2023 IIHF World Championship
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.
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 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 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 The bid was withdrawn due to Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation informing the IIHF that it did not receive the governmental guarantees to host.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 and Helsinki.
Venues
Participants
; Qualified as hosts; Automatic qualifier after a top 14 placement at the 2022 IIHF World Championship:
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; 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
Rosters
Match officials
16 referees and linesmen were announced on 6 April 2023.| Referees | Linesmen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Group AGroup BPlayoff roundFinal standingsStatisticsScoring leadersList shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals.
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/Minus; PIM = Penalties in Minutes; POS = Position Source: Goaltending leadersOnly the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, are included in this list.
TOI = time on ice ; SA = shots against; GA = goals against; GAA = goals against average; Sv% = save percentage; SO = shutouts Source: AwardsThe awards were announced on 28 May 2023.Individual awardsMedia All StarsIIHF honors and awardsThe 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
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