Slovenia will host one of the three IIHF Olympic Pre-Qualification Round 3 events starting in Europe tomorrow ©Getty Images

With three places still available for the men’s ice hockey competition at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, 12 countries will take part in the penultimate round of qualifying that starts tomorrow in three European venues and concludes on Sunday (February 9).

Slovenia will host Group G in the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Olympic Pre-Qualification Round 3, where their opponents will be Japan, Lithuania and Croatia.

Kazakhstan stage Group H matches, which will also involve Poland, Ukraine and The Netherlands, and Nottingham will host Group J which involves hosts Britain, Hungary, Estonia and Romania.

The top team in each round-robin group will then move on to the Final Qualification as the last of four teams in three more groups.

One qualifier will go through to Group D, where hosts Slovakia, Belarus and Austria await.

Great Britain's men will be on the home ice of Nottingham's Motorpoint Arena for their IIHF Olympic Pre-Qualification Round 3 matches which start tomorrow ©Getty Images
Great Britain's men will be on the home ice of Nottingham's Motorpoint Arena for their IIHF Olympic Pre-Qualification Round 3 matches which start tomorrow ©Getty Images

Latvia are hosts for Group E, which will also involve France and Italy and another Round 3 qualifier, while Group F is hosted by Norway, with Denmark and South Korea also standing ready.

Each of the top three teams from the Final Qualifier will go forward to the Beijing Winter Games, where the hosts are already assured of a place and will be joined by the top eight teams in the world rankings following last year’s Men’s World Ice Hockey Championships.

They are, in order, Canada, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, United States, Germany and Switzerland.

The Netherlands, Romania and Croatia all earned the right to contest the imminent matches after winning their groups in Round 2.

Tomorrow’s action in Group G will see Slovenia meet Lithuania and Japan play Croatia at the event venue of Podmežakla Hall in Jesenice.

Group H hosts Kazakhstan will meet Ukraine at their event venue, the Barys Arena in the capital of Nur-Sultan, while The Netherlands meet Poland.

The Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham will host the Group J matches, where hosts Great Britain start with a game against Romania and Hungary meet Estonia.