Ice hockey-Canada earn top seeding out of preliminaries as men's tournament moves to knockout stage

MILAN, Feb 15 : A mouth-watering final between Canada and the United States is still on the cards after the group stage of the men's Olympic ice hockey tournament, while highly fancied Sweden face a playoff in order to reach the quarter-finals.

NHL players returned to the Games after a 12-year absence, raising expectations that the North American rivals would contest the gold medal match for the first time since 2010, and the pair duly topped the rankings when the group stage wrapped up on Sunday.

The competition format - where rankings after the preliminary round came down to group placing, points, and goal difference - meant consolation or empty-net goals often decided who teams would face in the playoffs and quarter-finals.

Canada and the U.S. were the only sides to end on maximum points, but the Canadians' better goal difference - bolstered by a 10-2 thumping of France - means they topped the rankings, while Slovakia and Finland also advanced to the last eight. 

The winners of each of the three preliminary groups and the next best overall team automatically made the quarter-finals, with the remaining teams competing in a single-elimination qualification playoff.

SWEDEN AND U.S. ON COLLISION COURSE

Slovakia topped Group B thanks to a late consolation goal against Sweden, which gave them a better goal difference in the head-to-head tiebreaker with Finland and the Swedes, after they all finished on six points.

Defending champions Finland took the final automatic quarter-final place, while Sweden finished seventh overall and will face Latvia in the playoffs.

Sweden have a roster full of NHL players, but have not overly impressed, struggling to overcome hosts Italy and losing 4-1 to their rivals Finland, while Latvia ended bottom