{"id":471372,"date":"2026-02-16T05:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T05:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/471372\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T05:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T05:02:10","slug":"where-things-stand-for-avalanche-participants-after-olympic-preliminaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/471372\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Things Stand For Avalanche Participants After Olympic Preliminaries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Each of the Avalanche\u2019s eight Olympic participants scored in the preliminary rounds. Who would\u2019ve thought that Cale Makar would be the last of the group to get one?<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s how things stand for each of the Avs\u2019 eight participants, as well as for the Olympics as a whole, as we prepare for the qualifying knockout round, to be played on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Canada<\/p>\n<p>Canada won Group A with ease and secured the top seed in the knockout stages. They began the tournament with an impressive 5-0 shutout victory over Czechia. They then defeated Switzerland 5-1 and France 10-2, finishing 3-0 with a +17 goal differential.<\/p>\n<p>Goalie Jordan Binnington started for Canada against Czechia and France games, while Logan Thompson was in goal for the Switzerland game.<\/p>\n<p>The Canadians will have a bye for the first round of knockouts and will play the winner of No. 8 Czechia and No. 9 Denmark.<\/p>\n<p>Nathan MacKinnon: 3 GP, 2 G, 3 A, 5 P (1 PPG)<br \/>Cale Makar: 3 GP, 1 G, 4 A, 5 P (1 PPG)<br \/>Devon Toews: 3 GP, 1 G, 0 A, 1 P<\/p>\n<p>USA<\/p>\n<p>The Americans also won their group after defeating Germany in the preliminary finale on Sunday. Nelson was a key offensive contributor in the opening game and remained a key shutdown player for the U.S. as the games progressed.<\/p>\n<p>They finished as the No. 2 seed, as Canada won the tiebreaker on goal differential (17-11).<\/p>\n<p>The winner of No. 7 Sweden and No. 10 Latvia will advance to a matchup against USA.<\/p>\n<p>Brock Nelson: 3 GP, 2 G, 1 A, 3 P<\/p>\n<p>Finland<\/p>\n<p>Finland had a brief scare at the start of the tournament after losing to Slovakia. But they bounced back with a crucial win against rival Sweden before defeating France 11-0 to secure second place in Group B. Slovakia won the group, but Finland\u2019s goal differential helped them secure a better opponent in the qualifying playoff.<\/p>\n<p>They finished the preliminaries as the No. 4 seed, behind the three group winners, securing the final bye to the round of eight. Finland will play the winner of No. 5 Switzerland and No. 12 Italy.<\/p>\n<p>Artturi Lehkonen: 3 GP, 1 G, 3 A, 4 P<br \/>Joel Kiviranta: 2 GP, 2 G, 0 A, 2 P<\/p>\n<p>Sweden<\/p>\n<p>Gabe Landeskog and his team are having a disappointing tournament to date. Much of it stems from coaching decisions by head coach Sam Hallam.<\/p>\n<p>Sweden finished third in their group behind both Slovakia and Finland. They could\u2019ve won the group had it not been for a last-minute goal from the Slovaks in a game that Sweden won 5-3.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of finishing third in their group, the Swedes will face No. 10 Latvia, with the winner advancing to a matchup against Team USA.<\/p>\n<p>Gabriel Landeskog: 3 GP, 1 G, 0 A, 1 P (1 PPG)<\/p>\n<p>Czechia<\/p>\n<p>Like Sweden, the Czechs were disappointed with their preliminary-round finish. After falling to Switzerland in OT in the third of their three games, Czechia secured the third seed in Group A and a preliminary knockout-round matchup against No. 9 Denmark. The winner will play Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Martin Necas: 3 GP, 2 G, 3 A, 5 P (1 PPG)<\/p>\n<p>Full Knockout Round Bracket<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">2026 Olympic Men&#8217;s Hockey Playoff Bracket<br \/>Quarterfinals on Wed. Feb. 18:<br \/>1. CAN \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 vs. Winner CZE \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddff\/ DEN \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddf0<br \/>2. USA \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 vs. Winner SWE \ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddea \/ LAT \ud83c\uddf1\ud83c\uddfb<br \/>3. SVK \ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddf0 vs. Winner GER \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea \/ FRA \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7<br \/>4. FIN \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddee vs. Winner SUI \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udded \/ ITA \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9<\/p>\n<p>Semifinals (Feb. 20) then re-seed based on these standings:\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/D97kG4NSAf\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/D97kG4NSAf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/frank_seravalli\/status\/2023164423544750581?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/paypalme\/colhockeynow\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/CHNS-Tip-Jar.png\" alt=\"Contribute to CHN's travel and support local journalism!\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Each of the Avalanche\u2019s eight Olympic participants scored in the preliminary rounds. Who would\u2019ve thought that Cale Makar&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[109666,97481,69843,189613,831,12640,14689,45507,39780,385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-471372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-artturi-lehkonen","9":"tag-brock-nelson","10":"tag-cale-makar","11":"tag-devon-toews","12":"tag-featured","13":"tag-gabriel-landeskog","14":"tag-joel-kiviranta","15":"tag-martin-necas","16":"tag-nathan-mackinnon","17":"tag-nhl","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}