Ice Hockey World Championships (Updates!)

[Edi]

Yes, the ice hockey World Championship tournament is going on in Finland now. Started on the 26th, and will last for a couple of weeks, and this is the opportunity to see world class international ice hockey. Yes, I know most North American hockey fans consider the Stanley Cup far more important, but whatever floats their boat. I was never really interested in that and couldn't really care less, whereas in my view only the Olympics rank higher than the World Championships. But the next ones are in 2006...

If you're interested in seeing any games aired, you can probably find info at http://www.ihwc.net and their forums. As I understand, they don't show many of the games (if any) over there, but on the off chance they do, check them out. I'll keep posting the results and the schedule here for your amusement, commentary is welcome. Scoreboard and schedule to stay in the second post. Enjoy!

Edi

***************

Anyway, the setup (updated):

16 countries, in 4 groups (A, B, C, D), with group E and F determined by the first round games. In the second round the three best teams of groups A and D square off in one group and the three best of B and C take stock of each other. This determines who faces whom in the quarterfinals. The losers of the first round get to fight it out who stays the in the A-series and who drops to B-series.

Group E:
Austria
Czech Republic
Finland
Germany
Slovakia
Japan or Ukraine, to be determined later today

Group F:
Canada
Denmark
Latvia
Russia
Sweden
Switzerland

Relegation Group:
Belarus
Japan or Ukraine
Slovenia
USA

Group A:
Germany
Japan
Slovakia
Ukraine

Group B:
Denmark
Russia
Switzerland
USA

Group C:
Belarus
Canada
Latvia
Sweden

Group D:
Austria
Czech Republic
Finland
Slovenia

[Edi]

Here's the scoreboard and schedule. It will be updated daily.


Group A:
Germany – Japan: 5 – 4
Germany – Ukraine: 3 – 1 New!
Japan – Ukraine: April 30th
Slovakia – Japan: 10 – 1
Slovakia – Ukraine: April 30th
Ukraine – Slovakia: 3 – 9

Group B:
Denmark – Switzerland: 2 – 6 New!
USA – Denmark: 2 – 5
USA – Switzerland: 0 – 1
Switzerland – Russia: 2 – 5
Russia – Denmark: 6 – 1
Russia – USA: 3 – 2 New!

Group C:
Belarus – Latvia: 0 – 4 New!
Canada – Belarus: 3 – 0
Canada – Latvia: 6 – 1
Latvia – Sweden: 1 – 3
Sweden – Belarus: 2 – 1
Sweden – Canada: 1 – 3

Group D:
Austria – Finland: 1 – 5
Czech Republic – Slovenia: 5 – 2
Czech Republic – Austria: 8 – 1
Finland – Slovenia: 12 – 0
Finland – Czech Republic: April 30th
Slovenia – Austria: 2 – 6 New!

[Edi]

I'll add here that watching the Finland vs slovenia game yesterday, it was hard not to feel sorry for the Slovenians, they simply got slaughtered. I've never seen such fireworks before. 4 - 0 during every period... Sheesh!

Though one must admit that the 4 - 0 fireworks in the final of 1995 was still the most gratifying moment in all the years I've watched hockey, with the semifinals (or was it quarterfinals, against Sweden anyway) of Nagano in 1998 coming a close second...

(Now let's see if that gets a rise out of Faram and Eleas... )

Edi

[Phil Skayhan]

More hockey is never a bad thing! Unfortunately, it's not being broadcast in my area. Let me know if you come across a webcast. Danke.

[Edi]

I don't know about any webcasts, but check out the forums at IHWC net (link above, the forum button is in the sidebar, though pretty hard to spot), there's a subforum for every particpating nation, and the Canadian and US subforums might have somehing by the way of info. The Canadian forum is active. Be careful of the US forum, though, the stupidity there is way beyond critical mass to achieve stupidity blackhole. It's the usual anti-American rants, mostly, I posted a comment on that...

Edi

[Next of Kin]

We shall see if Canada will retain it's title as "King of Hockey"!

[Oberleutnant]

I'm looking very much forward to tomorrow's game between Czech Republic and Finland... World Championship tournament games are the only hockey-related things I watch from the telly.

[Thunderfire]

USA – Denmark: 2 – 5
USA – Switzerland: 0 – 1

No top US players? - or do they really suck that hard?

[Edi]

This year they just seem to suck. They don't have the best team when compared to a couple of previous years, but they still shouldn't do that badly...

Edi

[Faram]

(Now let's see if that gets a rise out of Faram and Eleas... )

Naa sport's is not my thing.

Wake me up if Sweden makes it to the finals I "might" see that-

[Edi]

I'm looking very much forward to tomorrow's game between Czech Republic and Finland... World Championship tournament games are the only hockey-related things I watch from the telly.

Same for me, I couldn't care less for the national leagues here in Europe or the NHL. Today's game is going to be a real kick-ass one.

Faram, I'll wake you up for that final, assuming Sweden gets there. Their performance yesterday wasn't too good, though...

So, yes, Canada beat Sweden 3 - 1, the US lost to Russia 3 - 2, and the various small countries fought each other for continuation spots. Must have been the worst Championship games for the US in recent history, they lost all of their games and must go through the relegation rounds to avoid falling to the B-series.

Not that it really matters, because America has two quota slots for the A -series, and the only real contenders are the US and Canada. It's still embarrassing as hell, though. Personally I think all the quotas should be abolished, like the Asian quota slot is next year. If you're not good enough to get in on merit, then too bad, no matter who you are.

Edi

[Edi]

And now to get post 666 out of the way:

I forgot to add that the points from the first round carry over to groups E and F, which both eliminate two teams and send the rest to the quarterfinals. This is where the games really begin, except for the couple of first round matches between the big hockey countries.

Edi