The 2023 IIHF World Championship was co-hosted by Tampere, Finland, and Riga, Latvia. The tournament was held from 12 to 28 May 2023, organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).
Canada won its record-breaking 28th title by beating Germany 5–2 in the final. The silver was Germany's first medal since 1953. Latvia claimed its first IIHF medal after defeating the USA 4–3 in overtime and finishing third.
As in the 2022 edition, the tournament saw several upsets: Kazakhstan's win over Norway, Hungary's win over France, Latvia's first victory over Czechia, Norway’s second win over Canada, as well as Kazakhstan's first victory over Slovakia. The playoffs also saw major upsets, as Latvia reached the semi-finals for the first time after defeating favourite Sweden 3–1 in the quarter-finals, Germany upset Switzerland 3–1 and the reigning Olympic and World Champion Finland lost to Canada 4–1. Czechia finished in 8th place after losing to the United States (USA) 3–0 in the quarter-finals, which is that nation's worst placement to date in the history of the World Championship. Germany reached the final for the first time since 1930 after upsetting the fourth-seeded USA 4–3 in overtime.
Host nation bid The event was originally planned to be held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, but, in February 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) called for Russia and Belarus to be stripped of hosting rights to all international sporting events due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 26 April 2022, Russia lost their rights to host the World Championship.
After being promoted to the top division, Slovenia and Hungary bid to co-host the event in Ljubljana and Budapest. The bid was withdrawn due to Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation informing the IIHF that it did not receive the governmental guarantees to host. Finland and Latvia submitted a joint bid, with Nokia Arena in Tampere and Arena Riga in Riga as potential host venues. On 27 May 2022, the IIHF confirmed that Finland and Latvia would host the tournament, with Finland having also hosted the 2022 IIHF World Championship in Tampere (Nokia Arena) and Helsinki (Helsinki Ice Hall).
Venues Finland Latvia Tampere RigaNokia ArenaCapacity: 13,455Arena RigaCapacity: 10,300
Participants Qualified as hosts
Automatic qualifier after a top 14 placement at the 2022 IIHF World Championship
Qualified through winning promotion at the 2022 IIHF World Championship Division I
Seeding The seedings in the preliminary round are based on the 2022 IIHF World Ranking, as of the end of the 2022 IIHF World Championship, using the serpentine system while allowing the organizer, "to allocate a maximum of two teams to separate groups."
Group A (Tampere) (1) (4) (5) (9) (10) (13) (15) (20)
Group B (Riga) (2) (6) (7) (8) (11) (12) (16) (19)
Rosters
Each team's roster consists 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, have 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 the tournament.
Match officials 16 referees and linesmen were announced on 6 April 2023.
Referees Linesmen Adam Bloski Mike Langin Jan Hribik Mads Frandsen Lassi Heikkinen Mikko Kaukokari Liam Sewell Sirko Hunnius André Schrader Andris Ansons Tobias Björk Christoffer Holm Stefan Hürlimann Miroslav Štolc Sean Fernandez Sean MacFarlane David Nothegger Brett Mackey Tarrington Wyonzek Daniel Hynek Jiří Ondráček Andreas Krøyer Onni Hautamäki Tommi Niittylä Nicolas Constantineau Andreas Hofer Dāvis Zunde Šimon Synek Emil Yletyinen Eric Cattaneo Nick Briganti Jake Davis
Preliminary round The groups were announced on 29 May 2022, with the schedule being revealed on 8 September 2022. Group A
12 May 2023 1–4 1–0 13 May 2023 2–1 (OT) 1–3 3–4 14 May 2023 7–1 3–4 (OT) 5–0 15 May 2023 2–3 1–2 (GWS) 16 May 2023 6–2 2–3 (OT) 17 May 2023 4–1 5–3 18 May 2023 1–7 4–6 19 May 2023 1–7 2–4 20 May 2023 3–0 1–3 4–0 21 May 2023 7–2 9–0 22 May 2023 1–4 4–3 (GWS) 23 May 2023 5–0 3–4 (OT) 7–1
Group B
12 May 2023 2–3 0–6 13 May 2023 7–0 3–4 (GWS) 2–1 14 May 2023 2–5 0–3 5–1 15 May 2023 1–2 (GWS) 3–4 (OT) 16 May 2023 0–1 5–0 17 May 2023 2–1 5–1 18 May 2023 6–2 4–2 19 May 2023 3–2 4–3 (GWS) 20 May 2023 0–2 2–3 0–7 21 May 2023 0–1 2–4 22 May 2023 2–3 (GWS) 4–3 23 May 2023 4–1 3–1 3–4 (OT)
Playoff round
Final standings Teams finishing fifth in the preliminary round were ranked ninth and tenth, teams finishing sixth are ranked 11th and 12th, and so on.
Statistics Scoring leaders
List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals.
Player GP G A Pts +/− PIM POS Rocco Grimaldi 10 7 7 14 +8 6 F Dominik Kubalík 8 8 4 12 +3 0 F JJ Peterka 10 6 6 12 +8 0 F Rihards Bukarts 10 3 8 11 +3 8 F MacKenzie Weegar 10 3 8 11 +10 6 D T. J. Tynan 10 1 10 11 +10 0 F Henrik Tömmernes 8 0 10 10 +5 2 D Cutter Gauthier 10 7 2 9 +9 2 F Lawson Crouse 10 6 3 9 +9 4 F Nikolaj Ehlers 7 5 4 9 −3 0 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 Stanislav Škorvánek 238:39 5 1.26 108 95.37 1 Karel Vejmelka 236:26 7 1.78 124 94.35 1 Sam Montembeault 423:07 10 1.42 163 93.87 1 Lars Johansson 303:42 8 1.58 120 93.33 2 Samuel Hlavaj 189:05 7 2.22 103 93.20 0 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
The awards were announced on 28 May 2023.
Individual awards Position Player Goaltender Artūrs Šilovs Defenceman MacKenzie Weegar Forward JJ Peterka
Media All Stars Position Player Goaltender Artūrs Šilovs Defenceman MacKenzie Weegar Defenceman Moritz Seider Forward JJ Peterka Forward Rocco Grimaldi Forward Dominik Kubalík MVP Artūrs Šilovs
IIHF honors and awards The IIHF Hall of Fame induction and awards ceremony was held prior to the medal games on 28 May 2023, in Tampere.
IIHF Hall of Fame inductees Sandra Dombrowski, Switzerland James Foster, Great Britain Cristobal Huet, France Kalervo Kummola, Finland Brian Leetch, United States Caroline Ouellette, Canada Henrik Zetterberg, Sweden
Award recipients Kimmo Leinonen of Finland received the Paul Loicq Award for outstanding contributions to international ice hockey. Viktor Szélig of Hungary received the Torriani Award for a player with an outstanding career from non-top hockey nation.
Broadcasting rights
These are the broadcasters for the tournament.
Country Broadcaster Austria ORF Canada TSN RDS Czech Republic Czech Television Denmark TV 2 Sport Estonia ERR Finland MTV France Fanseat Germany Sport1 Magenta Sport Hungary Sport 1 Kazakhstan Qazsport Latvia LTV Tet Lithuania LRT Norway Viaplay Poland TVP Russia Match TV Slovakia RTVS Slovenia RTV Šport TV Sweden SVT Switzerland SRG SSR Ukraine XSPORT United Kingdom Viaplay SportsUnited States NHL Network ESPN+
References
External links Official website