IIHF World Ice Hockey Championships

DC76 · « **on:** April 04, 2007, 08:28:08 PM »

Even though the fight for the actual championship doesn't start until the 27th of this month, the lower levels start on the 15th, so I thought I'd get this ball rolling. I like to see the game of ice hockey grown elsewhere, just like I like to see football grown here in Canada, so this is a big event for me

So here's a bit of background.

There are four levels:

- the Championship Division has 16 teams and they play for the World Ice Hockey Championship. There are two round-robin stages: the first eliminates four teams into the relegation round, and the other twelve play in the qualifying round, from which eight advance to a single-match elimination tournament. In the relegation round, the bottom two teams are relegated to Division One.

- Division One has two groups of six teams. The top team from each group is promoted to the Championship Division, while the bottom team is relegated to Division Two.

- Division Two works exactly the same as Division One - top teams up to Div One, bottom teams down to Div Three.

- Division Three has the remaining teams, one group of six this year.

Now for who's in what division:

Championship Division (play 27 April - 5 May @ Moskva, Russia):

THE BIG SEVEN - Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia. One of these teams ALWAYS wins. Their players also comprise the vast majority of NHL, AHL, and ECHL players.

Other teams (alphabetically) - Austria, Belarus, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Switzerland, Ukraine

Division One

Group A (play 15-21 April @ Qiqihar, China): China, Estonia, France, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Poland

Group B (play 15-21 April @ Ljubljana, Slovenia): Great Britain, Hungary, Japan, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia

Division Two

Group A (play 15-21 April @ Zagreb, Croatia): Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey

Group B (play 2-8 April @ Seoul, Korea Republic): Australia, Iceland, Israel, Korea DPR (WITHDREW), Korea Republic, Mexico

Division Three (play 15-21 April @ Dundalk, Ireland): Armenia, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mongolia, New Zealand, South Africa

DC76 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 04, 2007, 08:40:35 PM »

Now I'm not sure what's going to happen with Korea DPR and with Division Two after they withdrew. I think it would be fair to let last-place out of the remaining five teams stay up in Division Two and relegate Korea DPR to Division Three. But anyway, that group has already started playing, so here's the tourney so far from that lot:

Korea Rep. 6 Mexico 1
Australia 4 Israel 1
Korea Rep. 5 Australia 4
Iceland 3 Mexico 2

Two more matches scheduled for tomorrow afternoon local time (early tomorrow morning GMT, tonight my time):

Israel vs. Mexico (9PM my time, 4AM yours)
Korea Rep. vs Iceland (12:30 AM my time, 7:30AM yours)

Lew · « **Reply #2 on:** April 04, 2007, 10:31:35 PM »

I love watching ice hockey, and it's a sport I would definately play.

However, I can't even ice skate, let alone play any sports on ice.

DC76 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 05, 2007, 07:45:24 PM »

More results from Division 2 Group B:

Israel 3 Mexico 1

Korea Rep. 17 Iceland 2 (ZOINKS! :Green_Colorz_PDT_23)

I think Korea Republic's all but locked up promotion at this point.

DC76 · « **Reply #4 on:** April 07, 2007, 06:57:48 PM »

AUS 5 ISL 3
KOR 5 ISR 2

So Korea'll be in Division One next season. The final matches in this group go tomorrow. Division 2A's start date has been pulled back to the 11th from the 15th.

DC76 · « **Reply #5 on:** April 08, 2007, 04:09:43 PM »

AUS 12 MEX 2
ISR 5 ISL 1

South Korea goes up
North Korea goes down

As it should be

dazzaTh · « **Reply #6 on:** April 08, 2007, 11:00:04 PM »

Too right mate.

What are GBs chances off winnnig their group then?

DC76 · « **Reply #7 on:** April 08, 2007, 11:28:42 PM »

Not particularly good, but one never knows for sure. There were two really close ones they lost last season, 4-3 to Hungary and 1-0 to France, and the French aren't in the group. That said, they lost 4-2 to Japan, but the shot count was 43-19 in favour of the Japanese, so the British got VERY lucky.

