One Game Left: Finland and Sweden Decide the Bracket Tonight

One Game Left: Finland and Sweden Decide the Bracket Tonight

By Staff Reporter | Tournament Desk

Fourteen round robin games are in the books. The standings are set everywhere except one spot — and that spot controls everything from second place down to fifth. Finland and Sweden meet tonight at 10:15 PM in the tournament's final round robin game, and the result will hand us two very different playoff brackets for the medal round starting next week at the Inwood Ice Arena.

What the standings say right now

The United States is done playing round robin hockey and they are untouchable. Five wins, zero losses, a +18 goal differential, and victories over every team in the field including a 10-6 dismantling of the Soviet Union. They are the first seed and they are waiting.

The Soviet Union sits second at six points, 3-2. Their two losses — to Finland and to the Americans — opened the tournament before a breakout three-game winning run that includes a 15-9 thumping of Czechoslovakia. They hold second place alone, but how long they stay there depends entirely on what Finland does tonight.

Finland and Canada are deadlocked at four points. Finland has one final chance to add to their point total. Canada has played all five games and cannot improve their record. Sweden and Czechoslovakia both sit at two points — Czechoslovakia's stunning 12-3 win over Canada their lone bright spot in an otherwise difficult tournament, Sweden's 12-2 destruction of Czechoslovakia a fading memory given their three losses.

Scenario A: Finland wins tonight

A Finnish victory sends them to six points and immediately triggers a tiebreaker with the Soviet Union. The deciding factor is their head-to-head result — Finland beat the Soviets 11-7 — which under the tournament rules gives Finland the superior record among the tied teams. Finland jumps to second. The Soviets fall to third.

Canada holds fourth at four points. In the bottom half, Sweden and Czechoslovakia are both on two points, but Sweden's 12-2 head-to-head win over Czechoslovakia puts them fifth and the Czechs sixth.

The bracket: USSR vs. Czechoslovakia (3v6), with the winner advancing to face Finland in the semifinals. Canada vs. Sweden (4v5), with the winner drawing the United States. 

Scenario B: Sweden wins tonight

A Swedish victory creates a three-way tie at four points between Finland, Canada, and Sweden. The tiebreaker formula is applied only among those three teams. Looking purely at head-to-head results within that group: Canada went 2-0 against the other two, accumulating a +5 goal differential in those matchups. Sweden went 1-1 at -1. Finland went 0-2 at -4. Canada takes third, Sweden fourth, Finland fifth.

Czechoslovakia is alone in sixth at two points — they cannot climb.

The bracket: Canada vs. Czechoslovakia (3v6), winner faces the Soviet Union. Sweden vs. Finland (4v5) — a rematch of tonight's game — winner faces the United States. It would be a second crack at each other, with a semifinal spot on the line.

The Super Saturday picture

In both scenarios the structure is the same: USA on one side of the bracket, USSR (or Finland) on the other. Super Saturday's schedule after the copletion of the medal round at Inwood Ice Arena remains fixed — Tin game at 4:00 PM, Bronze at 5:30 PM, Gold at 7:00 PM. The Americans, who have outscored their five opponents by 18 goals and beaten the Soviets head-to-head, are the heavy favorites to make it to the gold game regardless of opponents along the way.

But the road starts tonight. Puck drop at 10:15 PM.