Slovenia (Group D) and Germany (Group E), and Norway (Group F) have qualified as the remaining hockey nations to compete in men’s hockey at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea after winning their respective final qualification tournaments.
After missing out on Sochi 2014, Team Germany is returning to the Olympics in PyeongChang in 2018 after beating Group E host country Latvia 3-2 in Riga.
Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup champion Tom Kuhnhackl broke a 2-2 late in the third period. Kuhnhackl's goal was the eventual game winner.
Fellow NHLer Leon Draisaitl also scored as did Felix Schutz for Germany.
With 2:58 left in regulation, Latvia were given a huge opportunity to tie the game and force OT chance when Germany's Marcel Goc was sent to the penalty box for tripping Mikelis Redlihs. Latvia failed to score didn’t score on their power play and could not scored when their goalie was pulled for the extra attacker.
In the end, the German men’s national team celebrated their Olympic comeback for 2018.
For Latvian power forward and Riga native Zemgus Girgensons, the trip to his home country wasn't a total failure. "Gus" may have lost out on his chance to play at the 2018 Olympics, however, on Thursday, he just stuffed $1.15 million Pegula dollars into the pockets of his jeans. Girgensons went to Riga as an unsigned restricted free agent. He will now head back to Buffalo with the insurance of his one year "show me contract" in his hockey bag.
All in all, not a bad weekend of hockey for Girgensons.
I suspect that I will be seeing Girgensons skating with his boys in Buffalo on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Girgensons will be better for teh Sabres for having had to train harder earlier this summer to compete with his Team Latvia squad at the Olympic qualifying tourney.
When Sabres training camp opens, Girgensons will be locked in a dog fight for playing time with left wing with veteran Tyler Ennis, rookie Alex Nylander, and possibly-soon-to-be-disciplined-by-team Evander Kane.
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Anze Kopitar's Slovenia squads represented at the 2014 Sochi Olympics while Germany sat at home after not qualifying.
New York Rangers' speed demon Mats Zuccarello scored on Sunday and Norway punched it's ticket to the Korea Olympics with it's 2-1 win over France.
Slovenia, led by Los Angeles Kings star forward Anze Kopitar, defeated Belarus 3-2. Kopitar scored a beauty in the shootout.
Kopitar finished second in scoring to Sergei Kostitsyn (2G,4A) in his group with three goals and two assists in three games played.
The final groupings for the 2018 Olympic tournament are:
Group A: Canada, Czech Republic, Switzerland, South Korea
Group B: United States, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia
Group C: Sweden, Finland, Germany, Norway
Latvia and Austria will have to watch the 2018 Olympics on TV.
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