ZURICH – Two changes will be performed in Olympic Qualification play in October and November.

Due to a schedule conflict with the Continental Cup, the Qualification Game between the two lowest-seeded teams of the Men’s Olympic Qualification, Bulgaria and Georgia, will be moved. The new proposed date is 10th October.

Serbia withdrew from hosting Group L of the Olympic Preliminary Qualification. The event will now be hosted by the second-seeded country of the group, Spain, in a city to be determined. Other participants of the group include Iceland and China.

The Olympic Preliminary Qualification will take place from 5 to 8 November. The other group will be played in Estonia and also includes Mexico, Israel and the winner of the Bulgaria-Georgia game.

The winner of each group will advance to the Olympic Pre-Qualification to be held in three groups in Italy, Hungary and Japan, 11-14 February 2016. The winners of those groups will move on to the Final Olympic Qualification groups in Belarus, Latvia and Norway, 1-4 September 2016, to determine the three qualifiers for the Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament in PyeongChang 2018.

The top-8 nations Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, the USA, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Slovakia as well as host Korea are already qualified for the Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament in 2018.

The pre-qualified teams and the qualification structure for the Olympic women’s ice hockey tournament will be determined in May 2016 and the qualification tournaments will be played during the 2016/2017 season.

Click here for all groups, teams and the structure of the Olympic Qualification.