Following the conclusion of pool stage play yesterday, the top two teams in Groups A and B have directly advanced to the quarter-finals.

Teams placed third and fourth in these groups as well as teams placed first and second in Groups C and D squared off in the play-off round today, with the winners completing tomorrow's quarter-final line up.

In the opening match today, Germany squeezed past the United States 6-5 at the Arena Riga.

During the opening stages of the third period, the German team extended their lead to 5-2 to seemingly guarantee their place in the next round.

However, Robin Brown scored for the Americans to take the score to 5-3 before Ryan Winkler added a fourth to bring them within touching distance of their opponents.

The comeback was complete with four minutes left when Stefan Zimmermann notched a fifth for the US. 

However, with the game seemingly going into overtime, Germany's Ramon Ibold broke American hearts as he scored the winner with four seconds left on the clock to send his team into the next round.

Meanwhile, hat-tricks from both Patrik Markus and Tanel Kasenurm put Estonia on course for a place in the next round as they coasted past Canada 16-4 at Arena Riga.

Norway also made it through as they narrowly defeated Slovakia 4-3 to reach the last eight of the tournament at the same venue.

During this evening's final match hosts Latvia suffered heartbreak as they were knocked out of the main competition in sudden death by Denmark.

At full time in the match the score was tied at 5-5, before Latvia missed the final penalty shot to send the Danish team through.

Elsewhere on a busy day of action, Poland breezed into the 13th place play-off with an emphatic 8-2 win over Singapore at Olympic Sports Centre Elektrum.

Although Singapore opened the scoring Poland levelled the contest almost immediately after.

From then on the Europeans began to dominate and extended their lead to 6-1 by the end of the first period.

It took Poland over nine minutes to extend their lead even further and, by the end of the second stage of the match, they led 8-2.

The Asian country conceded defeat at this stage as their rivals inflicted more misery in the final third as they coasted through to the next round 14-3.

Poland will now face Thailand after they overcame Australia 4-3 inside Olympic Sports Centre Elektrum.

Australia and Singapore will now compete against each other in a 15th place match.

In tomorrow's first two quarter-finals, favourites Sweden will face Germany as they aim to win their tenth title in 11 editions of the tournament, while the Czech Republic and Estonia are due to face each other later on.

Slovakia and the United States will compete to see who advances to the ninth place play off while Canada and hosts Latvia will also be vying for the same prize.

The two losers of those contests will meet in an 11th place match.