MILAN, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Switzerland beat Czech Republic 4-3 in the first overtime win of the men's Olympic ice hockey tournament on Sunday,finishing second in Group A behind powerhouse Canada, as the final day of the preliminary stage kicked off at Santagiulia arena.
Canada have already clinched aplace in the quarter-finals and will look to run up the score when they play underdogs France later on Sunday, with goal differential a potential determining factor in their pursuit for the top overall seed out of the group stage.
The United States hope to notch a third straight win when they wrap up Group C against Germany, after the winless Denmark meet Latvia, who are 1-1 through the first two games, in the final two fixtures of the men's preliminary stage on Sunday.
The winners of each of the three preliminary groups and the next best overall team automatically advance to the quarter-finals in Milan, while the remaining teams compete in a single-elimination qualification play-off.
Slovakia surged past Finland and Sweden in the standings to finish top of Group B on Saturday.
SWISS SEAL IT IN OT
Switzerland were playing without their injured forward Kevin Fiala, who suffered a tournament-ending injury during Friday's defeat by Canada, but showed their mettle in a terrific comeback win, as Dean Kukan fired one over the Czech goalie's shoulder to seal it.
Czech forward Filip Chlapik opened up the scoring late in the first period, off a precision pass from Martin Necas, but were unable to get the puck past the Swiss goalie Leonardo Genoni on a power play in the final moments before the first intermission.
The Swiss captain Roman Josi tapped one off the skate of the Czech defenceman Radko Gudas and into the net to level it late in the second period and Timo Meier backhanded a rebound in less than two minutes later on a power play to give the Swiss the lead heading into the locker room.
Defenceman Radim Simek sent the puck in as he was crashing to the ice for the third-period equaliser but Switzerland retaliated less than two minutes later, when forward Pius Suter pounced on a loose puck and put it past the goalie's right skate.
Czech Republic pulled their goalie to free up another skater and Martin Necas slapped the puck past the diving Swiss goalie with little more than two minutes left in regulation, but the Swiss crowd were rewarded as the defenceman Kukan struck quickly in extra time.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in MilanEditing by Christian Radnedge)
