Austria goalie Atte Tolvanen, a former Northern Michigan University player, makes a pad save during a Group A preliminary round game played against the United States on Tuesday at the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship played at the Swiss Life Arena in Zurich, Switzerland. (Andre Ringuette photo courtesy IIHF)

ZURICH — The United States set up a quarterfinal showdown with fierce rival Canada at the ice hockey world championship by beating Austria 4-1 on Tuesday.

With the winner of this game advancing to the tournament quarterfinals, former Northern Michigan University goaltender Atte Tolvanen was unable to prevent his European country from being eliminated as he made 32 saves in 36 shots faced.

U.S. counterpart Devin Cooley made 24 stops in 25 shots from Austria.

Tolvanen starred at NMU from 2015-19, his senior season winning WCHA Goaltender of the Year, and during his sophomore season in January and February 2017, posted five consecutive shutouts to tie an all-time NCAA Division I record. In that streak, he stopped 220 straight shots on goal and kept opponents from scoring for just over 339 consecutive minutes of ice time. He also scored a goal, the first-ever by a Wildcat goalie, in his tenure.

The U.S. and Canada met in the final at the Milan Cortina Olympics in February, when the Americans prevailed 2-1 in overtime to take the gold medal.

Connor Clifton, Ryan Ufko, Paul Cotter and Matthew Tkachuk scored against Tolvanen, and Will Borgen registered two assists on Tuesday, with the victory lifting the defending champion Americans into fourth place in Group A, meaning it next faces Canada, which finished atop Group B.

“I liked our game overall and thought our goaltending was excellent,” U.S. head coach Don Granato said. “We look forward to the challenge ahead in facing Canada on Thursday.”

Austria, which had been tied for third place entering the game, fell to sixth place in the Group A standings at 3-4 and nine points. The U.S. ended up at 4-3 with 11 points, while Germany was fifth with 10 points.

The remaining quarterfinal pairs are Switzerland vs. Sweden, Finland vs. the Czech Republic and Norway vs. Latvia.

Clifton found the top corner of the net 5:34 into the game and fellow defenseman Ufko doubled the advantage for the U.S. by one-timing a slap shot from the point 45 seconds later.

Cotter made it 3-0 just 67 seconds into the middle period before Tkachuk buried a rebound on power play at 31:52. It was Tkachuk’s fourth goal in four games since he joined the team last week.

Simeon Schwinger scored for Austria.

Sweden, Latvia advance

Latvia reached the quarterfinals by routing Hungary 8-1, moving to third place in Group A. Germany dropped to fifth and is eliminated.

Another former Wildcat icer, Kristof Papp, played for Hungary and finished the tournament with one assist after he didn’t register a point vs. Latvia.

Sweden, the bronze medalist from the last two editions, beat Slovakia 4-2 in Fribourg.

Ivar Stenberg, a top prospect for next month’s NHL draft, scored the winning goal, Anton Frondell and Jakob Silfverberg had goal apiece and Oliver Ekman-Larsson sealed the win with an empty-net score.

Sweden clinched fourth place in Group B while Slovakia finished fifth and didn’t advance.

Norway, which has already qualified for the last eight for the first time since 2012, needed overtime to down Denmark 4-3 in another Group B game in Fribourg.

Canada unbeaten

Macklin Celebrini scored two goals as Canada rallied past Czechia 3-2 to complete the preliminary stage with seven wins from seven (one in overtime).

John Tavares scored the winner in the third period. Sidney Crosby and Parker Wotherspoon contributed two assists each.

Canada won Group B in Fribourg with 20 points followed by Norway and the Czechs.

The Czechs went ahead 2-0 after a first-period goal from Marek Alscher and another by Dominik Kubalík 8:18 into the middle period.

Crosby set up Celebrini to start the rally from the slot with 5:58 remaining in the second. Crosby then found Celebrini unmarked to score his second to tie it at 2-2 with his fifth tournament goal 7:14 into the third. Tavares netted a backhander for the winner.

Perfect hosts

In Zurich, Ken Jager scored his second goal on a power play with 3:13 to go in host Switzerland’s 4-2 win over Finland.

Switzerland, with seven straight wins and all in regulation, dominated Group A with 21 points, three more than Finland.

Attilio Biasca and Jager gave the Swiss an early 2-0 advantage before Finland’s Aleksander Barkov scored twice in the second period.

After Jager’s second, Nico Hischier added an empty-netter.

This story is based on an Associated Press report with additional contributions from the International Ice Hockey Federation website, www.iihf.com, and the Northern Michigan University sports website, nmuwildcats.com. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.