Canadian men to battle defending champions U.S. in world hockey quarterfinals

Already assured of top spot in their pool, Canada finished its preliminary round at the world hockey championship with a 3-2 win over Czechia on Tuesday in Fribourg, Switzerland.

Canada's reward for finishing as the top seed in Pool B? Another knockout game against the arch-rival United States.

The defending champion Americans squeaked into the playoffs after finishing fourth in Pool A with a 4-1 win over Austria.

That set up a rematch of the gold-medal game from this year's Milano-Cortina Olympics, which the U.S. won 2-1 in overtime. The teams also met in the final of the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off, with Canada winning 3-2 in overtime.

Decorated centre Sidney Crosby and young captain Macklin Celebrini combined to score Canada's first two goals of the game as the favourites battled back from a 2-0 deficit. John Tavares scored the winner midway through the third period.

The quarterfinals are scheduled for Thursday. Sweden versus Switzerland, Finland versus Czechia and Latvia versus Norway are the other matchups.

Americans Connor Clifton, Ryan Ufko, Paul Cotter and Matthew Tkachuk

scored against Austria and Will Borgen registered two assists. Devin Cooley made 25 saves in net.

Clifton found the top corner of the net 5:34 into the game and fellow defenceman Ufko doubled the advantage by one-timing a slap shot from the point 45 seconds later.

Cotter made it 3-0 just 67 seconds into the middle period before Tkachuk buried a rebound on power play at 31:52. It was Tkachuk's fourth goal in four games since he joined the team last week.

Simeon Schwinger scored for Austria, which finished sixth.

Sweden, the bronze medalist from the last two editions, beat Slovakia 4-2 in Group B in Fribourg to advance.

Ivar Stenberg, a