2008 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships

The 2008 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships was the 72nd such event hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation. Teams representing 48 countries will participate in four levels of competition. The competition will also serve as qualifications for the 2009 competition. In the Division I Championship held in April, Austria and Hungary were promoted to the Championship division, while South Korea and Estonia were demoted to Division II. In the Division II competition, Romania and Australia were promoted, Ireland and New Zealand were relegated to Division III. Greece won the Division III qualification in February, and competed in the Division III competition from March to April. In that competition, North Korea and South Africa were promoted to Division II in 2009.

The preliminary rosters are available at the IIHF website, the latest update being for the date of April 26, 2008.

Championship

Participating Teams Halifax, Nova Scotia and Québec City, Québec, Canada - May 2 to May 18 2008
Group 'A'
Group 'B'
Group 'C'
Group 'D'

Italy and Slovenia are relegated to Division I for 2009.

Division I

Participating Teams
Group A Innsbruck, Austria - April 13 to April 19 2008
Austria	Great Britain	Kazakhstan
Korea	Netherlands	Poland
Group B Sapporo, Japan - April 13 to April 19 2008
Croatia	Estonia	Hungary
Japan	Lithuania	Ukraine

Group A Standings

Rk	Team	GP	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	DIF	PTS
1		5	5	0	0	0	34	12	22	15
2		5	3	1	0	1	21	12	9	11
3		5	2	1	1	1	18	17	1	9
4		5	2	0	1	2	19	17	2	7
5		5	0	1	0	4	15	30	-15	2
6		5	0	0	1	4	8	27	-19	1

Group B Standings

Rk	Team	GP	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	DIF	PTS
1		5	5	0	0	0	22	7	15	15
2		5	3	1	0	1	18	8	10	11
3		5	3	0	1	1	19	10	9	10
4		5	2	0	0	3	9	21	-12	6
5		5	0	1	0	4	5	15	-10	2
6		5	0	0	1	4	9	21	-12	1

Hungary and Austria are promoted to World Championship Division for 2009.

Estonia and South Korea are demoted to Division II for 2009.

Division II

Participating Teams
Group A Braşov, Romania - April 7 to April 13 2008
Belgium	Bulgaria	Ireland
Israel	Romania	Serbia
Group B Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia - April 7 to April 13 2008
Australia	China	Iceland
Mexico	New Zealand	Spain

Group A Standings

Rk	Team	GP	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	DIF	PTS
1		5	5	0	0	0	65	2	63	15
2		5	3	1	0	1	29	14	15	11
3		5	3	0	1	1	32	19	13	10
4		5	1	1	0	3	16	28	-12	5
5		5	1	0	1	3	14	44	-30	4
6		5	0	0	0	5	8	57	-49	0

Scores

Team
		5-1	10-0	13-0	16-0	21-1
	1-5		5-4 (OT)	6-3	8-1	9-1
	0-10	4-5 (OT)		4-1	11-2	13-1
	0-13	3-6	1-4		5-4 (OT)	7-1
	0-16	1-8	2-11	4-5 (OT)		7-4
	1-21	1-9	1-13	1-7	4-7

Group B Standings

Rk	Team	GP	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	DIF	PTS
1		5	5	0	0	0	20	6	14	15
2		5	2	2	0	1	21	14	7	10
3		5	3	0	1	1	20	19	1	10
4		5	2	0	0	3	14	20	-6	6
5		5	1	0	1	3	17	21	-4	4
6		5	0	0	0	5	11	23	-12	0

Scores

Team
		1-0	5-3	7-1	3-0	4-2
	0-1		5-4 (OT)	5-3	5-4 (OT)	6-2
	3-5	4-5 (OT)		4-2	4-3	5-4
	1-7	3-5	2-4		6-4	7-1
	0-3	4-5 (OT)	3-4	4-6		6-3
	2-4	2-6	4-5	1-7	3-6

Romania and Australia are promoted to Division I for 2009.

Ireland and New Zealand are demoted to Division III for 2009.

Division III

Participating Teams Luxembourg City, Luxembourg - March 31 to April 6 2008
Greece	DPR Korea	Luxembourg
Mongolia	South Africa	Turkey

Rk	Team	GP	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	DIF	PTS
1		5	5	0	0	0	40	6	32	15
2		5	4	0	0	1	29	16	13	12
3		5	1	2	0	2	22	13	9	7
4		5	2	0	1	2	27	24	3	7
5		5	1	0	1	3	17	28	-11	4
6		5	0	0	0	5	11	59	-48	0

North Korea and South Africa are promoted to Division II for 2009.

Scores

Team
		6-0	2-1	8-2	7-3	17-0
	0-6		5-4	7-1	5-1	12-4
	1-2	4-5		5-4 (OT)	3-2 (OT)	9-0
	2-8	1-7	4-5 (OT)		9-1	11-3
	3-7	1-5	2-3 (OT)	1-9		10-4
	0-17	4-12	0-9	3-11	4-10

Division III Qualification

Participating Teams Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo - February 15 to February 17 2008
Armenia	Greece	Bosnia and Herzegovina

Rk	Team	GP	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	DIF	PTS
1		2	2	0	0	0	15	1	14	6
2		2	1	0	0	1	6	10	-4	3
3		2	0	0	0	2	0	10	-10	0

Team
		10-1	5-0 (forfeit)
	1-10		5-0 (forfeit)
	0-5 (forfeit)	0-5 (forfeit)

• Greece has qualified for the 2008 IIHF World Championship Division III.

References