Ice Hockey World Championships - the convention of stars Added: 12/18/2005

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In the early period of the Ice Hockey World Championships, Canadian teams dominated. From 1930 to 1939, teams from Canada won the competition eight times. This had place even regardless of the fact that Canadian nation was represented by different teams each year.
The World War II caused the Ice Hockey World Championships to be halted between 1940 and 1946. Canadians continued to dominate the competition in the early post-war years, but from 1954 on the competition became more and more exciting, as USSR entered the event this year, and teams from Sweden and Czechoslovakia enhanced their skills.

In latest championships, the two nations derived from the former Czechoslovakia have played very well in the international stages, accounting for four solid tournaments between 1999 and 2002 ? the earliest three by Czech Republic and the last by Slovakia. Canada has lately restored its glory with an international trophy spree, winning the 2003 and 2004 Ice Hockey World Championships along with the gold medals in 2002 Winter Olympics and the World Cup of Hockey in 2004. The Czech Republic became the victor of the 2005 Ice Hockey World Championship.

The contemporary format for the Championships involves at least 40 teams with 16 of them in the main pool, 12 in Division 1 and another 12 teams in Division 2. At the events with 40 and more teams, the rest play in Division 3.

The main group contains 16 teams divided into 4 subgroups. The teams compete in a round robin format with the top 3 teams in each group advancing into the next stage of group play featuring 2 groups of 6 teams each. The top 4 teams advance from each group into the 8-team playoff, which in the end determines the championship winners.

 

Recent Ice Hockey World Championships Winners
2005, Vienna/Innsbruck: Czech Republic (Gold), Canada (Silver), Russia (Bronze);
2004, Ostrava/Prague: Canada (Gold), Sweden (Silver), United States (Bronze);
2003, Tampere/Helsinki/Turku: Canada (Gold), Sweden (Silver), Slovakia (Bronze);
2002, Goteborg/Jonkoping/Karlstad: Slovakia (Gold), Russia (Silver), Sweden (Bronze);
2001, Cologne/Nuremberg/Hanover: Czech Republic (Gold), Finland (Silver), Sweden (Bronze);
2000, St. Petersburg: Czech Republic (Gold), Slovakia (Silver), Finland (Bronze);
1999, Oslo/Hamar/Lillehammer: Czech Republic (Gold), Finland (Silver), Sweden (Bronze);
1998, Basel/Zurich: Sweden (Gold), Finland (Silver), Czech Republic (Bronze);
1997, Helsinki/Tampere/Turku: Canada (Gold), Sweden (Silver), Czech Republic (Bronze);
1996, Vienna: Czech Republic (Gold), Canada (Silver), United States (Bronze);
1995, Stockholm/Gavle: Finland (Gold), Sweden (Silver), Canada (Bronze);
1994, Bolzano/Milano/Canazei: Canada (Gold), Finland (Silver), Sweden (Bronze);
1993, Munich/Dortmund: Russia (Gold), Sweden (Silver), Czech Republic (Bronze);
1992, Bratislava/Prague: Sweden (Gold), Finland (Silver), Czech Republic (Bronze);
1991, Helsinki/Turku/Tampere: Sweden (Gold), Canada (Silver), USSR (Bronze);
1990, Fribourg/Berne: USSR (Gold), Sweden (Silver), Czechoslovakia (Bronze).

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