Welcome to St. Petersburg as we have finished up the Round Robin of the S77 IIHF Tournament! We had a very jumbled conclusion to this stage with both groups having very tight finishes and a few federations just a few points or even goals shy of advancing.

GROUP A

1. Canada 8-1-3-0 for 26 points
Last season’s gold medalists blazed through this season’s group stage with easily the best record in the group. They were led by Jack St. Clair and Cale Salad, but they will face Japan, with whom they split the group stage in terms of wins and losses so expect a contentious matchup there.

2. France 6-1-4-1 for 21 points
Antoine Beauregard was the mvp for team France as is certainly in the running for tournament MVP with 18 points, helped along by France’s high offense, low defense strategy. Far from a dominant run in the group stage, their first round matchup versus Germany promises to be an exciting one.

3. Germany 6-0-5-1 for 19 points
Team Germany find themselves back in the playoff stage as they were led by Rikkert Biemans. The Germans had a high scoring offense this time around and found themselves with at least 4 goals in any of their wins. This was helped along by defender Lasse Zeigler who had 12 points.

4. Japan 5-1-4-2 for 19 points
After a bit of scare towards the end of the stage, the Japanese defeated Sweden to secure their spot in the quarterfinals. Notably they are very good about fighting tooth and nail for every point.Alexi Piastri led the Japanese with 17 points.

5. Great Britain 6-0-6-0 for 18 points
Nearly perfectly balanced, Great Britain was just one point shy of qualification to the quarterfinals. A last minute rally to win all 3 of their last 3 games was not enough this time around. They were led by Patrice Bergeron and Chris Valentine who each had 12 points.

6. Sweden 3-2-6-1 for 14 points
The Swedes were in striking distance this season, but fell short on the last day with 3 losses. Before that they were a very gritty team being led by M’Baku Oluburi in terms of scoring. The Swedes split just about every series this stage and the only exception was their double loss to Canada. Expect Sweden to be back with a vengeance next season.

7. Czechia 3-0-9-0 for 9 points
The Czechs had a rough start to the season when they lost the first 3 games against Japan, Sweden and France, but got revenge against the Swedes to get their first points and then would win 2 more at a sporadic rate against Canada and would win their final game against Germany. Noel Blanchet led the Czech delegation in scoring this season with 10 points and 5 goals, but the Czechs did struggle with scoring this time around. The Czechs have a lot to build off this season.

GROUP B

1. United States 10-0-2-0 for 30 points
The United States only lost two games all group stage, once to Latvia and once to Finland, but other than that, had a near perfect group stage. With Latvia out of the tournament and Finland not facing them in the first round, the US has to be feeling good about their prospects to move onto the medal round.Benson Fiorentini had the best group stage for the red white and blue with 16 points, capping off a massive team effort.

2. Switzerland 8-0-4-0 for 24 points
If you take out IR and USA, the Swiss went undefeated in this group stage. Real Cold War vibes going on here. Anyway, the Swiss will be happy to not be facing either of those teams in the first round and instead will be facing Finland, whom they beat twice. Meta Knight once again led the Swiss contingent in scoring.

3. Finland 6-0-6-0 for 18 points
Finland punched their ticket to the playoffs early, but tapered off quickly after that. They will need to get back into form if they want to make a run this season with Aumy Junior II and FITTEDPRIMETIME99 Cuddles leading the Finns.

4. Ireland 6-0-6-0 for 18 points
After being in the pack for a bit, Ireland clutched up and won their last two games of the group stage, including the massive win over Latvia that all but guaranteed them a spot after striking down their main rival for the last spot in. They have Viktor Hargreeves’s absurd 21 points in 12 games to thank for their playoff berth,

5. Latvia 5-1-5-1 for 18 points
In another tournament, 18 points would be a great score that might have guaranteed qualification, but the Latvians are getting left out in the cold this season despite an all around pretty great tournament. Edus Ozolins and Jarrod Lakemore led the team in points with 13 each.

6. Independent Russia 5-1-6-0 for 17 points
On home soil, it was close but nyet cigar as they fell just a point and some goals shy of qualification thanks to a pair of losses at the end to Team USA. However, as they have been sitting at the bottom of some of the groups for a few seasons, this was a big improvement for IR. Patya Perevalov led the delegation in scoring.

7. Norway 0-0-11-1 for 1 point
Norway had a rough time of it this season, but it was not as if they were not scoring goals or anything. The other teams were just consistently scoring many more. They managed to take a single point away from Latvia, but other than that, this season is one that the Norwegians would like to forget. The Norwegians were led by Adam Prpich in the scoring department.

The coming matchups will be Canada versus Japan, France versus Germany, the United States versus Ireland and Switzerland versus Finland. Good luck to all who advanced and better luck next season to those that did not.


WC: 984