Ten teams started and only six remain! Saturday will feature the placement game between Switzerland and Germany and the two semifinal games – USA versus Finland and Canada versus Czechia.
The winner of the placement game will play in Group A in the 2025 tournament, while the winners of the semifinal will move on to Sunday’s gold medal game and the losers to the bronze.
How to watch the games
Switzerland vs Germany
These two teams find themselves in a playoff for Group A placement in 2025 based on their “preliminary round combined ranking” per the IIHF after losing in the quarterfinals.
Switzerland, who played in Group A this tournament, is still looking for their first win of the tournament. They didn’t win a single group game and only advanced to the quarterfinals because every team in Group A does. They fell to Finland, 3-1, to find themselves in this situation. Including that one goal against Finland, they’ve only scored four goals in five games. You don’t need to know a lot to know that that is not a recipe for success.
Germany finished at the top of Group B to match up against Czechia in the quarterfinals. They played extremely well against a Group A foe, only losing 1-0, and goaltender Sandra Abstreiter is a big part of the success in that game (and their group play success as well).
So far, we haven’t been able to find the game on ESPN+ nor NHL Network in the US.
USA v Finland
This game is almost certainly going to be a doozy. Finland proved in the group stage game between these two teams they can be a thorn in the US’s side. They scored two of their three goals on the power play (in a penalty-filled game) so keeping penalties under control will be key for both teams.
Lydia Murray
Canada v Czechia
In their group play meeting, Canada came out flying, scoring three goals in the first 20 minutes, before eventually winning 5-0. Not a great way to start the game for Czechia at all. Czechia also barely beat Germany in the quarterfinals, only winning 1-0. They’ll need to have a short memory if they want to do better than last year’s bronze medal, and, more likely, keep that mentality if they want to win their third straight bronze.
J Gray
