On Tuesday, the qualifying round gets underway at the men’s Olympic hockey tournament in Milan, with four elimination games to determine the quarterfinal match-ups. Canada, the United States, Slovakia, and Finland have all clinched their place in the quarterfinals, and eight nations will now duke it out for a chance to take them on.

Here’s a preview of the first four elimination matches (all times in MT):

Germany opened their tournament with a confident 3-1 win over Denmark, powered by two goals from Tim Stützle. However, they dropped the next two games despite two more tucks from Stützle, who is tied for the tournament lead in goals. Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl also contributed a goal and two assists, and the two of them will look to lead Germany to victory against a French team that has yet to win a game.

The host Italians gave Sweden a scare in their opening game, but ultimately failed to earn a point in group play, finishing with a crushing 11-0 loss to Finland. Matthew Bradley leads the team with two goals, but it’ll be a tall task to take down their Swiss rivals. 38-year-old goalie Leonardo Genoni boasts a .946 SV% for the Swiss, and the team has strong NHL presence with players like Roman Josi and Timo Meier, the latter of which has three goals and an assist.

Czechia and Denmark both finished preliminary play with a win and two losses, but Czechia holds a slight advantage in points with one of those defeats coming in overtime. Martin Nečas is among the points leaders at this tournament, with a goal and four assists for Czechia. Nikolaj Ehlers, meanwhile, helped power Denmark to their sole win. It’ll be a close fight between these two nations, all for the honour to face the red-hot Canadians in the quarterfinals.

Sweden came into the Olympics as one of the favourites to challenge for a medal, but they’ve looked sloppy through three games. They nearly got upset by Italy, fell 4-1 to Finland, and conceded a last-minute goal against Slovakia which kept them from winning the group. They escaped with two wins, but it wasn’t pretty. Up against Latvia, they’re the clear favourites, but they’ll need to tighten up, especially with the United States as their opponent next round if they make it through.

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