Three Olympic spots come down to final day of qualifying

After the first few days of competition, the three final Olympic qualification spots will come down to a trio of games on Sunday morning.

Slovakia leads this group with a 2-0-0 record. If Slovakia beats Belarus in any form – regulation (3 points) or overtime (2 points), they’re in.

If Belarus beats Slovakia in regulation (and Poland doesn’t beat Austria in regulation), they and Belarus will finish with identical 2-1-0 records and it’ll come down to their head-to-head record. Belarus would win that tiebreaker and advance to the Olympics.

If Belarus beats Slovakia in regulation AND Poland beats Austria in regulation, then there’s a three-way tie between Slovakia, Belarus and Austria for points and head-to-head records. Then it’ll come down to head-to-head goal differential, which goes to Slovakia unless Belarus beats Slovakia by three goals or more.

(Adam Ruzicka will play for Slovakia, while Ilya Solovyov will play for Belarus.)

This one’s pretty simple. Latvia and France have both won their first two games. Whoever wins their game on Sunday advances to the Olympics.

Another simple one: Denmark and Norway have both won their first two games. Whoever wins their game on Sunday advances to the Olympics.