2019 IIHF World Championship

The 2019 IIHF World Championship was hosted from 10 to 26 May 2019 by Slovakia. It was the second time that Slovakia has hosted the event as an independent country, as was the case in 2011. The host cities were Bratislava and Košice, as announced by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) on 15 May 2015 in Prague, Czech Republic.

Finland won their third title by defeating Canada in the final. The Finns had 18 first-timers for the 2019 IIHF World Championship and were widely regarded as an outsider to win any medal at all. Despite this, the Finns won their third World Championship and lost only two games in the tournament (against the USA, and Germany). Russia secured the bronze medal after a penalty-shootout win over the Czech Republic. This tournament was also the first time since the 2006 IIHF World Championship that both promoted teams (Great Britain and Italy) stayed in the top division.

Venues

Rule changes

In December 2018, the IIHF announced changes to the overtime procedures beginning at this tournament: all overtime periods would be 3-on-3 regardless of round (rather than progressing from 3-on-3 to 4-on-4 and 5-on-5 over the course of the tournament), and the gold medal game would no longer go to a shootout; play would continue in 20-minute periods of 3-on-3 until a winning goal would be scored.

In the semifinals, there was no set bracket. After the quarterfinals, a re-seeding took place with the highest seed playing the lowest remaining seed. Seeds were determined by performance in the preliminary round.

Participants

Qualified as host

• Slovakia

Automatic qualifier after a top 14 placement at the 2018 IIHF World Championship

• Austria
• Canada
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Latvia
• Norway
• Russia
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United States

Qualified through winning a promotion at the 2018 IIHF World Championship Division I

• Great Britain
• Italy

Seeding

The seedings in the preliminary round are based on the 2018 IIHF World Ranking, as of the end of the 2018 IIHF World Championship, using the serpentine system. On 22 May 2018, the IIHF and the local organizing committee announced the groups, in which Slovakia and Norway switched places so that Slovakia would play in Košice and the Czech Republic and Austria would play in Bratislava.

Rosters

Each team's roster consists of at least 15 skaters (forwards, and defencemen) and 2 goaltenders, and at most 22 skaters and 3 goaltenders. All 16 participating nations, through the confirmation of their respective national associations, had to submit a "Long List" no later than two weeks before the tournament, and a final roster by the Passport Control meeting prior to the start of the tournament.

Officials

16 referees and linesman were announced on 1 March 2019.

Preliminary round

The schedule was announced on 15 August 2018.

Group A

Group A matches were played at the Steel Arena in Košice.

Group B

Group B matches were played at the Ondrej Nepela Arena in Bratislava.

Playoff round

Seeding order

The semi-final pairings were determined according to the seeding after the preliminary round. The seeding is determined by following criteria in the order presented:

1. higher position in the group;
2. higher number of points;
3. better goal difference;
4. higher number of goals scored for;
5. better seeding number entering the tournament (i.e., place in the 2018 IIHF World Ranking).

Bracket

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Bronze medal game

Gold medal game

Final ranking and statistics

Final ranking

Scoring leaders

List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals.

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalties in minutes; POS = Position Source:

Goaltending leaders

Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, are included in this list.

TOI = Time on Ice (minutes:seconds); SA = Shots against; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage; SO = Shutouts Source:

Awards

• Best players selected by the directorate: Best Goaltender: Russia men's national ice hockey team Andrei Vasilevskiy Best Defenceman: Czech Republic men's national ice hockey team Filip Hronek Best Forward: Russia men's national ice hockey team Nikita Kucherov

Source:

• Media All-Stars: MVP: Canada men's national ice hockey team Mark Stone Goaltender: Russia men's national ice hockey team Andrei Vasilevskiy Defencemen: Czech Republic men's national ice hockey team Filip Hronek / Finland men's national ice hockey team Mikko Lehtonen Forwards: Canada men's national ice hockey team Mark Stone / Sweden men's national ice hockey team William Nylander / Czech Republic men's national ice hockey team Jakub Voráček

Source:

IIHF honors and awards

The 2019 IIHF Hall of Fame inductees and award recipients were honored during the World Championship medal ceremonies in Bratislava.

IIHF Hall of Fame inductees

• Boris Aleksandrov, Kazakhstan
• Jörgen Jönsson, Sweden
• Mike Modano, United States
• Žigmund Pálffy, Slovakia
• Miroslav Šatan, Slovakia
• Hayley Wickenheiser, Canada

Award recipients

• Jim Johannson of the United States received the Paul Loicq Award posthumously for outstanding contributions to international ice hockey.
• Konstantin Mihailov of Bulgaria received the Torriani Award for a player with an outstanding career from non-top hockey nation.

External links

Media related to 2019 IIHF World Championship at Wikimedia Commons