The 1998 IIHF World Championship was held in Switzerland from 1–17 May 1998. The format expanded to 16 teams for the first time. The teams were divided into four groups of four with the top two teams in each advancing to the next round. The two groups of four then played a round robin with the top two teams in each moving on to the semi-finals. The semi-finals were a two-game total goals for series as was the final.
Venues ZürichBasel HallenstadionCapacity: 12,500 St. JakobshalleCapacity: 9,000
Qualifying Round (Austria) Played 6–9 November 1997 in Klagenfurt. The Kazakhs, Austrians, and Norwegians finished virtually even. In head-to-head match-ups they each had one win and one loss, they each had scored as many as they had allowed. The Kazakhs scored six goals, the other two both five, pushing them to first. The Norwegians had beaten Poland by three, on the final day the Austrians pushed their advantage over Poland to four, giving them the final spot in the World Championship.Qualifier explanation
Kazakhstan and Austria advanced to Group A, Norway and Poland competed in Group B.
First round In each group, the top two nations advanced to the next round. Third place teams played a final round against each other to determine who escaped having to qualify for next year's tournament. Fourth place teams did not play further, they were automatically entered in qualifiers for next year's tournament. The highlight of the round was the French victory of the US, the first ever in an official match.Tournament summary at Passionhockey.com
Group 1
Japan was relegated to the qualifiers for the 1999 IIHF World Championship.
Group 2
Austria was relegated to the qualifiers for the 1999 IIHF World Championship.
Group 3
France was relegated to the qualifiers for the 1999 IIHF World Championship.
Group 4
Kazakhstan was relegated to the qualifiers for the 1999 IIHF World Championship.
Consolation Round 9-12 Place
Germany and the United States were relegated to the qualifiers for the 1999 IIHF World Championship.
Second round Group 2 and 3 first place teams played against group 1 and 4 second place teams in group 5, and group 1 and 4 first place teams played against group 2 and 3 second place teams in group 6. The top two, from each group, advanced to the semi-finals.
Group 5
Group 6
Final round
Bracket
Semifinals
Match for third place
Final
Ranking and statistics
Tournament Awards Best players selected by the directorate: Best Goaltender: Ari Sulander Best Defenceman: František Kučera Best Forward: Peter Forsberg Media All-Star Team: Goaltender: Tommy Salo Defence: Jere Karalahti, František Kučera Forwards: Peter Forsberg, Ville Peltonen, Mats Sundin
Final standings The final standings of the tournament according to IIHF: 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Places eleven through sixteen were not relegated but had to play in qualifying tournaments for inclusion in the 1999 championship.
Scoring leaders List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals. Player Peter Forsberg 7 6 5 11 +9 0 F Mats Sundin 10 5 6 11 +13 6 F Raimo Helminen 10 2 9 11 0 0 F Ville Peltonen 10 4 6 10 0 8 F Radek Bělohlav 9 6 3 9 +7 2 F Pavel Patera 9 6 3 9 +6 12 F Viktor Kozlov 6 4 5 9 +5 0 F Sergei Berezin 6 6 2 8 +2 2 F Oleg Znaroks 6 5 3 8 +4 2 F Mikael Renberg 10 5 3 8 +6 6 FSource: quanthockey.com
Leading goaltenders Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played 40% of their team's minutes are included in this list. Player Tommy Salo 540 7 0.78 .959 3 Ari Sulander 477 10 1.26 .956 2 Mike Rosati 299 8 1.61 .950 1 Milan Hnilička 430 10 1.40 .940 2 François Gravel 94 4 2.55 .938 0Source: quanthockey.com
IIHF honors and awards The 1998 IIHF Hall of Fame induction ceremony has held in Zürich during the World Championships. Wolf-Dieter Montag of Germany was given the Paul Loicq Award for outstanding contributions to international ice hockey.
IIHF Hall of Fame inductees Canada: W. A. Hewitt, Marshall Johnston, Terry O'Malley, Harry Watson Czech Republic: Karel Gut, Jiří Holeček Finland: Pekka Marjamäki France: Jacques Lacarrière Germany: Gustav Jaenecke, Xaver Unsinn Great Britain: Carl Erhardt Latvia: Helmuts Balderis Romania: Eduard Pană Russia: Anatoli Firsov, Valeri Kharlamov, Viktor Tikhonov, Valeri Vasiliev Slovakia: Vladimír Dzurilla, Jozef Golonka Sweden: Lasse Björn, Håkan Loob, Börje Salming, Arne Strömberg Switzerland: Ferdinand Cattini, Hans Cattini, Cesar Lüthi United States: Bill Christian, Jack McCartan, Robert Ridder, John P. Riley Jr.
See also 1998 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships
Citations
References Complete results
Archive Switzerland 1998 Qualifying tournament details