Slovakia will start as favourites in their group ©Getty Images

Slovakia will look to secure a place in the Beijing 2022 men’s Olympic ice hockey competition as the country hosts one of three groups and the qualification process concludes.

The Slovakian team will head into Group D in Bratislava in optimistic mood after an impressive performance at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship earlier this year.

Four wins in the group stage saw the Slovakian team reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 2013.

A 6-1 defeat to the United States ended their challenge.

Peter Cehlárik was named as the tournament’s top forward and will expect to play a key role as Slovakia aim for an eighth successive appearance at the Winter Olympics.

"For me personally, I will have no problem to play on a team with highest expectations," Cehlárik told the IIHF website.

"We just should show that we belong there.

"When I was little, I realised Olympic hockey is something more than the World Championship, which is every year.

"Being a part of that major event and represent my country would be something special."

Slovakia will open three days of matches against Austria, followed by ties against Poland and Belarus at the Ondrej Nepela Arena.

Only the winners of the group will advance to Beijing 2022.

Latvia will host Group E in Riga, with the team favourites to advance from a four-team line-up featuring France, Italy and Hungary.

Italy were the only other team to feature in the top division of the World Championship this year where they failed to win, while Latvia earned two victories.

Latvia will host their qualification group in Riga ©Getty Images
Latvia will host their qualification group in Riga ©Getty Images

Hungary feature in the group after coming through the third phase of pre-qualification for the Games.

Matches in the group will take place at Arena Riga.

Group F will take place in Norway at the Jordal Amfi in Oslo, with the hosts set to face Denmark, Slovenia and South Korea.

Only Denmark failed to feature at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics, with Norway and Slovenia qualifying and South Korea receiving a place as the host nation.

Slovenia were the only one of the teams to win matches at the Games, but two overtime triumphs were not enough to advance from their group.

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 are already confirmed as the Group A line-up.