Milan – Germany swatted aside France 5-1 to reach the Olympic men’s ice hockey quarterfinals on Tuesday, setting up a meeting with surprise Group B winners Slovakia in the final eight.
Captain Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring in the first period and set up his Edmonton Oilers teammate Joshua Samanski for another goal in the third.
Forwards Frederik Tiffels, JJ Peterka and Nico Sturm also scored in the qualification playoff game.
Defenseman Moritz Seider of the Detroit Red Wings assisted on the third-period, power-play goal by Samanski. Seider had two shots on goal during the game.
France was playing without defenseman Pierre Crinon after the French federation suspended him, citing “provocative behavior” after a fight with Canadian Tom Wilson in Sunday’s group-stage defeat to the tournament favorites.
Draisaitl rifled one in on the power play in the fourth minute, his second goal of the tournament, before Tiffels flipped the puck off the goalie’s mask and into the near corner in a solo effort.
Peterka flipped in an easy wrist shot with less than two minutes left before the intermission.
A bit of luck went France’s way when captain Pierre-Edouard Bellemare ricocheted a shot off a German skate and into the net early in the second and goalie Antoine Keller made a couple of nice glove saves to keep France in the fight.
But the Germans put it completely out of reach when Draisaitl fed the puck perfectly to Samanski in the slot and Sturm tapped one into the empty net in the final minute.
Switzerland 3, Italy 0: Switzerland also reached the quarterfinals and will meet Finland.
Philipp Kurashev and Roman Josi put the Swiss two goals up by the 11th minute with Nico Hischier scoring in the final period as Italian goaltender Damian Clara kept the scoreline down, making 48 saves across the 60 minutes.
Switzerland was without Los Angeles Kings forward Kevin Fiala, who suffered a tournament-ending leg injury in Friday’s 5-1 loss to Canada, but had enough NHL talent to see off the hosts, who exit the tournament without a win in their four games.
Czech Republic 3, Denmark 2: The Czech Republic outlasted Denmark, setting up the unenviable task of playing Canada in the quarterfinals.
Forward Martin Necas drew first blood in the second period and assisted on a goal from David Kampf less than five minutes later, while captain Roman Cervenka capped the scoring for the Czech team with what proved to be the game-winner.
The Czech Republic won gold in 1998, the first time NHL players were allowed to compete in the Games, but faces long odds to repeat that historic run.
Sweden 5, Latvia 1: Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond had three assists and was plus-3 for the Swedes, who will face the United States in the quarterfinals.
Adrian Kempe, William Nylander, Gabriel Landeskog, Mika Zibanejad and Filip Forsberg scored goals and Jacob Markstrom made 20 saves for Sweden.
Grand Rapids Griffins forward Eduards Tralmaks scored for Latvia.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Olympic hockey: Seider, Raymond advance to quarterfinals; Sweden to face U.S.
Reporting by Detroit News staff and wires, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
