All Devils Head to Quarterfinals at Worlds | WORLDS

Preliminary play at the 2024 World Championship has come to an end and the quarterfinal matchups are set.

All seven members of the New Jersey Devils competing at the tournament are headed to the quarters which begins on Thursday.

It was Canada and Sweden who finished in the top spots of their respective groups. Canada draws Slovakia in quarterfinal play, while Sweden will take on Finland. The hometown Czechs will face the United States and the Swiss have drawn Germany. 

Those matchup puts a couple of Devils in head-to-head play as the elimination rounds begin. Dawson Mercer and Nico Daws will go up against Simon Nemec, while Ondrej Palat will battle it out against Luke Hughes. 

In Group A, Canada finishes first with 19 points, the Swiss finish second with 17, Czechia comes in 3rd with 16 and Finland hold the final playoff spot in fourth with 10 points.

In Group B the Swedes finished first with 21 points, USA took the two-spot with 16 points, Germany finished third wtih 15 points and Slovakia rounds out the top four with 12 points.

For all your coverage of the final day of preliminary play, check out all the scores below!

CANADA 4, CZECHIA 3 (OT)

CAN: Dawson Mercer, Nico Daws (DND)
CZE: Ondrej Palat

Canada has locked in top spot in Group A at the World Championship after a thrilling 4-3 overtime win against the host nation, Czechia. Canada, whose roster includes Dawson Mercer and Nico Daws, went a perfect 7-0-0 during the preliminary round. 

The competition between Canada and Czechia on Tuesday was one of the most competitive we've seen to-date at the tournament and a lot of the drama included two members of the New Jersey Devils. 

Both Mercer for Canada and Ondrej Palat for Czechia scored for their teams, both at critical moments of the game. First it was Mercer, who converted a pass from former Devils teammate Damon Severson with a backhand shot past Lukas Dostal in the Czech net to put Canada up 2-1, less than two minutes after Czechia’s Dominik Kubalik tied the game at one. Just over four minutes later, Canada built upon Mercer’s goal with Brandon Hagel scoring putting the home team down by two.

But in front of their home crowd, Czechia was not going to be rolled over. Their third period push started when Mercer took a tripping penalty on Czech star David Pastrnak. With Mercer in the box his Devils teammate made him pay as Palat had a David Spacek shot riccochet off his glove and into the net past Canadian netminder Jordan Binnington. Palat’s goal brought the Czechs within one, paving the way for captain Roman Cervenka to find the equalizer with less than two minutes to play in regulation.

The Czech comeback ultimately fell short with Canada's Dylan Cozen's scoring shorthanded in overtime to end the wild affair. 

Mercer finished teh game with a goal, two shots, plus-1 and 13:35 of ice time while Palat had three shots on net, a goal and played 15:14.

With Canada's victory and top spot in Group A secured they will take on Slovakia in quarterfinal play on Thursday.

USA 6, LATVIA 3

USA: Luke Hughes

Luke Hughes and the United States eliminated Latvia from the World Championship on Tuesday, posting a decisive 6-3 victory. Latvia needed a regulation win to have a chance of remaining in contention.

Team USA will now finish second in Group B, behind Sweden.

The U.S. jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead, just 2:44 into the game on their way to victory. Latvia made things a little more interesting by scoring two goals in 14 seconds to pull within a goal of the U.S. The Americans would pull away again to bring the final score to 6-3. 

Hughes didn't factor in on the scoreboard but played 16:57 with a shot on goal and finished plus-1.

SWITZERLAND 3, FINLAND 1

SUI: Nico Hischier, Jonas Siegenthaler (DND), Akira Schmid

Switzerland will take on Germany in quarterfinal play after their victor against Finland on the final day or preliminary action. The Swiss needed a win in any fashion to secure the second seed in Group B after a 3-1 win against Finland. 

Devils netminder Akira Schmid manned the crease for Switzerland, his third appearance of the tournament and made 15 saves on 16 shots. Kevin Fiala had the opening goal and the insurance goal for the Swiss, while Nico Hischier played the most of any forward on the Swiss team with 20:04 time on ice, he was a plus-3 and had three shots on net.

Defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler did not dress for the game.

SWEDEN 6, SLOVAKIA 1

SVK: Simon Nemec

There was no question of seeding when the puck dropped between Sweden and Slovakia. Both teams knew exactly where they stood, Sweden with the top spot in Group B and Slovakia finishes fourth in the group. 

The Swedes have been dominant all tournament long and were the only team in the tournament to win each of their preliminary games in regulation and exerted their dominance against the Slovaks with a lopsided 6-1 victory. 

Simon Nemec played 15:55 and had three shots on net.