By Tomi Rantanen

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The playoffs of the IIHF World Championships 2015 are here and we have updated our predictions for the rest of the way. We nailed seven of the eight teams to go through to the final phase, with only Belarus taking us by surprise and leaving Slovakia out. According to AccuScore supercomputer simulations, the quarterfinals will not likely provide any shocks either.

Belarus has indeed been a dark horse of the competition by beating USA and taking Finland all the way to shootout, but that fairy tale is about to come to an abrupt end in the hands of Canada. The Canadians have been crushing in the group stage and barely broke a sweat against the mediocre European teams, such as Austria, Germany or Latvia. Team Canada are grand favorites of 82% to beat Belarus as well, with only miracle to save the Belarussians.



Team USA is also predicted to do well against Switzerland, not quite as well as their northern counterparts but comfortably enough. The opposition is expected to be solid in defense but lacking any real goal scoring threat, which should suit young and ambitious Americans. They are 72% favorites to go through to the semis, so unless Reto Berra produces some magic between the pipes and the Swiss get a few lucky bounces, it should be clear enough.



In Ostrava evening we witness a clash of two European ice hockey superpowers, with the Russians and Swedes fighting for survival. In AccuScore simulations the Swedes have gained the edge this time on, over the Russians who were favorites coming into the tournament. It will most likely be a close game, with a couple of goals each – both boast a mouthwatering array of attacking talent – and maybe even a shootout. Sweden will ultimately prevail with 55.0% probability.



The previous chapter could be used as well to describe the matchup between the hosts Czech Republic and always feisty Finland. With a pumped up home crowd in a sold out O2 Arena, the Czech are favorites at 57.5%. But never count out the Finns, who have managed to beat both Belarus and Russia in a shootout, which could be the outcome here as well. The record breaking goaltending of Pekka Rinne provides a small edge when the game goes on for longer than 60 minutes. However, Czech Republic just might have the tools in the likes of Jaromir Jagr and Jakub Voracek to break the impenetrable Finnish defense and sneak into the semis.



According to the simulations, the semifinals will turn out to be a bit of an anti-climax after some thrilling quarterfinal action: Canada will beat Czech Republic with 68.5% probability, whilst Sweden will send the Americans to lose in the bronze game by 63.5% probability. Oh, the Czechs will actually want the bronze and win it.



In the grande finale it seems there’s practically only one team. Team Canada will continue its dominance in this tournament and take the trophy by 61.3% probability, for the first time since 2007. Sidney Crosby will also join the coveted “triple gold club” and the order in ice hockey universe is restored.