Ostersund 2017 schedule released

World Para Ice Hockey has announced the competition schedule for the 2017 World Para Ice Hockey Paralympic Winter Games Qualification Tournament, which takes place from 9-14 October in Ostersund, Sweden.

The round-robin tournament is the last chance for the Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, Slovakia and Sweden to qualify for the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in March.

The first puck drops at noon (CEST) on Monday (9 October) with the Czech Republic facing Slovakia straight after the Opening Ceremony. Germany and Japan will then take to the ice at 15:00.

Host nation Sweden play their first match against Japan the next day (10 October) before Germany meet Slovakia.

The competition runs until Saturday 14 October, with two matches played each day, with the exception of Thursday 12 October which is a rest day.

Three points will be awarded for a win, and the top three teams will advance to join Canada, Italy, Norway, South Korea and the USA – all who qualified via a top-five finish at the 2017 World Championships.

All fixtures will be live streamed on Paralympic.org, with details to come in due course.

More information on Ostersund 2017 can be found on the event website.

Times in CEST

Monday, 9 October

Opening Ceremony

12:00 CZE vs. SVK

15:00 GER vs. JPN

Tuesday, 10 October

12:00 SWE vs. JPN

15:00 GER vs. SVK

Wednesday, 11 October

12:00 SWE vs. SVK

15:00 GER vs. CZE

Thursday, 12 October

Rest day

Friday, 13 October

12:00 SWE vs. CZE

15:00 JPN vs. SVK

Saturday, 14 October

12:00 SWE vs. GER

15:00 CZE vs. JPN