The 2018 IIHF World Championship was an international ice hockey tournament hosted by the Danish cities of Copenhagen and Herning, held from 4 to 20 May 2018. The IIHF announced the winning bid on 23 May 2014 in Minsk, Belarus.To Denmark in 2018 South Korea made its debut at the World Championship, having played in the lower divisions previously.
Sweden went undefeated at the tournament to win their second consecutive and eleventh overall title after defeating Switzerland in the final. The United States won the bronze medal game, defeating Canada 4–1.
The official mascot of the tournament was a swan, inspired by the Danish writer and poet Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale about The Ugly Duckling.
Bids There were two bids to host this championship.
Denmark Copenhagen/Herning Denmark is the only top-ranked IIHF country that has never hosted the tournament. The proposed arenas were the Royal Arena in Copenhagen and the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning. Both arenas have a capacity of around 12,000 for hockey games.
Latvia Riga Latvia hosted the IIHF World Championship in 2006. The proposed arenas were Arena Riga, and a secondary venue to be built.
The decision was announced on 23 May 2014 in Minsk, Belarus. The final tally was 95-12 in favor of Denmark.
Venues Copenhagen Herning Royal Arena Jyske Bank Boxen Capacity: 12,500 Capacity: 12,000
Qualified teams
Qualified as host
Automatic qualifier after a top 14 placement at the 2017 IIHF World Championship
Qualified through winning a promotion at the 2017 IIHF World Championship Division I
Seeding The seeding in the preliminary round was based on the 2017 IIHF World Ranking, which ended at the conclusion of the 2017 IIHF World Championship.
Denmark and Sweden played in separate groups, Denmark at the Jyske Bank Boxen while Sweden at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen.
Group A (2) (3) (6) (7) (10) (11) 1 (13) (16)
Group B (1) (4) (5) (8) (9) (12) 1 (14) (21)
1 Denmark and France swapped sides so Denmark would not be in the same group as Sweden.
Rosters
Each team's roster consisted 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 tournament.
Officials 16 referees and linesman were announced on 21 March 2018.Assignments
Referees Linesmen Mark Lemelin Oliver Gouin Brett Iverson Jan Hribik Antonín Jeřábek Mikko Kaukokari Aleksi Rantala Gordon Schukies Roman Gofman Konstantin Olenin Tobias Wehrli Jozef Kubuš Linus Öhlund Mikael Sjöqvist Timothy Mayer Stephen Reneau Dmitri Golyak Dustin McCrank Nathan Vanoosten Miroslav Lhotský Rene Jensen Hannu Sormunen Sakari Suominen Lukas Kohlmüller Jon Kilian Alexander Otmakhov Gleb Lazarev Nicolas Fluri Peter Šefčík Andreas Malmqvist Jake Davis Brian Oliver
Preliminary round The schedule was released on 8 August 2017.
Group A
4 May 2018 7–0 5–0 5 May 2018 3–2 (OT) 6–2 3–2 (OT) 6 May 2018 0–7 3–2 0–2 7 May 2018 0–6 4–0 8 May 2018 2–4 5–4 (GWS) 9 May 2018 5–2 7–0 10 May 2018 3–1 4–3 (OT) 11 May 2018 5–2 0–3 12 May 2018 3–4 (OT) 4–0 4–3 13 May 2018 0–6 3–5 14 May 2018 4–0 4–3 15 May 2018 5–1 4–7 1–3
Group B
4 May 2018 5–4 (GWS) 2–3 (GWS) 5 May 2018 2–3 (OT) 8–1 0–4 6 May 2018 0–10 4–5 (GWS) 1–8 7 May 2018 3–0 7–1 8 May 2018 0–5 7–0 9 May 2018 6–1 2–3 10 May 2018 3–2 (OT) 0–5 11 May 2018 3–0 13–1 12 May 2018 3–1 3–1 1–5 13 May 2018 3–9 3–2 (OT) 14 May 2018 0–3 2–1 (OT) 15 May 2018 6–2 3–0 1–0
Playoff round
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.
Player GP G A Pts +/− PIM POS Patrick Kane 10 8 12 20 −2 0 F Sebastian Aho 8 9 9 18 +15 2 F Connor McDavid 10 5 12 17 +6 10 F Rickard Rakell 10 6 8 14 +7 6 F Teuvo Teräväinen 8 5 9 14 +14 8 F Cam Atkinson 10 7 4 11 −3 2 F Mika Zibanejad 10 6 5 11 +10 0 F Mikko Rantanen 8 5 6 11 +1 6 F Mattias Janmark 10 4 6 10 +8 8 F Chris Kreider 10 4 6 10 +7 2 F GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalties in minutes; POS = Position Source: IIHF.com
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.
Player TOI GA GAA SA Sv% SO Anders Nilsson 440:00 8 1.09 174 95.40 3 Frederik Andersen 362:56 10 1.65 178 94.38 1 Igor Shestyorkin 204:57 5 1.46 86 94.19 2 Elvis Merzļikins 360:35 9 1.50 151 94.04 2 Harri Säteri 298:31 7 1.41 114 93.86 1 TOI = Time on Ice (minutes:seconds); SA = Shots against; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage; SO = Shutouts Source: IIHF.com
Awards Best players selected by the directorate: Best Goaltender: Frederik Andersen Best Defenceman: John Klingberg Best Forward: Sebastian Aho Source: IIHF.com
Media All-Stars: MVP: Patrick Kane Goaltender: Anders Nilsson Defencemen: Adam Larsson / Oliver Ekman-Larsson Forwards: Rickard Rakell / Patrick Kane / Sebastian Aho Source: IIHF.com
IIHF honors and awards The 2018 IIHF Hall of Fame inductees and award recipients were honored during the World Championship medal ceremonies in Copenhagen.
IIHF Hall of Fame inductees Daniel Alfredsson, Sweden Rob Blake, Canada Chris Chelios, United States Philippe Lacarrière, France Jere Lehtinen, Finland Bob Nadin, Canada
Award recipients Kirovs Lipmans of Latvia received the Paul Loicq Award for outstanding contributions to international ice hockey. Jesper Damgaard of Denmark received the Torriani Award for a player with an outstanding career from non-top hockey nation.
References
External links Official website