The winners of three groups, being contested in Bratislava, Riga and Oslo, will take the final spots in the men’s ice hockey tournament at Beijing 2022.

In Group E, the first of two high-scoring affairs at the Arena Riga in Latvia saw France come from behind to defeat Hungary 5-3.

Janos Hari and Kristof Papp gave Hungary a two goal lead inside the first 15 minutes, before France fought back with three unanswered goals in the second period through a double from Alexandre Texier and Antonin Manavian.

Sacha Treille increased France’s advantage in the third period to 4-2 before ten seconds later Istvan Bartalis cut the deficit to 4-3.

Damien Fleury sealed victory for France with three minutes remaining as he scored their fifth goal of the game.

Elsewhere in the group hosts Latvia enjoyed a brilliant start to the qualification tournament with a 6-0 win over Italy.

Latvia got off to a flying start with two goals in the first six minutes from Janis Jaks and Rodrigo Abols.

A double from Miks Indrasis, plus further goals from Kristians Rubins and Kaspars Daugavins ensured a convincing win for Latvia.

In Group D, held at the Ondrej Nepala Arena in Bratislava, Poland beat Belarus 1-0 courtesy of a late goal from Filip Komorski.

In the other match in the group Slovakia beat Austria 2-1, with the hosts opening the scoring inside the first two minutes through Libor Hudacek.

Slovakia doubled their lead just before the half-hour mark courtesy of Martin Gernat before Brian Lebler pulled a late goal back for Austria to reduce the arrears to 2-1.

In Group F, held at the Jordal Amfi in Oslo, Denmark edged out Slovenia 4-3 in a thrilling encounter.

Denmark got off to a flying start with first period goals for Nikolaj Ehlers, Frederik Storm and Patrick Russell.

Jan Drozg got a goal back for Slovenia in the second period to make it 3-1 before Ehlers second of the game made it 4-1.

Jan Urbas pulled another goal back for Slovenia to make it 4-2 with ten minutes remaining, before Miha Verlic scored with two and a half minutes remaining to ensure a frantic finale.

The other match in the group saw hosts Norway recover from a goal down to beat Korea 4-1.

Kim Kisung gave Korea the lead in the sixth minute but two goals in three minutes from Erlend Lesund and Ken Andre Olimb put Norway 2-1 up.

Further goals from Stefan Espeland and Tobias Lindstrom ensured a 4-1 win for Norway.