2014 Women’s World Championship info

The IIHF has released dates and venues for all of its upcoming tournaments, including the senior and U18 Women’s World Championships.

Unfortunately here is no senior World Championship next year (2014), only the Olympics. Shame on you, IIHF.

However, there are tournaments for all the lower levels. The Division I Group A tournament will take place April 6–12 in Prerov, Czech Republic. The competitors will be Czech Republic, Denmark, Slovakia, Austria, Norway, and France. Notice that last years winner, Japan, isn’t in it? This therefore seems to indicate that they were indeed promoted. I’m no sure what happens to the team that wins 2014′s edition. Possibilities include simply not promoting them (bad), holding a qualification tournament between Japan and the 2014 winner (my favoured solution), or nine teams in 2015 (awkward but doable).

Link farm Sunday in April edition

In no particular order:

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The teams promoted and relegated for all levels of the IIHF Women’s World Championships are:

Tournament	Promoted	Relegated
World Championships	n/a	Czech Republic
Division IA	Japan?	Latvia
Division IB	France	Great Britain
Division IIa	Hungary	Slovenia
Division IIB	South Korea	South Africa
Division II Qualification	Turkey	n/a

Since the IIHF does not explicitly say, in both the news report and statistics page, whether Japan was promoted or merely the winner or Division I Group A, I still have no idea what was going on. By the looks of it no one was promoted to the main tournament in 2014, which will keep it at eight teams in 2015. That negates any point of winning the tournament this year, which is a shame. I hope I’m wrong, and that a better explanation is forthcoming. Update: Another possibility is that there will be some sort of qualifier series, like a best–of–three between Japan and whoever wins Division I Group A next year.

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2013 Women’s World Championship concludes

The 2013 IIHF Women’s World Championship has concluded, with Team USA winning gold. Canada won silver, and Russia won bronze. This is the first time Canada did not finish in first when hosting the Championship. This is Russia’s first medal since 2001 and second overall.

The final ranking is as follows:

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

And a big thumbs down to the IIHF. In 2010, they said:

2013 Women’s World Championship preview and prediction

The 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship begins today. It is being held in Ottawa, and is the last major competition before the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The teams are competing in two groups. They are as follows:

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

The top two teams in Group A get byes to the semifinals. The bottom two teams in Group A play the top two teams in Group B in the quarterfinals, with the winners advancing to the semifinals. The bottom two teams in Group B play in a best–of–three relegation round.

I think that the final ranking will be as follows:

1. Canada: All the home fans will provide enough support for us to pull through and win our eleventh title.
2. United States: This year’s final will be a repeat of the other fourteen, and the US will be in second place again.
3. Finland: Finland will continue its streak of playing in every bronze medal game.
4. Sweden: Since Sweden’s U18 team has recently been the third–best time at that level. It’s performance there will eventually “leak through” to the senior tournament; that is an inevitability. Now is as good as year as any for that to start happening.
5. Switzerland: The defending bronze medalists will finish in fifth this time.
6. Russia: They have an unofficial goal of winning a bronze at the 2014 Winter Olympics, but with only 500 registered players (far fewer than the top teams and a lower number than those big–time hockey powers of Japan, the United Kingdom, and Australia) the obstacles ahead of them seem too great. They cannot possibly show enough improvement in this tournament.
7. Germany: The Germans’ far greater experience at the top level will carry them through the relegation round.
8. Czech Republic: They will head back down after one year in the top division

Also, trivia alert! This tournament is the second time the second time the IIHF Women’s World Championship has been held there. The previous time was the first edition of the tournament, in 1990. At least this time Team Canada won’t have those pink uniforms!

Germany and Japan qualify for Sochi

The qualification tournaments for the final two spots for the 2014 Winter Olympics have concluded, and Germany and Japan have qualified. It is Germany’s first visit to the Olympics since 2002 and Japan’s first since they hosted the first tournament in 1998. It will also be Japan’s highest level of competition since they were relegated from the main tournament in 2009.

Both teams will play in group B at the 2014 Winter Olympics. The groups for that tournament are:

Group A

Canada

United States

Finland

Switzerland

Group B

Sweden

Russia

Germany

Japan

As for my predictions, I correctly predicted Germany, but was wrong with Slovakia. And in the meantime, Team Norway ought to avoid 3–0 leads of any kind….

Final Olympic Qualification tournaments start today

Today marks the start of the final qualification tournaments for women’s ice hockey at the 2014 Winter Olympics. They both run through to February 10. The winners of the Group C and Group D tournaments get the final two spots in Sochi, and will join Sweden and Russia in Group B at the Olympics.

Group C is as follows, and is playing in Poprad, Slovakia.

Slovakia

Norway

Japan

Denmark

Slovakia will probably win, but I can conceive of Japan or Norway also qualifying. This will be the highest–level tournament Denmark will have played in in several years, so they are probably in over their heads.

Group D is as follows, and is playing in Weiden, Germany.

Germany

Kazakhstan

Czech Republic

China

This tournament is definitely the Group of Death. Germany is probably the favourite, but all teams have a realistic chance of qualifying for Sochi. The final ranking could well come down to tiebreakers. There will be no surprise winner here, as no matter who wins, it won’t be a surprise.

And my long time readers will notice that if my predictions come true, the 2014 Winter Olympics will end up being a virtual rerun of the 2012 World Championship, only with Switzerland and Russia changing places.

Canada become World U18 Champions in dramatic fashion

Team Canada has won the 2013 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship, with a 2–1 win over the United States. Canada won it in the just about the most dramatic way possible, tying it with 12 seconds left and then winning it in overtime. This is Canada’s third title. The United States won silver, and Sweden won bronze for the fourth time.

The final rankings are as follows:

1. Canada
2. United States
3. Sweden
4. Czech Republic
5. Finland
6. Hungary
7. Russia
8. Germany – relegated to Division I for 2013.

As can be seen, I didn’t really make much in the way of predictions, but those I did make mostly either blatantly obvious or completely wrong. The only one I got right was Russia winning the relegation round again.

Unless there is a change in format, the likely groups for the next tournament are:

Pool A	Pool B
Canada	United States
Czech Republic	Sweden
Finland	Hungary
Japan	Russia

The Division I tournament is currently ongoing, and will conclude January 8. It’s winner will be promoted and take the remaining spot. The location of the 2014 competition will be announced later this year.

And lastly, a big thumbs down to the IIHF for holding this tournament in late December/early January. As it is currently scheduled, it is “buried” behind another tournament that has a significantly higher profile. This is completely unnecessary. The IIHF routinely holds lower division tournaments later in January. The U18 Women’s World should be moved to later in January. If this is done, the U18 Women’s won’t be “buried”, while at the same time requiring minimal changes to the way other tournaments are scheduled. This way, the IIHF won’t be, you know, totally missing the net on how it promotes this competition.

Update 2013–1–8: Team Japan won the Division I tournament and was promoted. They will play in Group A and I have updated the table to indicate that.