Men's World

HELSINKI -- The United States had a short, but lively workout early this afternoon at the practice rink attached to Hartwall Arena here.

Team USA, which leads the eight-team Group H at the 16-team International Ice Hockey Federation Men's World Championship, has a chance to finish first with a win over Slovakia tomorrow (May 14) in the final preliminary round game for both teams.

The top four teams in the two groups (H played in Helsinki and S played in Stockholm) advance to the quarterfinals, which will be played within the group. In Group H, the U.S., Finland and Russia have wrapped up a quarterfinal berth, with Slovakia, France and Germany all battling for the fourth and final position. Quarterfinal games will be played on Thursday with the two winners from Group H flying to Stockholm on Friday for the semifinals on Saturday and medal games on Sunday.

At practice today, newcomer Alex Galchenyuk (Milwaukee, Wis./Montreal Canadiens) skated on a line with Tim Stapleton and Bobby Butler. Galchenyuk and T.J. Oshie (Warroad, Minn./St. Louis Blues/University of North Dakota) were added to the U.S. roster on Saturday. Oshie is slated to arrive in Helsinki early Monday night.

Team USA won six of its seven preliminary round games at the world championship a year ago and has won five of its first six this year.

A victory against Slovakia (12:15 p.m. faceoff local time/5:15 a.m. ET,  live on NBC Sports Network) would mean a matchup against either Germany, Latvia or France in the quarterfinal game, while a loss will result in a contest against Finland or Russia in the quarterfinals.

"We had a good practice today," said Craig Smith, who has three goals and four assists in the first six games. "We'll be ready to go tomorrow. We definitely want to win the group."