IIHF

2023 - 1 - 1

IIHF - Spiky on the road (IIHF)

Spiky, the mascot of the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, has had time to visit many places, even though the World Championship are not yet ...

IIHF - New year starts with Nordic clash (IIHF)

The 20 games of the preliminary round have been played and the quarter-final pairings of the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship are set.

Latvia and Austria didn’t qualify for the quarter-finals and will play a best-of-three relegation round in Halifax on 2 January (10:30), 4 January (11:00) and if needed 5 January (11:00). Slovakia in Halifax at 19:30 (6:30pm ET, 0:30 CET) On 2 January the final round will start with a Nordic clash between Finland and Sweden in Moncton, and end with host nation and defending champion battling it out against Slovakia the same night in Halifax. Germany in Moncton at 17:00 (4pm ET, 22:00 CET) Switzerland in Halifax at 14:30 (19:30 CET) The semi-final pairings will be reseeded with the top-seeded semi-finalist playing the lowest-seeded semi-finalist and the second-seeded team playing the third-seeded team according to the following overall preliminary-round ranking: 1.

IIHF - Can Botterill's record ever be equalled? (IIHF)

Canada's Jason Botterill won three consecutive IIHF World Junior Championship gold medals from 1994 to 1996. That might be the hardest individual World ...

And of course, the Americans have never come close to winning three consecutive titles. Kiviharju might also have returned at ages 17 and 18 before seeking his fortune in the NHL. But again, getting three golds in six years (2014, 2016, 2019) is as close as the Finns have ever come to three-peating. And that opened the door for someone like Botterill to keep coming back. The only player who could theoretically return for the 2024 tournament in Gothenburg, Sweden and earn his third straight gold medal is the 2005-born Bedard. The case of Botterill, a 1994 first-round pick of the Dallas Stars (20th overall), was a perfect storm in many respects. You need someone who is good enough to crack a roster for the nation that leads the world with more than 360,000 registered junior players. The big-bodied forward was committed to completing his economics degree at the University of Michigan, where he would become the captain in his senior year of 1996-97. As for goals, nine is the high water mark in our century, achieved by Sweden’s Max Friberg (2012), Russia’s Kirill Kaprizov (2017), and the U.S.’s Kieffer Bellows (2018). And that will open the door for an individual scoring record to fall. The most likely nation to three-peat is Canada. However, if Canada’s Connor Bedard maintains his current scorching pace in Halifax (6+8=14 in three games), he’ll at least give Forsberg and Naslund a scare.

IIHF - 15 in 15 for WW18 (IIHF)

In one week the IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women's World Championship will mark the 15th edition of the premier junior event for women. Started in 2008 in Calgary, ...

IIHF - Springboard to senior success (IIHF)

Where does Brayden Point (pictured here in 2016) rank in our top-10 list of former Canadian World Junior captains who went on to Olympic, World Championship, ...

A rare three-time Canadian World Junior team member who won gold twice (1991, 1993) and wore the “C” the second time, Martin Lapointe wouldn’t replicate his QMJHL scoring success at the NHL level. He was a fixture in a Canadian uniform, especially in the 1980’s. Patrick, a 1984 Olympian, played at five Worlds between 1983 and 2002, capturing a silver medal (1989). Other achievements for this 1,141-game NHLer include winning a Canada Cup (1991) and cracking Canada’s 1996 World Cup of Hockey and 1998 Olympic rosters. He would add Olympic gold (2002) and silver (1992), a Canada Cup (1991), a World Championship scoring title (1993), and a Hart Trophy (1995) before he was done. in Finland (2004) by captaining the greatest World Junior team ever to the title (2005) with Sidney Crosby, Patrice Bergeron, and Corey Perry was a monumental achievement. To rebound from the disappointment of losing World Junior gold to the U.S. But here’s a fun fact: no Canadian World Junior captain has ever gone on to play more NHL playoff games than Eric Desjardins (168). He went from being Canada’s 13th forward with the 2015 World Junior team to captaining the 2016 squad whose dreams host Finland ended in the quarter-finals. And Point was one shootout goal away from capturing the 2017 IIHF World Championship in Cologne, which instead went to Lightning teammate Victor Hedman and his Swedish cohorts. Although the abuse he suffered in junior hockey from his coach led to a difficult path marred by drugs and alcohol, there is no denying the talent and drive Theoren Fleury showed on the ice. But what will become of the World Junior captain as he pursues his NHL dreams with the Seattle Kraken and vies to represent Canada at future Olympics and IIHF World Championships?

IIHF - Remembering Forsberg's 31 (IIHF)

Despite the magic of Connor Bedard at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship, the single-tournament point record of Peter Forsberg from 1993 may never be ...

He had two more assists in a 4-2 win over the United States, a game played in Uppsala, and a day later, back in Gavle, he had another hat trick and a couple of helpers in a 9-2 route of rivals Finland. In the end, Forsberg’s 1993 tournament remains in a league of its own. Pearn got them going, and they scored three in the second and built a 4-2 lead early in the third. But after the game the Canadian players suggested it wasn’t Forsberg’s words that made the difference but a forceful speech by Pearn himself during the first intermission. The back story to the Sweden-Canada game is where things were interesting. He was playing with MODO Ornskoldsvik in the top Swedish league and had been drafted 6th overall in 1991, the same draft made famous by Lindros going 1st overall but refusing to play for the team that drafted him, the Quebec Nordiques. But back to that Canada game for a minute. Just 24 hours later, they played Canada and lost, 5-4, but Forsberg was dominant, scoring once and adding three assists, and doing everything in his power to lead his team. They were demoted and haven’t been back to the top pool since. The Swedes won the faceoff and tied the game at 19:53. In that game Forsberg had an assist and Lindros was held off the scoresheet. Sweden opened the ’93 World Juniors with a 4-2 win over Germany, in Gavle.