2008 IIHF World Championship

[Jaboldinho]

The 2008 IIHF World Championship will be held between May 2, 2008 and May 18, 2008 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The two venues will be the Halifax Metro Centre (10,595 seats) and the Colisée Pepsi (15,750 seats).

It will be the 72nd annual event, and will be run by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). This will be the first time the final tournament is held in a non-European country since 1962, when it was held in Colorado, USA. The IIHF wants to celebrate the federation's 100th anniversary by holding the tournament in the country where organized ice hockey was born.

The tournament will serve as the qualifying round for the men's hockey competition at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The top nine teams in the IIHF World Rankings after Canada 2008 will be automatically qualified to Vancouver 2010.[1]

On May 8, 2007, the IIHF announced it "will also formalize the Triple Gold Club by awarding commemorative medals to the 19 players who have won the three most prestigious championships in world hockey: Olympic gold, Stanley Cup, and World Championship gold. The ceremony will take place in Canada during the 2008 World Championship." [2]

There are two changes in the format compared to earlier years. Because of the distance between Halifax and Quebec City, the quarter-finals will be played within qualification round, instead of crossing over which has happened since 2000. The relegation round is different too, as it consists two best-of-three series instead of round robin series between four teams.

Group A
Belarus
France
Sweden
Switzerland

Group B
Canada
Latvia
Slovenia
United States

Group C
Finland
Germany
Norway
Slovakia

Group D
Czech Republic
Denmark
Italy
Russia

First three teams in the standings of each group of the Preliminary round advance to the Qualification round and are placed in two groups: Teams from Groups A and D to compete in Group E. Teams from Groups B and C to compete in Group F.

Each team is to play three games (one against the three teams of the other group which have been paired with). These three games and the two games played in the Preliminary round against the two teams from the same group who had advance will count in the Qualification Round Standings.

Four first teams in both groups E and F to advance in Quarter-finals.

So, any of you guys following the event? Here you can post your thoughts on anything related, predict the medal winners, and of course, talk about the matches.

 

[newbie original]

Both Canada and the U.S. scored 4 goals in comfortable opening wins.

It's really too bad this tournament gets almost no coverage in the States.....

 

[Hepoas]

Really looking forward to our match tonight against Slovakia. Will go at 1.15AM in Norwegian time. Hope we will win.

GO NORWAY!!

 

[Hepoas]

Bah, we lost 5-1 to Slovakia.. What the hell!? Now we have to beat Germany, because I don't think we will beat Finland.

 

[Jaboldinho]

Straight to the B league...

Finland won their match 5-1, and it was a great game all and all. The goals were really well set up and finished beautifully. Also the 5-attacker powerplay worked beautifully. I've got my hopes set high.

 

[Hepoas]

I don't think we are going to the B-league, Jaboldinho. I think we probably can beat Germany, or we will win the play-off. No probs. But we are better than the B-teams.

 

[Hepoas]

Ahh, great. 1st period is over, and we have 2-2 to Finland. Should have lead, because we have been best - actually!

GO NORWAY!

 

[newbie original]

Heatley was rampant again for Canada....

 

[Jaboldinho]

Sorry Hep, but there's no way you were best at any point of the game. We played badly, but not that badly. The only reason it was so tight was your mid rink trap, which we couldn't pass with the puck. Your hockey was like watching Rangers.

 

[Hepoas]

Every other guys I've talking to say that we deserve all good things because we did well.

From iihf.com

While some would say the Finns did not play well, the Norwegians deserve credit for making it a game by responding after each of Finland’s first two goals. Norway must now take that confidence into their next game against Germany.

 

[Jaboldinho]

I didn't say you didn't play well, just that you weren't the best in the match.

 

[Hepoas]

Sometimes in the match we played better than Finland. But you won deserved.

 

[Hepoas]

A important game for us today. We have to beat Germany to reach the next stage. Hopefully will Finland win too, and we will get 2nd place and some points with us.

NORWAY!

 

[Hepoas]

YEEEEEAH!! We beat Germany 3-2 we are through. Canada, USA and Latvia come on! We will fight to the end!

NORWAY NORWAY NORWAY!!

 

[Hepoas]

Norway 1-2 Canada - from iihf.com!

Goalie Pal Grotnes and Norway's penalty killers shine, but Canada prevails 2-1 on late goal

HALIFAX – Pal Grotnes is a name Team Canada won’t soon forget. The Norwegian goalie played the game of his life this afternoon at the Metro Centre only 18 hours after his team surprised Germany, 3-2, but it wasn't quite enough today as Canada eked out a 2-1 win.

Grotnes stopped 51 of 53 shots while his teammates fired just 16 at Pascal Leclaire. Rick Nash was the hero making an end-to-end rush and finishing with the tie-breaking goal with just 3:58 left in regulation time.

