1999 IIHF World Championship

The 1999 IIHF World Championship was held in Oslo, Hamar and Lillehammer in Norway from 1 to 16 May.

Venues

World Championship Group A

Qualifying Round

Three qualifying tournaments were played to establish the last five entrants to the World Championship. Two groups of four played in Europe, first and second place from each advanced, while the others were relegated to Group B. The winner of the "Far East" tournament advanced to the World Championship, while the losers played in Group C.

Group 1 (Austria)

Played 5–8 November 1998 in Klagenfurt.

	Team	Games	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points difference	Points
1		3	3	0	0	12 - 01	6
2		3	2	0	1	12 - 06	4
3		3	1	0	2	10 - 09	2
4		3	0	0	3	03 - 21	0

The United States and Austria advanced to the World Championship.

Group 2 (Slovenia)

Played 5–8 November 1998 in Ljubljana.

	Team	Games	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points difference	Points
1		3	2	1	0	08 - 04	5
2		3	2	0	1	09 - 07	4
3		3	0	2	1	05 - 08	2
4		3	0	1	2	03 - 06	1

Ukraine and France advanced to the World Championship.

Far East (Japan)

Played 4–6 September 1998 in Tokyo.

	Team	Games	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points difference	Points
1		2	2	0	0	24 - 4	4
2		2	1	0	1	3 - 9	2
3		2	0	0	2	2 - 16	0

Japan advanced to the World Championship.

First Round

In each group, the top two nations advanced to the next round. Third place teams played a final round against each other to determine who escaped having to qualify for next year's tournament. Fourth place teams did not play further, they were automatically entered in qualifiers for next year's tournament.

Group 1

Italy was relegated to the qualifiers for the 2000 IIHF World Championship.

Group 2

France was relegated to the qualifiers for the 2000 IIHF World Championship.

Group 3

Japan was relegated to the qualifiers for the 2000 IIHF World Championship.

Group 4

Ukraine was relegated to the qualifiers for the 2000 IIHF World Championship.

Second Round

Group 5

Group 6

Final Round

Each playoff match up consisted of a two-game series. If tied, the two teams would play an overtime-style mini game to determine the winner, and then a shoot-out if no scoring occurred. The only mini-game to go to a shoot-out was the Czech versus Canada tiebreaker, with a 4 to 3 Czech victory. Note that the mini-games show up as a game played in the players statistics. The exception was for the Bronze medal game which was just one game.

Semifinals

Match for third place

Final

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Consolation Round 9-12 Place

Latvia and Norway were relegated to the qualifiers for the 2000 IIHF World Championship.

Ranking and statistics

Tournament Awards

Best players selected by the directorate:
*Best Goaltender: Tommy Salo
*Best Defenceman: František Kučera
*Best Forward: Saku Koivu
*Most Valuable Player: Teemu Selänne
Media All-Star Team:
*Goaltender: Tommy Salo
*Defence: Jere Karalahti, Pavel Kubina
*Forwards: Saku Koivu, Martin Ručinský, Teemu Selänne
Final standings

The final standings of the tournament according to IIHF:




4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Places eleven through sixteen had to play in qualifying tournaments for entry into the 2000 tournament.

Scoring leaders

List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals.

Player
Saku Koivu	10	4	12	16	+8	4	F
Teemu Selänne	11	3	8	11	+6	16	F
Markus Näslund	10	6	4	10	+7	0	F
Žigmund Pálffy	6	5	5	10	0	6	F
Jan Hlaváč	10	5	5	10	+4	7	F
Martin Ručinský	10	4	6	10	+6	16	F
Alexei Yashin	6	8	1	9	+4	6	F
Daniel Alfredsson	10	4	5	9	+5	8	F
Viktor Ujčík	10	6	2	8	+3	12	F
Jere Karalahti	12	5	3	8	+5	2	D

Source:

Leading goaltenders

Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played 40% of their team's minutes are included in this list.

Player
Parris Duffus	258	7	1.63	.939	1
Andrei Mezin	360	10	1.67	.931	1
Tommy Salo	424	13	1.84	.921	0
Ari Sulander	464	15	1.94	.921	0
Ron Tugnutt	328	11	2.01	.915	0