Griffin Missant
Hockey at the 2026 Milan Olympics has started.
The women’s matches commenced on Thursday, February 5th, with a triple-header. Meanwhile, the men’s competitions began six days later.
The United States and Canada are favored to be the top teams in both fields, with superstars spread across these rosters.
As the preliminary round shifts to the knockout stage, The Sporting News has you covered with all the details you need to know on how the Olympic hockey tournament format works below.
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At the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics, the men’s and women’s ice hockey tournaments use distinct group-stage formats before transitioning to single-elimination knockout phases.
Both tournaments conform to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) point system: three points are awarded for a regulation victory, two points for an overtime or shootout victory, and one point for an overtime or shootout defeat.
The men’s tournament, featuring NHL players for the first time since 2014, consists of three groups of four teams each.
The twelve teams are divided into three evenly structured groups. Following the round-robin phase, the four leading teams (comprising three group winners and the best runner-up) receive byes to the quarterfinals. The remaining eight teams must compete in a qualification playoff game to secure the final four spots in the quarterfinals.
The women’s tournament uses a tiered “power-seeding” format to create more competitive matchups in the early rounds.
The ten teams are allocated based on world ranking. Group A comprises the top five seeds, all of whom automatically advance to the quarterfinals regardless of their preliminary records. Conversely, Group B includes the lower five seeds, with only the top three teams from this group progressing further.
*Clinched top spot
Griffin Missant joined The Sporting News in 2025 as a fantasy football intern. He graduated from Grand Valley State University, where he covered the Lakers football program. He has also worked for Sleeper and the Fantasy Trade Room. He has played fantasy for over a decade, and has been passionate about fantasy football ever since.
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