2015 IIHF World Championship

The 2015 IIHF World Championship was the 79th event hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), held from 1 to 17 May 2015 in Prague and Ostrava, Czech Republic. Until the 2024 Championship, it held the attendance record (741,690 total visitors).^[2][3]

Canada won their 25th title by defeating Russia 6–1 in the championship final game.^[4] Canada went undefeated at the tournament to win its first IIHF championship since 2007. With the win, Canadian captain Sidney Crosby became a member of the Triple Gold Club and the first to be the team captain for all three events.^[5] For winning all of its tournament games in regulation, the Canadian team earned the new Infront Team Jackpot award of one million Swiss francs. The Russians on the other hand were fined 80,000 CHF for most Russian players walking out from the medal ceremony before the Canadian anthem was played after the final game.^[6]

The United States won the bronze medal, defeating host Czech Republic 3–0 in the bronze medal final game.^[7] Czech player Jaromír Jágr (at 43 years of age) was the MVP of the tournament, and announced his retirement from international competition afterwards.

Bids

On 21 May 2010, the Czech bid was successful and got 84 votes in the race for hosting the 2015 IIHF World Championship. The application beat out that from Kyiv, Ukraine (22 votes).^[8]

The two venues for the tournament were the O2 Arena (formerly Sazka Arena) in Prague and ČEZ Aréna in Ostrava, the same two venues that co-hosted the 2004 IIHF World Championship. Before Ostrava was announced, Plzeň, Brno, Pardubice, and even Bratislava, Slovakia, were considered.^[9][10]

Venues

Mascots: Bob and Bobek

Participants

• Austria^[a]
• Belarus^[b]
• Canada^[b]
• Czech Republic^[c]
• Denmark^[b]
• Finland^[b]
• France^[b]
• Germany^[b]
• Latvia^[b]
• Norway^[b]
• Russia^[b]
• Slovakia^[b]
• Slovenia^[a]
• Sweden^[b]
• Switzerland^[b]
• United States^[b]

1. ^ Qualified through winning a promotion at the 2014 IIHF World Championship Division I
2. ^ Automatic qualifier after a top 14 placement at the 2014 IIHF World Championship
3. ^ Qualified as host

Format

Of the 16 teams in the tournament Czech Republic qualified as host while Austria and Slovenia qualified through the 2014 IIHF World Championship Division I, the rest qualified after a top 14 placement at the 2014 IIHF World Championship. The teams were divided into two groups of which the four best from each advanced to the quarterfinals. Here they met cross-over as indicated in the section below.^[13]

In the group round, points are awarded as follows:

• 3 points for a win in regulation time (W)
• 2 point for a team that drew in regulation time but won the following overtime (OTW) or game winning shots (GWS)^{[n 1]}
• 1 point for a team that drew and lost the above-mentioned competition (OTL)
• 0 points for a team that lost in regulation time (L)

If two or more teams finished with an equal number of points in the same group, their standings were determined by the following tiebreaking formula:^[13]

1. Points in games between the tied teams
2. Goal difference in games between the tied teams
3. Goals scored in games between the tied teams
4. Results against the closest best-ranking team outside the original group of tied teams
5. Results against the next highest ranking team outside the original group of tied teams
6. Tournament seedings

Final ranking: places 1–4 are determined by the medal games. Other places are determined by playoff positioning, group play positioning in the group, number of points, goal difference, goals scored, and tournament seeding. The two lowest ranking teams overall are relegated to Division I A.^[13]

Seeding

The seeding in the preliminary round was based on the 2014 IIHF World Ranking, which ended at the conclusion of the 2014 IIHF World Championship. Slovakia and Switzerland swapped their slots between their groups to optimize the seeding for the Czech organizers.^[14]

Group A (Prague)

• Sweden (1)
• Canada (4)
• Czech Republic (5)
• Switzerland (7)
• Latvia (9)
• France (12)
• Germany (13)
• Austria (16)

Group B (Ostrava)

• Finland (2)
• Russia (3)
• United States (6)
• Slovakia (8)
• Norway (10)
• Belarus (11)
• Slovenia (14)
• Denmark (15)

Rosters

Each team's roster consisted of at least 15 skaters (forwards and defencemen) and two goaltenders, and at most 22 skaters and three goaltenders. All 16 participating nations, through the confirmation of their respective national associations, had to submit a roster by the first IIHF directorate meeting.

Officials

The IIHF selected 16 referees and 16 linesmen to work the tournament.^[15][16]

Preliminary round

The schedule was released on 21 August 2014.^[17]

All times are local (UTC+2).

