North America to face Europe twice – 2022 finals reloaded!

Defending champions Finland had some troubles to advance to the semi-finals of the 2023 IIHF eWorld Championship – and will face United States for a reboot of the 2022 finals.

In the 2022 finals, finalists Finland and USA had to face both individual and parralel overtimes to decide the ultimate champion. This year, fans get an early rematch as Finland and USA will face each other again, this time in the semi-finals.

Finland beat Germany 16-9 in the quarter-finals with 2022 MVP „EkiOriginal“ meeting a rare defeat from Kevin „Kevinator-373“ Würterle (2-4). His teammate Jesse „JesseL2002“ Linden came through on PlayStation celebrated two victories over Luca „Cpt_DirtyDangler“ Knoll (4-3 and 4-0) to push Finland to the semis.

Canada on the road of redemption

The US team started with a 6-0 advantage since Swedish Xbox player Henrik „eken45jr“ Eklund was unable to play. His teammate Anton „Antoniomannen_“ Svensander put up a fight against Dylan „Dods“ Dodson (6-5 and 3-4), but couldn’t catch up to the 6 point advantage.

In the Canada vs Switzerland matchup, Canadians Justin „Regs84“ Reguly and Samuel „CadCooks“ Landry demolished their opponents with 22-9 in total, and are more focused and determined than ever to go for that elusive championship title.

Team choice the deciding factor for Czechia

Czechia profited of the ingame team choice against Latvia. While Vojtech „Krchy11“ Krcho and Josef „pepcastachurcik“ Stachura played with Canada, the Latvians chose the Czech national team, despite having a lower overall strength in EA SPORTS™ NHL™ 23. Czechia will face Canada in the 2023 semi-finals.

The semi-finals will be played on Saturday, followed by the final matchup on Sunday. All games overview will be live-streamed on the Twitch channel of the IIHF, a separate stream will be available in Finnish.

Saturday (semi-finals)

Main stream (16.45 UTC): https://www.twitch.tv/iihfhockey

Finnish stream (19.15 UTC): https://www.twitch.tv/sportsgamergg

Sunday (finals)

Main stream (19.45 UTC): https://www.twitch.tv/iihfhockey

Finnish stream (if Finland advances: 19.45 UTC): https://www.twitch.tv/sportsgamergg