Olympic men's hockey playoff field set as U.S. routs Germany

The United States men's hockey team remained undefeated at the Milan Cortina Olympics by beating Germany 5-1 in the final game of the preliminary round.

Despite the perfect 3-0-0-0 record, the United States finished the round-robin stage as the overall No. 2 seed on account of the goal differential tiebreaker. The U.S. needed to defeat Germany by at least 10 goals to usurp Canada for the top spot.

Seeding

The top four seeds receive a bye to the quarterfinals, while the remaining teams will have to play their way there through the qualification round. Overall seeding is based on the following criteria, in order.

Higher position in group

Higher number of points

Goal differential

Goals for

IIHF world ranking

When teams have the same number of points within the same group, head-to-head points and head-to-head goal differential are used as the first two tiebreakers. That's why Slovakia won Group B over Finland and Sweden, and Germany finished ahead of Denmark and Latvia in Group C.

Qualification matchups - Tuesday

The bottom eight teams will take part in a single-elimination qualification round Tuesday. The winner of each matchup advances to the quarterfinals.

Quarterfinal matchups - Wednesday

Teams won't be reseeded ahead of Wednesday's quarterfinals.

Instead, teams will be reseeded prior to Friday's semifinals. The bronze-medal game takes place Saturday at 2:40 p.m. ET, while the gold-medal game occurs Sunday at 8:10 a.m. ET.

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