Olympic Hockey Odds: USA vs. Czech Republic in Sochi Quarterfinals

After going undefeated in the preliminary round of the Olympic men's hockey tournament, the United States will hit the ice in its first playoff game Wednesday as favorites against the Czech Republic.

The Americans finished atop Group A with a record of three wins and no losses, getting past Slovenia and Slovakia in regulation time and topping the Russians 3-2 in a shootout. That gave the United States the second overall seed in the playoff portion of the tournament and set them up on a date with the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals.

As of late Tuesday, Olympic hockey betting lines monitored by Odds Shark had Team USA as having 4-11 odds to win, with the underdog Czechs sitting at 12-5 odds for the upset.

The Czech team won just one of its three games in Group C action in the preliminary round, getting past Latvia while falling to both Sweden and Switzerland. However, the Czechs won their qualification round matchup with rival Slovakia on Tuesday by a 5-3 score to advance to face the United States at noon ET in Sochi on Wednesday.

American winger Phil Kessel leads the Olympic tournament in scoring so far with four goals and three assists in three games, with linemates James van Riemsdyk and Joe Pavelski picking up four points apiece so far at the event. Netminder Jonathan Quick, who has a 1.44 GAA and a .944 save percentage in two games, gets the start on Wednesday for the United States, likely against Ondrej Pavelec of the Czech Republic.

Pavelec got the win against Slovakia in the first Olympic playoff round, allowing three goals on 32 shots in the contest.

Should the United States pay off as the favorite in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, it should set up a semifinal matchup with rival Canada on Friday, as the Canadians are huge chalk in their Wednesday quarterfinal game against Latvia.

The Latvians upset favored Switzerland by a score of 4-1 in their qualification-round contest on Tuesday.

In the other half of the bracket on Wednesday, it'll be Sweden vs. Slovenia and Finland vs. Russia in quarterfinal action. Sweden, the top seed from the preliminary round, opened as a big favorite over Slovenia with 1-25 odds, while Russia opened as just a slight favorite over Finland with 5-11 odds.

Russia blanked Norway 4-0 in the qualification round on Tuesday.

The gold-medal game for the 2014 men's tournament will be played in Sochi on Sunday.