2019 IIHF World Championship


The 2019 IIHF World Championship was hosted by Slovakia from 10 to 26 May 2019. It was the second time that Slovakia has hosted the event as an independent country, as was the case in 2011. The host cities were Bratislava and Košice, as announced by the International Ice Hockey Federation on 15 May 2015.
Finland won their third title by defeating Canada in the final. The Finns had 18 debutantes for the 2019 IIHF World Championship and were widely regarded as an outsider to win any medal at all. Despite this, the Finns won their third World Championship, and lost only two games in the tournament. Russia secured the bronze medal after a penalty-shootout win over the Czech Republic. This tournament was also the first time since the 2006 IIHF World Championship that both promoted teams stayed in the top division.

Venues

Rule changes

In December 2018, the IIHF announced changes to the overtime procedures beginning at this tournament: all overtime periods would be 3-on-3 regardless of round, and the gold medal game would no longer go to a shootout; play would continue in 20-minute periods of 3-on-3 until a winning goal would be scored.
In the semifinals there was no set bracket. After the quarterfinals, a re-seeding took place with the highest seed plays the lowest remaining seed. Seeds were determined by performance in the preliminary round.

Participants

; Qualified as host
; Automatic qualifier after a top 14 placement at the 2018 IIHF World Championship:
; Qualified through winning a promotion at the 2018 IIHF World Championship Division I:

Seeding

The seedings in the preliminary round are based on the 2018 IIHF World Ranking, as of the end of the 2018 IIHF World Championship, using the serpentine system. On 22 May 2018, the IIHF and the local organizing committee announced the groups, in which Slovakia and Norway switched places so that Slovakia would play in Košice and the Czech Republic and Austria would play in Bratislava.
;Group A
;Group B
Each team's roster consists of at least 15 skaters 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 1 March 2019.
RefereesLinesmen

  • Manuel Nikolic
  • Maxim Sidorenko
  • Oliver Gouin
  • Brett Iverson
  • Jan Hribik
  • Martin Fraňo
  • Mikko Kaukokari
  • Aleksi Rantala
  • Gordon Schukies
  • Roman Gofman
  • Yevgeni Romasko
  • Peter Stano
  • Linus Öhlund
  • Tobias Bjork
  • Stephen Reneau
  • Jeremy Tufts

  • Dmitri Golyak
  • Dustin McCrank
  • Nathan Vanoosten
  • Jiří Ondráček
  • Miroslav Lhotský
  • Rene Jensen
  • Hannu Sormunen
  • Lauri Nikulainen
  • Andrew Dalton
  • Joep Leermakers
  • Dmitri Shishlo
  • Gleb Lazarev
  • Roman Kaderli
  • Andreas Malmqvist
  • William Hancock
  • Brian Oliver

Preliminary round

The schedule was announced on 15 August 2018.

Group A

Group A matches were played at the Steel Arena in Košice.

Group B

Group B matches were played at the Ondrej Nepela Arena in Bratislava.

Playoff round

Seeding order

The semi-final pairings were determined according to the seeding after the preliminary round. The seeding is determined by following criteria in the order presented:
  1. higher position in the group;
  2. higher number of points;
  3. better goal difference;
  4. higher number of goals scored for;
  5. better seeding number entering the tournament.
RankTeam
B1721+29363
A1718+25361
B2718+25396
A2716+11225
B3715+20412
A37150188
A4714+12274
B4712+13277

Bracket

Final

Final ranking and statistics

Final ranking

Scoring leaders

List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals.
PlayerGPGAPts+/−PIMPOS
William Nylander851318+160F
Nikita Kucherov1061016+114F
Nikita Gusev1041216+120F
Jakub Voráček1041216+102F
Mark Stone108614+100F
Anthony Mantha97714+916F
Michael Frolík107714+82F
Dominik Kubalík106612+100F
Dominik Simon104812+102F
Patrick Kane82101204F

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/Minus; PIM = Penalties in Minutes; POS = Position

Source:

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.
PlayerTOIGAGAASASv%SO
Andrei Vasilevskiy488:02131.6024094.582
Kevin Lankinen480:41121.5020794.202
Mathias Niederberger237:1471.7712094.170
Leonardo Genoni241:3081.9912993.800
Sebastian Dahm307:18101.9513892.751

TOI = Time on Ice ; SA = Shots Against; GA = Goals Against; GAA = Goals Against Average; Sv% = Save Percentage; SO = Shutouts

Source:

Awards

Source:
Source: