defeat to Sweden was the team's third in a row and left them outside the top 4 of the group.
At the same time, the decisive match was going in favor of the Slovaks from the very beginning, when Martin Hromyak opened the scoring in the fifth minute of the first period.
Sweden responded with a goal in the second half of the period, and in the second 20 minutes they pulled two goals back. Coming within one shot of the winner, Oliver Ekman-Larsson put an end to the question of the winner by scoring an empty net in the penultimate minute to complete the 4-2 victory.
World Cup 2026. 7th round
Sweden — Slovakia — 4:2 (1:1, 2:1, 1:0)
Pucks: Frondell, 17, Silfverberg, 23, Stenberg, 31, Ekman-Larsson, 59 — Khromyak, 5, Hryvyk, 37
Who has qualified for the 2026 World Cup playoffs?
- Group A: Switzerland (18 points), Finland (18), Latvia (12), USA (11)
- Group B: Canada (17), Norway (15), Czech Republic (13), Sweden (12)
The final quarterfinal pairings will be formed after the last two matches of the group round: the final positions of the teams in the standings will be determined after the games of future playoff participants Czech Republic – Canada and Switzerland – Finland, which will start simultaneously at 21:20 Kyiv time.
Watch the live broadcast of the match between Group A leaders Switzerland and Finland live on the Suspilne Sport platforms and local channels of Suspilne, the official broadcaster of the 2026 World Cup in Ukraine.