Slovakia are one of the teams in the running for one of the final three ice hockey places at Beijing 2022 ©Getty Images

Six teams remain in contention to secure a place in the men's ice hockey tournament at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing after the second round of matches at the three final qualifiers.

Slovakia, fresh from reaching the World Championship quarter-finals, and Belarus will clash for the available Olympic berth in Group D in Bratislava.

Latvia and France will battle it out for a Beijing 2022 place from Group E in Riga, while either Denmark or hosts Norway will qualify from Group F in Oslo.

Slovakia made it two wins from two by thrashing Poland 5-1 at the Ondrej Nepela Arena to set up the do-or-die clash with Belarus, who came from behind to beat Austria 5-2.

Belarus need to win in regulation time to prevent Slovakia from booking their ticket to the Games in the Chinese capital, set to open on February 4.

France boosted their hopes with a 2-0 win over Italy, who will qualify automatically as hosts for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, at Arena Riga.

They will meet Latvia, who were in fine form in a 9-0 rout over Hungary.

South Korea, who competed as hosts at the 2018 Winter Olympics, will not be in Beijing after they were hammered 11-1 by Denmark at Jordal Amfi.

Standing between the Danes and a Beijing 2022 spot are Norway, who ousted Slovenia 7-4 to set up a winner-takes-all match tomorrow.

The qualification process had initially been scheduled to conclude last August, but the COVID-19 pandemic led to delays.

One of the qualifiers will be placed into Group B at the Olympics, which features the Russian Olympic Committee, Czech Republic and Switzerland.

The two other qualifiers will join Finland and Sweden in Group C, while Canada, the US and Germany have already been confirmed as the teams in Group A.