In Thurday's quarter-finals, the eight remaining teams in the World Championship was reduced to four. In the final weekend, only four players for the host Czechs played in last year's CHL.

by Derek O'Brien

PRAGUE and OSTRAVA – At the end of the Group Stage, 16 teams were reduced to eight who played on Thursday. After the four quarter-finals were complete, four teams remain standing. Of the four games, three involved players from Champions Hockey League clubs.

The North American teams were successful in the first two quarter-finals. In Ostrava, Switzerland took a 1–0 lead in the first period but the USA came back to win 3–1. Starting an hour later in Prague, Canada manhandled Belarus 9–0 to book their spot in the semi-finals for the first time since 2009.

In the later game in Ostrava, Russia scored the first three goals but the Swedes responded with three straight to tie it late in the third period but ultimately the Russians won 5–3. Finally, the Czechs got an assist from Ocelari Trinec's Jakub Klepis in a 5–3 win over Finland. Karpat Oulu's Jonas Donskoi picked up an assist in a losing cause.

“I think both teams had good moments, it's hard to say, but five goals against is too many.” Donskoi said, before summarizing his first World Championship: “It was a great experience. It's always great to put this jersey on and represent Finland and it was a lot of fun. I think this team had a lot of potential and so  now we're disappointed, but overall it was a good experience.” 

Of the four remaining teams, the host Czechs are the only three remaining with ties to CHL clubs – defencemen Petr Caslava of HC Pardubice and Jakub Nakladal of TPS Turku and forwards Michal Vondrka of Sparta Prague and Klepis. Therefore, they are the only three that will be able to add to their point totals.