My prediction is this:

1. Lithuania (promoted)
2. Slovenia
3. Japan
4. Great Britain
5. Hungary
6. Romania (relegated)

They're actually in the weaker of the two Division One groups. The other group is China, Estonia, France, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Poland. Which I think will probably end up like this:

1. Kazakhstan (promoted)
2. Poland
3. France
4. Netherlands
5. China
6. Estonia (relegated, and good riddance, they play dirty hockey)

DC76 · « **Reply #8 on:** April 11, 2007, 06:05:26 PM »

SER 6 TUR 4
ESP 4 BUL 0
HRV 13 BEL 4 (ZOINKS!:Green_Colorz_PDT_23)

Division 2A is underway

DC76 · « **Reply #9 on:** April 13, 2007, 02:14:01 AM »

HRV 2 SER 0
ESP 10 TUR 2
BEL 6 BUL 0

I feel kinda sorry for Bulgaria atm. Spain's had a surprisingly good start.

DC76 · « **Reply #10 on:** April 15, 2007, 09:41:13 PM »

Well now, it seems my predictions for Division 1 are already wrong :p

Scores:

DIVISION 1A (playing in China)

EST 4 FRA 3 (shootout) - France blew 2-0 and 3-1 leads. Their dirtiest player, Kirill Kolpakov, was not in the lineup.
POL 4 NED 3 (shootout) - Poland blew a 3-0 lead but still won. Lucky to do so, though.
KAZ 12 CHN 0 (ZOINKS!)

DIVISION 1B (playing in Slovenia)

SVN 10 ROM 1 (just finished)
GBR 4 JPN 3 (you guys almost blew a 4-1 lead, but held on to win :p)
HUN 6 LTU 1 (a bit disappointing after how well Lithuania did last year)

DIVISION 2A (playing in Croatia)

BEL 3 ESP 2
SER 7 BUL 1
HRV 25 TUR 2 :WTF: (I knew Turkey sucked at hockey, but even by their standards this is horrendous)

And some scores from yesterday's 2A action:

BUL 7 TUR 5
HRV 8 ESP 2
BEL 2 SER 1

DIVISION 3 (note: Armenia withdrew)

IRL 11 MON 0 (no surprise here, this is Mongolia's first entry into this competition. Still, it beats the 48-0 scores Armenia was getting beat by in their first tournaments :p)
LUX 5 RSA 2

DC76 · « **Reply #11 on:** April 16, 2007, 10:07:27 PM »

Some results from today.

DIVISION 1A

POL 9 CHN 1 (poor Chinese can't catch a break on home ice :p)
FRA 4 NED 2
KAZ 2 EST 1

DIVISION 1B

LTU 3 GBR 2 (you guys blew a 2-0 lead)
JPN 6 ROM 5 (wakeup call much?)
SVN 4 HUN 1

DIVISION 3

LUX 10 MON 1 (Mongolia scored their first goal in international hockey competition

)
NZL 4 IRL 2 (WOW! I didn't see this coming, especially since they're playing in Ireland!)

DC76 · « **Reply #12 on:** April 18, 2007, 04:11:16 AM »

Last results from Division 2A today

ESP 7 SER 4
BEL 10 TUR 2
HRV 10 BUL 2

Final rankings for 2A:

1. Croatia (promoted to Division 1)
2. Belgium
3. Spain
4. Serbia
5. Bulgaria
6. Turkey (relegated back to Division 3 :p)

Division 1A, 1B and III pick back up tomorrow.

DC76 · « **Reply #13 on:** April 18, 2007, 08:33:22 PM »

Today's results:

Division 1A

KAZ 5 NED 2
FRA 4 POL 0
EST 5 CHN 4

Division 1B

JPN 6 LTU 2 (now THAT's the Japan I was expecting!)
HUN 5 ROM 3
SVN 4 GBR 0

Division 3

RSA 14 MON 1
NZL 8 LUX 3

DC76 · « **Reply #14 on:** April 19, 2007, 09:48:32 PM »

What is it with Great Britain and blowing leads? :Green_Colorz_PDT_21

Today's results:

Division 1A

POL 5 KAZ 2
NED 4 EST 3 (SO)
FRA 10 CHN 0

Division 1B

HUN 4 GBR 2 (after GBR was up 2-0)
LTU 5 ROM 2
SVN 7 JPN 1

Division 3

NZL 10 MON 1
IRL vs. RSA still going atm, I'll update it when it's done.