Canada wins!

Team Canada has won the 2012 IIHF Women’s World Championship! The United States won second, and the surprise bronze medal winner was Switzerland, who had their best finish ever. Congratulations to all the medal winners. This is Canada’s tenth win, and first since 2007. The final rankings are as follows:

1. Canada
2. United States
3. Switzerland
4. Finland
5. Sweden
6. Russia
7. Germany
8. Slovakia – Relegated to Division IA for 2013

Barring a change in format, the groups for the 2013 tournament will be:

Pool A	Pool B
Canada	Sweden
United States	Russia
Switzerland	Germany
Finland	Czech Republic

Based on their finishes, Sweden and Switzerland have qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics, where they will join Canada, the United States, Finland, and Russia. The two remaining spots will go to the winners of qualification tournaments.

The 2013 edition will be held April 2–9, 2013 in Ottawa.

Women’s World Championship final prediction

This is my prediction for the 2012 Women’s World Championship, which begins right now. Canada and the United States can be considered the “Big Two” of women’s hockey, and predicting them to reach the finals is always a safe bet. Finland and Sweden can be considered the “Little Two” and are usually the other medal contenders. The remaining teams are well–behind the top four (especially the top two), occasional upsets notwithstanding.

As for background, Canada and the United States teams have met in all of the previous thirteen finals. Finland has played in every bronze medal game. The only other team to win a medal was Russia in 2001. As much as I would prefer someone else to make the finals, I predict that the current streaks will continue.

Since I am Canadian I will be cheering for Team Canada. (Careful readers, noting this and my desire for some team other than Canada and the United States to make the finals, should deduce that I would like the United States to be upset [which has happened!])  If Finland or Sweden’s goalies pull a fast one there might be an upset. No one else has a snowball’s chance in hell of making the finals, and only a little better chance of winning a medal.

2012 Women’s World Championships preview

The 2012 IIHF Women’s World Championship begins tomorrow in Burlington, Vermont. It runs until April 14. It has eight teams and divided into groups as follows:

Pool A	Pool B
United States	Sweden
Canada	Switzerland
Finland	Slovakia
Russia	Germany

All four teams in Group A will qualify for the medal round. The top two teams will have byes to the semifinals, while the bottom two will play in the quarterfinals against the top two teams from Group B. The bottom two teams in Group B will play in a best–of–three relegation round. The loser is relegated to next year’s Division I Group A and will be replaced by the winner of the recently–concluded Division I Group A tournament, the Czech Republic.

The tournament will also update the IIHF World Ranking. That will determine qualifications for the 2014 Winter Olympics (more discussion next post).