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Teddy Ricketson
One of the biggest events at the Winter Games is men’s ice hockey, and in 2026, the United States came out victorious with a gold medal.
The competition format for the 2026 games had the 12 nations split into three groups of four teams each. They played a round-robin format, with each nation playing every country in its group. Those results were used alongside goal differential and other tiebreakers to set a 12-team ranking.
The winner of each group and the best team remaining after were given byes. Then the eight remaining teams entered the knockout stage, which was a single-elimination bracket. Matches then proceed until the final two teams standing competed for the gold medal.
Here is a look at the final hockey bracket for the knockout stage, after the round-robin stage of the 2026 Olympics.
MORE 2026 OLYMPICS: Live medal tracker | Viewer's guide | Day-by-day schedule
Byes: Canada, USA, Slovakia, Finland
Tuesday, February 17
Wednesday, February 18
Friday, February 20
Saturday, February 21 — Bronze medal game
Sunday, February 22 — Gold medal game
Teddy Ricketson is a Digital Content Producer at The Sporting News. He joined the team in 2024 after spending the last three years writing for Vox Media as part of its DK Nation/Network team. Teddy does his best to support the South Carolina Gamecocks and Carolina Panthers, but tends to have more fun cheering on the Atlanta Braves. In his free time, he loves spending time with his wife, Brooke, and their two dogs, Bo and Hootie.
Hockey News