Latvia, Denmark, Slovakia advance to 2026 men’s Winter Olympic hockey tournament after final qualifications

The three top-seeded teams heading into the men’s Olympic qualification ice hockey tournament are moving on.

With victories on the final day of play on Sunday, Latvia, Denmark and Slovakia are the three teams moving on to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy. They’ll help round out the 12-team slate, with potentially one other team moving on if Russia is barred from the tournament.

The IIHF will make a final decision on Russia’s participation this coming February.

After participating in five of the past six, Latvia has qualified for its seventh Olympic tournament. The team made its first showing at the 1936 Games, losing all three of their games. Denmark, meanwhile, made its tournament debut in 2022 in China, while Slovakia is hoping to build upon its bronze medal from the tournament just two years ago.

In Riga, France took a surprising 1-0 lead over Latvia early on. Charles Bertrand took the pass from Alexandre Texier and made no mistake, beating Kristers Gudlevskis less than a minute into the bout. But at 5:08, Eduards Tralmaks won a puck battle after sneaking by the two French defenders and scoring on a breakaway to tie the game.

Less than three minutes later, Roberts Bukarts scored the 2-1 goal on the power play after some excellent passing work on the power play. That helped spark a one-sided effort in favor of Latvia, with the team then scoring twice in the first five minutes of the third. Rodrigo Abols and Martins Zdierkals were the benefactors, giving Latvia the 4-1 lead. Kristians Rubins scored with under a minute to go in the second to make it 5-1, helping to seal the deal.

Over in Denmark, the Norwegians also kicked things off with a goal in the first minute. Mats Zuccarello won a battle along the boards, and eventually was in front of the net for a secondary chance that beat Frederik Andersen, giving Norway the 1-0 advantage.

But everything changed in the final four minutes of the second period. At 36:04, Lars Eller found Nicklas Jensen in the slot, and Jensen sent a wrister past Henrik Haukeland to make it 1-1. Then, on the power play just two minutes later, Jensen scored again, with Nikolaj Ehlers finding him in a similar position to make it a 2-1 game. A pair of goals from Patrick Russell helped seal the deal, with Ehlers snagging another assist on the 3-1 goal after outlasting two Norwegian defenders.

Slovakia was always in full control over Kazakhstan today, taking a 2-0 lead early in the first period. Robert Lantosi started things on the power play at 4:54, and Pavol Regenda then doubled the advantage off of a nice pass from Samuel Knazko at 12:21.

A third Slovak goal at 30:16 could have finished things off for the Slovaks. Adam Liska converted on a feed from Adam Sykora, giving the Slovaks a nice lead. But Nikita Mikhailis gave the Kazakhs some life at 35:52, converting after some good passing between him and Leonid Metalnikov to make it 3-1. Kazakhstan looked better after that, but Slovak goalkeeper Samuel Hlavaj was excellent down the stretch to finish the game and secure the win – and a coveted spot in the Olympics.

Kazakhstan (Group D), France (Group E) and Norway (Group F) were the highest-finishing second-place teams in the final qualification, with Norway sitting the highest in the IIHF standings in 12th.