from Martin Merk of IIHF.com,

Ready, steady, go! The hunt is on for the last three remaining spots at the Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament in PyeongChang 2018. 12 team battle in the Final Olympic Qualification in Minsk, Riga and Oslo.

The top-eight hockey nations as determined in 2015 plus host Korea are already qualified. The rest of the 37 countries which applied for a spot were entered in the Olympic Qualification. The four-stage qualification process comes to an end this week with the three final groups being played. The winner of each group will travel to Korea for the Winter Games in one-and-a-half years....

This year the Olympic Qualification promises to be tighter than ever with no clear favourites in the three groups and for the first time the teams have the possibility to count on their NHL players in the Olympic Qualification due to the new dates early September.

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