Belarus reach last eight

Belarus will take on Canada in the quarter-finals of the Ice Hockey World Championship after securing their place in the knockout stages with a 3-2 win over Norway.

Needing just a point to book their spot in the last eight, they took a 3-0 lead thanks to goals from Alexei Kalyuzhny, Dmitri Korobov and Andrei Kostitsyn.

Norway fought back strongly and pulled goals back through Patrick Thoresen and Mattias Norstebo, but Belarus held on to ensure their passage.

"We were looking good at 3-0 but Norway are a good team and they came back hard," said forward Andrei Stepanov.

"It was hard at the end, we didn't have a lot of time to recover after yesterday's game."

That win ended the hopes of Slovakia, edged out 5-4 in overtime by the United States, who sealed top spot in Group B and a quarter-final with Switzerland.

Having led 3-0, USA found themselves 4-3 down before Charlie Coyle and then Jack Eichel - with 30 seconds remaining in overtime - snatched the win.

In Group A, Canada completed their 100 per cent preliminary campaign with a 10-1 demolition of bottom side Austria, while France defeated Lativa 3-2.

Finland will now take on host nation Czech Republic in the quarter-finals, after the former prevailed in a shootout against Russia.

The two sides were level at 2-2 at the end of the third period and, after a goalless overtime, Finland edged the shootout 3-2, meaning Russia will meet Sweden in the last eight.

Elsewhere, Czech Republic defeated Switzerland 2-1 in a shootout following a 1-1 draw.