Group A

Group B

Playoff round

Gold medal game

Ranking and statistics

Tournament Awards

• Best players selected by the directorate:
  • Best Goaltender: Pekka Rinne
  • Best Defenceman: Brent Burns
  • Best Forward: Jason Spezza
  • Most Valuable Player: Jaromír Jágr

Source: IIHF.com

• Media All-Star Team:
  • Goaltender: Connor Hellebuyck
  • Defence: Brent Burns, Oliver Ekman-Larsson
  • Forwards: Taylor Hall, Jaromír Jágr, Jason Spezza

Source: IIHF.com

Final ranking

The official IIHF final ranking of the tournament:

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: IIHF.com

Leading goaltenders

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: IIHF.com

IIHF honors and awards

The 2015 IIHF Hall of Fame inductees and award recipients were honored during the World Championship medal ceremonies in Prague.^[18]

IIHF Hall of Fame inductees

• Dominik Hašek, Czech Republic^[18]
• Scott Niedermayer, Canada^[19]
• Robert Reichel, Czech Republic^[18]
• Fran Rider, Canada^[20]
• Maria Rooth, Sweden^[21]

Award recipients

• Monique Scheier-Schneider of Luxembourg received the Paul Loicq Award for outstanding contributions to international ice hockey.^[22]
• Lucio Topatigh of Italy received the Torriani Award for a player with an outstanding career from non-top hockey nation.^[23]

Notes

1. ^ In group play, overtime is played as 5 minutes of sudden death after a 3-minute intermission. If no goal is scored, the game goes to a shootout (Game Winning Shots). During a quarter-, semi- or bronze final, the sudden death period would be 10 minutes and during the final, it would be 20 minutes.^[13] Game Winning Shots procedure is as follows: Three different players from each team would take alternate shots. If the game is still tied after this, one player from each team would take alternating shots until one scored and the other missed. Only the decisive goal counted in the result table for group play.^[13]

References

1. ^ "Jagr wins MVP". iihfworlds2015.com. 17 May 2015. Archived from the original on 19 May 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
2. ^ "Attendance record broken". iihfworlds2015.com. 14 May 2015. Archived from the original on 16 May 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
3. ^ "Hokejový šampionát v Praze a Ostravě vrátil Česku divácké rekordy" (in Czech). iDNES.cz. 17 May 2015.
4. ^ "Million-dollar Maple Leafs". iihfworlds2015.com. 17 May 2015. Archived from the original on 19 May 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
5. ^ "Канада – Россия. Россияне ушли со льда до канадского гимна" (in Russian). sports.ru. 18 May 2015. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
6. ^ "Russia issued fine". IIHF. 24 August 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
7. ^ "USA bringing bronze home". iihfworlds2015.com. 17 May 2015. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
8. ^ "Worlds come back to Prague". IIHF. 2010-05-21. Archived 4 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
9. ^ Vezme Plzeň Ostravě také mistrovství světa v hokeji?
10. ^ Prague & Bratislava to co-host Worlds?
11. ^ Ódu na hokej rozhodli nájazdy: Švédi vypiekli s Čechmi
12. ^ Ďalší infarktový zápas pre Slovákov: Gáborík prelomil gólové prekliatie
13. ^ "Information". IIHF. Archived from the original on 7 April 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
14. ^ "Sweden defends first place". iihfworlds2014.com. 2014-05-25.
15. ^ "32 officials named". iihfworlds2015.com. Archived from the original on 13 May 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
16. ^ Match officials
17. ^ "Schedule released". iihfworlds2015.com. 2014-08-21. Archived from the original on 2015-03-23. Retrieved 2014-09-22.
18. ^ "Uvedení nových členů do Síně slávy IIHF" (in Czech). Blesk. 17 May 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
19. ^ "Niedermayer, Hasek, Reichel to enter IIHF Hall of Fame". National Hockey League. 18 December 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
20. ^ Kalchman, Lois (19 December 2014). "Canada's Fran Rider to be inducted into IIHF Hall of Fame". Toronto Star. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
21. ^ "Rooth första kvinnliga ishockeyspelaren i Hall of Fame" (in Swedish). Dagens Nyheter. 18 December 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
22. ^ "Luxemburger Funktionärin in die Hall of Fame" (in German). Luxemburger Wort. 19 December 2014. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
23. ^ "IIHF Hall of Fame". International Ice Hockey Federation. 2021. Retrieved 27 November 2021.

External links

• Official website