Thursday, April 30, 2009

International Collapse

by Anne

Yesterday I "watched" (checked the live boxscore) Team USA take on Sweden. Things were going great, Team USA was outshooting the Swedes 33-17 through the 2nd and at one point in the 3rd held a 5-2 lead. Yet they somehow managed to turn that into a 6-5 loss in overtime. Good to know its not just the Sabres who do that. Epic Third Period Collapse goes Global.


Get it together please, boys.

A brief overview of how the World Championships work:

Sixteen countries are divided into four divisions of four teams each. (A,B,C,D)

The top 16 countries in the world are divided into four Groups:
Group A: Canada, Belarus, Slovakia, Hungary
Group B: Russia, Switzerland, France, Gremany
Group C: Sweden, USA, Latvia, Austria
Group D: Czech Republic, Norway, Finland, Denmark

The first round (the one that just ended) has each team playing the other three teams in their division once. The three teams with the best records move on to the Qualification round. The #4 team in each division goes on to the Relegation round and the team that fares the worst is sent back to Division I.

Relegation teams:
Germany
Austria
Denmark
Hungary

In the Qualification round, the three teams from Groups A and D combine to make Group F and the three remaining teams from Groups B and C combine to make Group E. The teams play the three teams in their new group that they didn't play in the Preliminary round.

Group E: Sweden, Russia, Switzerland, USA, France, Latvia
Group F: Canada, Czech Republic, Norway, Finland, Belarus

After the Qualification round, the tournament becomes single-elimination. The top four teams from Groups E and the top four teams from Group F move on to the Quarter finals. #1 in Group E plays #4 in Group F, #2 Group E plays #3 Group F and so on.

After THAT comes the semi finals. The four remaining teams will play to see who makes it to the Gold medal game and who to the Bronze. The two teams that win will meet in the Gold medal game and the two teams that lose will meet in the Bronze medal game.

Phew that took a while to explain.

Team USA started in Group C with Sweden, Latvia and Austira and is now Group E. They still have to play France, Russia and Switzerland, formerly members of Group B. Austria was the fourth place team in Group C and is facing relegation. :(

Team USA's next game is Friday at 2:15 EST against France.

2 comments:

  1. I have this really bad feeling that Austria is going to be relegated.

    ReplyDelete
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