Winter Olympics Hockey Schedule: Playoffs Men's Tournament Sochi 2014 Semifinals Start United States vs. Canada Friday

The Winter Olympics 2014 hockey playoffs schedule is picking up again this week on Tuesday with the men's first round matches from Sochi and this comes after the preliminary round of games and after the first set February 18, the quarterfinals pick up on Wednesday and then the semifinals will be on Friday before the bronze medal game Saturday and the gold medal game on Sunday.

The United States won their group and are the second seed, while the team from Sweden won their group as the number one seed in the next round. The team has previously won a gold medal and so has Team Canada, who are the third seed and are through to the quarters along with Finland as the number four seed. Russia is at number five and they will play in the next round and have a matchup coming with Finland if they win their next game.

The qualification round games start up at 3 am ET and the second game is at 7:30 am ET before the last two at 12 pm noon ET and the matches include number eight Slovenia taking on Austria as the ninth seed, while Russia will play against number 12 Norway and along in that round are Switzerland playing against Latvia and then the last match has the Czech Republic taking on Slovakia.

The United States has a matchup looming with the Czech Republic or Slovakia depending on who wins and the US has also already won against Slovakia and that would be a favorable matchup. Sweden will play against the winner of the Slovenia and Austria match and then Finland takes on the winner of Russia and Norway. The Canadian team is looking to repoat this year after winning against the United States in Vancouver and they will play the winner of Switzerland and Latvia. The United States has been playing strong and scoring a ton and they will be looking to advance into the next round.

Check here for the hockey playoffs schedule.