The result ensures Canada stays atop Group F with nine points and Norway remains in third place with four points. It was the 13th straight win for Canada in World Championship play dating back to last year's perfect 9-0 run. The game today, however, was a scary reminder of May 1, 2000, in St. Petersburg when Norway shocked the Canadians by a 4-3 score.

"We're really disappointed today," offered Norway's Mathis Olimb. "After a while, we really expected a lot from ourselves because we were playing so well."

Mike Green and Nash scored for Canada and Mads Hansen for Norway before a solid but mostly quiet crowd that, no doubt, expected a much higher score.

"It took a little bit longer to pick up our game and find a way," Green said, "but they made it tough on us. They played a great defensive game and made it hard to penetrate because of their system."

Norway lined up along centre ice, didn’t forecheck aggressively, and protected their goalie by getting in the way of as many pucks as possible. Still, the puck was inside Norway’s blueline for much of the game until Canada ran into penalty trouble midway through the third period.

Mike Green got the crowd going at 9:32 of the first on the power play. Brent Burns took a shot that went wide but caromed off the back boards onto Green’s stick. He moved the puck in front, waited for Grotnes to commit, and drilled a perfect wrist shot over the goalie's glove for a 1-0 Canada lead.

The 14-3 shots totals for the first period accurately reflected Canada’s domination. Indeed, the only time the Norwegians had the puck in Canada’s end was on their two power-play chances, neither of which yielded a good scoring chance.

The Norwegians had a great chance to tie the game midway through the second when Per-Age Skroder had the wide open side of the net and Pascal Leclaire sliding the other way, but he fanned on the shot.

Moments later, the one-piece stick made perhaps its worst appearance in international hockey. Rick Nash had a breakaway from centre ice, and just as he was about to rip a shot, his stick snapped in half, one piece sliding into the net (no goal) and the other between his skates.

The Canadians tried one cutesy pass after another, creating some exciting plays, maybe, but no goals. All the while, Norway was one shot away from tying the game. In the middle part of the period Canada had four consecutive power plays, but still they couldn’t beat Grotnes a second time. Full credit also goes to the Norway penalty killers who kept Canada at bay.

And then the incredible happened. Defenceman Duncan Keith was pokechecked at the Norwegian blueline by Mads Hansen, and he skated in alone, deked Leclaire, and swept the puck into the net to tie the score before Keith could chase him down. The short-handed goal was a stunning turn of events given the domination by Canada to that point. Shots after two periods were 34-10, but the score was 1-1.

Canada had a 5-on-3 for 51 seconds early in the third but could do nothing with the glorious chance, and then it was the Canadians who were whistled for a string of five straight penalties that had the fans howling with protest, followed by enthusiastic chants of “Let’s go Canada, let’s go!” It was their liveliest outburst of the game.

"The penalty kill really took the momentum away from them," said Chris Kunitz. "Getting into penalty trouble really doesn't get your best players involved, but we found a way."

"We really should have gotten at least one goal," Olimb agreed, "but they played really well in front and took away our chances. That's what happens when you play really good teams."

Finally, at 16:02, Rick Nash made an end-to-end dash on the power play. He drove down the left wing, cut hard in on goal, and squeezed the puck inside the far post to give Canada a 2-1 lead it richly deserved but hadn't yet achieved. It was Canada's 50th shot on goal to just 16 by Norway.

"It all comes down to desperation," Green suggested. "We really needed a goal badly. It was a great play by Nash--he always seems to find a way. That's the great player he is."

Canada’s next game is against Germany on Saturday afternoon while Norway meets Latvia on Sunday afternoon

 

[newbie original]

Surprisingly close for us against you guys....

 

[Hepoas]

I am in shock still. We play like we're a challenger for the WC-gold. But we just do good matches, without three of our biggest stars:

Ole-Kristian Tollefsen (Injury. Columbus Blue Carlos*et), Patrick Thoresen (Stanley Cup, Flyers) and Tore Vikingstad (Injury, DEG)

If we beat Latvia we are ready for the quarter-finals for the first time in history, and if Finland beat USA the same day - we will be in front of USA too, with one point.

That is heavy for a small Hockey-nation like us. But it is good too se our hockey is developing!

 

[Hepoas]

Oh holy God. Thank you Germany! THANKS!

We're in a quarter-final.. for the very first time!!

Canada again. Should be a great match, and Canada should win this easy. But since im so patriotic, I hope for Norwegian MAGIC!

NORWAY!!!

 

[rony31]

This was absolutely hilarious. Have NO idea how the refs managed to count this even AFTER going to video review haha

 

[Hepoas]

Haha. I hope the ref is out of this tournament now.

Btw, good luck tonight Canada - you will need it. Haha!