With the round-robin portion of the tournament having come to a close, the pairings are now known for the quarterfinal round. All of the following games are scheduled for Wednesday, February 18. So that means Tuesday night back here in good ol' North America.

Canada (3-0-0) vs Kazakhstan (0-3-0)
Kazakhstan has been outscored 25-6 in its three losses. This should be a bye for Canada.

Russia (3-0-0) vs Belarus (0-3-0)
Russia has mad speed and talent, but Belarus ain't no joke. They've got good size and know how to make some plays. They'll also have incentive to play hard against their big brother, if you will. The only problem is that their goaltender, Andrei Mezin, likely won't be able to contend with the likes of Pavel Bure, Sergei Fedorov, and Valeri Kamensky.

Sweden (2-1-0) vs Finland (1-2-0)
These two teams hate each other. This could very well be the game of the tournament. Finland has a nice team, but Sweden's big three of Peter Forsberg, Daniel Alfredsson, and Mats Sundin will be too much for Teemu Selanne and crew. Tommy Salo also gives the Swedes the edge in net over Finland's Jarmo Myllys.

Czech Republic (2-1-0) vs United States (1-2-0)
This will be one interesting game. Dominik Hasek is always a threat to post a shutout for the Czechs. Plus Jaromir Jagr is still looking for his first goal of the tournament. He could go buckwild. On the other hand, the US seems to be gradually improving and coming together as a team. They know if they lose this game they're going home empty-handed. And the Czech defense is probably going to have trouble trying to contain the massive US forwards. That combined with the fear of failure should be enough.

If Canada gets past Kazakhstan, they'll next play the winner of the Czech Republic-US game. So that scraps all the hype about Canada and USA meeting for the gold.

And supposing that Russia gets past Belarus, they'll next meet the winner of the Sweden-Finland contest.

If things go as expected, the semifinals will feature Canada vs the US and Russia vs Sweden. If not, that Magic 8-Ball ain't worth a damn...

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