After an intense final day of preliminary round competition, as various teams nervously waited in anticipation, we finally were given our playoff round matchups. Unfortunately, despite playing well, surprise teams such as Latvia and Kazakhstan failed to sustain their momentum and did not qualify over some of the more experienced teams. The final standings ended up as such:
The preliminary round is over. 8 teams are out, 8 teams are heading to quarter-finals. Here are the final standings after 56 games played.u2935ufe0f #IIHFWorlds pic.twitter.com/zNumEHdKXt
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) June 1, 2021
The top team from either group plays the bottom team from the opposing group, and the same goes for the second and third seeds, meaning the playoff bracket is set up as follows:
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The quarterfinal round will take place tomorrow on the 3rd of June, with all games being played on the day (albeit at different times).