How Team USA Gets A First Round Bye With An Overtime/Shootout Loss

A win of any manner on Sunday against Canada gets Team USA into the top four, but after that there are multiple solutions possible; it's a damn near swamp to navigate what with goal differential and goals for being tiebreakers. Fear The Fin's standings board is your friendly companion to this post. Use it, peruse it, abuse it.

Once again-- a win on Sunday gets them in. But if Team USA loses in overtime/shootout, therefore finishing with seven points and a +6 goal differential, here are the individual events that need to occur for USA to secure a bye. Only one is needed.

Russia vs. Czech Republic, Sunday @ 12:00 PST
Russia wins in regulation by one goal, and scores one less goal in their game against the Czechs than the United States do against the Canadians. CZE finishes with six points, RUS finishes with seven. USA beats RUS on GF tiebreaker.

The Czech Republic loses in overtime/shootout. RUS finishes with six points, CZE with seven. Team USA beats CZE on GD tiebreaker.

Sweden vs. Finland, Sunday @ 9:00 PST

The game ends in regulation. One team finishes with nine points, the other with six.

Sweden loses in overtime/shootout. FIN finishes with eight points, SWE with seven. Team USA beats SWE on GD tiebreaker.

These seem to be the main events that get Team USA into the top four. If Finland loses in overtime/shootout, they finish with seven points and Sweden finishes with eight; FIN would beat USA on GD. If this occurs, Team USA would need one of the situations outlined in the Russia-Czech game to happen in order to get into the top four.

Go USA.