World Championship Update - Qualifying and Relegation Rounds

Fourth post of the day, and it's not even 2pm yet (Atlantic Time FYI)! I lost a lot of time updating this tournament since the site needed maintenance. So here is the results of the Qualifying and Relegation Rounds. I'll attempt to have the Quater- and Semi-Finals done for later (the medal games are tomorrow). Just a quick note on Groups E and F, 2 of the Round Robin groups are combined to make one of these groups with the results carrying over.

Group E

1 (Playoff Round) - Czech Republic    5W - 0L - 15PTS - +12GD
2 (Playoff Round) - Finland                 2W - 2OTW - 1L - 10PTS - +6GD
3 (Playoff Round) - Germany              2W - 2OTL - 1L - 8PTS - -2GD
4 (Playoff Round) - Russia                  2W - 1OTL - 2L - 7PTS - -2GD
5 - Slovakia                                        1W - 4L - 3PTS - -1GD
6 - Denmark                                       0W - 1OTW - 4L - 2PTS - -13GD

The Czechs run the table, beating Slovakia and Russia 3-2, and Germany 5-2. Finland needed shootouts to beat Germany (5-4) and Russia (3-2), they also won against Slovakia 2-1. Germany's lone win (3-2 in a shootout against Denmark) was enough for them to finish third. Russia also beat Denmark (4-3) to finish fourth. Slovakia finished 5th by...you guessed it...beating Denmark (4-1).
Group F

1 (Playoff Round) - Canada            3W - 2OTW - 0L - 13PTS - +12GD
2 (Playoff Round) - Sweden           3W - 1OTL - 1L - 10PTS - +8GD
3 (Playoff Round) - Norway           2W - 1OTW - 2L - 8PTS - +2GD
4 (Playoff Round) - USA                2W - 1OTL - 2L - 7PTS - -4GD
5 - Switzerland                               1W - 1OTW - 1OTL - 2L - 6PTS - -1GD
6 - France                                      0W - 1OTL - 4L - 1PTS - -17GD

Canada goes undefeated, but this round wasn't as kind to them. They needed a shootout to beat the US (4-3), just beat Norway 3-2, and needed a 3rd period goal to beat Sweden 3-2. Sweden was the opposite, shouting out France (4-0) and Switzerland (2-0) before losing to Canada. Norway held off the Swiss (3-2) and easily beat France 5-2. The US's win against France (3-2) and Switzerland (5-3) helped them secure a spot for the Playoff Round. Because of Switzerland's win against France in the Round Robin, they finish 5th.

Relegation Round

1 - Latvia                              2W - 1L - 3PTS - +3GD
2 - Belarus                            2W - 1L - 3PTS - +8GD
3 (Relegated) - Austria          1W - 2L - 3PTS - -7GD
4 (Relegated) - Slovenia        1W - 2L - 3PTS - -4GD

Well this one was a no-brainer, but how it started was (to put it in Jon Stewart term's) a clusterf***. After two games each, all teams had a win and a lost. Belarus absolutely clobbered Slovenia 7-1 to stay alive and send Slovenia down to Division I. Latvia's win against Austria wasn't as bad (4-1). So Belarus and Latvia stay up for another year while Austria and Slovenia are sent packing to Division I.

That's all the groups recapped. Like I mentioned I'll try to do something for the Quarter- and Semi-Finals later.