The IIHF has announced the Hall Of Fame Class of 2019, to be inducted at May’s World Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia, with two native Slovaks and the top women’s player in history highlighting the class, as the IIHF will induct Miroslav Šatan, Žigmund Pálffy, Hayley Wickenheiser, Jörgen Jönsson and Mike Modano to the Hall. Continue reading
The Euro Hockey Challenge will return with a new, shorter format in 2019, with national teams preparing for the 2019 World Championship in Bratislava and Košice, Slovakia this May.
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In a surprising twist at the World Junior Championship, Kazakhstan swept Denmark in their relegation series to stay in the Top Division for 2020, sending Denmark back to Division IA for the first time since 2014.
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The International Hockey Lineal Championship saw a fair amount of movement in its 13 junior tilts in 2018, with four nations sharing title reigns across three tournaments, including the elimination round of the 2018 World Junior Championship.
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The International Hockey Lineal Championship again saw eight countries carry the title throughout 2018, with the Olympics being added to the calendar seeing 31 different matchups, with the IHLC being defended at five tournaments in seven different countries.
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🇸🇪 Sweden 5-4 United States 🇺🇸 (OT)
World Junior Championship Preliminary Round
Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, Victoria 🇨🇦
Saturday, December 29, 2018
The U.S. rallied from a 4-0 third-period deficit, but Adam Boqvist scored the overtime winner for a 5-4 victory to extend Sweden’s preliminary-round winning streak alive at 47 games.
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🇸🇪 Sweden 5-2 Slovakia 🇸🇰
World Junior Championship Preliminary Round
Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, Victoria 🇨🇦
Thursday, December 27, 2018
The Swedes stayed perfect with their second straight victory, defeating Slovakia 5-2 on Friday afternoon in Victoria. Sweden’s record-setting round-robin win streak now stands at 46 games, dating back to the 2007 World Juniors.
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🇨🇦 Canada 6-1 Slovakia 🇸🇰
Exhibition Game
Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, Victoria 🇨🇦
Friday, December 21, 2018
Cody Glass had a goal and two assists for the second game in a row, and Canada’s National Junior Team rode a big first period to a 6-1 win over Slovakia on Friday night ahead of the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship.
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Today marks the anniversary of the tragic air disaster of Yak Service Flight 9633 on September 7, 2011, that crashed near Yaroslavl, Russia, and killed the entire roster and staff of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL, and all but one of the flight crew members, when a pilot error caused the aircraft to fail its takeoff, running off the runway and crashing into a tower mast.
IIHF president Rene Fasel declared the crash as “the darkest day in the history of our sport,” as fans from across the world, and in particular Russia and the eight other nations represented by team players and staff, mourned for the shocking and tragic loss. On this sad anniversary, the IHLC commemorates this deep loss, and remember those who perished in the accident.
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From time to time, TheIHLC.com will feature detailed recaps and boxscores of some of the most legendary games in international hockey history, considered to be “IHLC Classics.” Today, in honour of Slovakian Constitution Day, we feature Slovakia’s historic first World Championship Gold Medal from 2002, a stunning upset over Russia less than a decade after gaining independence.
🇸🇰 Slovakia 4-3 Russia 🇷🇺
World Championship Gold Medal Game
Scandinavium, Gothenburg 🇸🇪
Saturday, May 11, 2002
When Czechoslovakia split into Czechia and Slovakia on January 1, 1993, the IIHF decided that the team lineage would continue with the Czechs, meaning that while the Czechs could continue in the Top Division and retain their spot at the 1994 Olympics, the Slovaks would be forced to start from the bottom, joining Pool C of the World Championship in 1993.
It should have taken a generation for Slovakia to reach the top, to rejoin the ranks of the best teams in the world and establish a championship program. But, quick to buck expectations, Slovakia was already competing for Gold by 2000, and in 2002, they would upset the Russian Goliath in Gothenburg to win their first World Championship and the International Hockey Lineal Championship.
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