# 2006 IIHF World Championship

The 2006 IIHF World Championship was held in between 5–21 May 2006 in Riga, Latvia. It was the 70th annual event, and was run by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).
One of the requirements of the IIHF for Latvia to host the event was that a new arena would be constructed. Sweden was the stand-by organizer in case the arena was delayed, but the construction was completed on schedule, marking the first time a former Soviet state apart from Russia has hosted the event. The mascot of the championships was a beaver called RIX (after Riga International Airport's IATA code.)
Sweden shut out the Czech Republic 4-0 in the Gold Medal Game to win the IIHF World Championships. Sweden had won the 2006 Winter Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Gold 3-2 versus Finland in Turin, Italy two months earlier. They therefore became the first hockey team to win both the Winter Olympics and the IIHF World Championships in the same year.

## Venues

| Arena Riga Capacity: 10,300 | Arena RigaSkonto Hall | Skonto Hall Capacity: 6,500 |
| Latvia – Riga | Arena RigaSkonto Hall | Latvia – Riga |

## Nations

The following 16 nations qualified for the elite hockey tournament – 13 nations from Europe, two nations from North America and one nation from Asia are represented.

### Asia

* Kazakhstan

### Europe

* Czech Republic
* Denmark
* Belarus
* Finland
* Latvia
* Italy
* Norway
* Russia
* Slovenia
* Slovakia
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Ukraine

### North America

* Canada
* United States
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Automatic qualifier after a top 14 placement at the 2005 IIHF World Championship
* ↑ Qualified as hosts (and as automatic qualifier)
* 1 2 Qualified through winning a promotion at the 2005 IIHF World Championship Division I

## Preliminary round

Sixteen participating teams were placed in the following four groups. After playing a round-robin, the top three teams in each group advanced to the qualifying round. The last team in each group competed in the relegation round.
Groups A and D were played in Kloten, groups B and C in Berne.

### Group A

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| Finland | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 6 | +7 | 5 | Qualifying round |
| Czech Republic | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 8 | +1 | 4 | Qualifying round |
| Latvia | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 7 | −1 | 3 | Qualifying round |
| Slovenia | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 15 | −7 | 0 | Relegation round |
All times local (UTC +3)

### Group B

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| Sweden | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 6 | +6 | 5 | Qualifying round |
| Switzerland | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 6 | +3 | 5 | Qualifying round |
| Ukraine | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 8 | −1 | 2 | Qualifying round |
| Italy | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 11 | −8 | 0 | Relegation round |
All times local (UTC +3)

### Group C

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| Russia | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 6 | +11 | 6 | Qualifying round |
| Belarus | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 5 | +6 | 4 | Qualifying round |
| Slovakia | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 6 | +4 | 2 | Qualifying round |
| Kazakhstan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 23 | −21 | 0 | Relegation round |
All times local (UTC +3)

### Group D

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| Canada | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 5 | +9 | 6 | Qualifying round |
| United States | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 3 | +4 | 4 | Qualifying round |
| Norway | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 13 | −5 | 2 | Qualifying round |
| Denmark | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 14 | −8 | 0 | Relegation round |
All times local (UTC +3)

## Qualifying round

The top three teams from each group in the preliminary round advance to the qualifying round. The top three teams from Groups A and D advance to Group E, and the top three teams from Groups B and C advance to Group F.
Teams in the qualifying round carry forward the results and points gained in the preliminary round with the teams that they have played and advance with. Teams, which have played in the preliminary round, do not meet again in the qualifying round.

### Group E

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| Canada | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 28 | 10 | +18 | 8 | Playoff round |
| Finland | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 7 | +10 | 7 | Playoff round |
| United States | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 10 | +1 | 6 | Playoff round |
| Czech Republic | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 14 | 12 | +2 | 6 | Playoff round |
| Latvia | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 23 | −16 | 3 | Eliminated |
| Norway | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 20 | −15 | 0 | Eliminated |
All times local (UTC+3)

### Group F

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| Russia | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 22 | 11 | +11 | 9 | Playoff round |
| Sweden | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 17 | 15 | +2 | 6 | Playoff round |
| Belarus | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 10 | +6 | 6 | Playoff round |
| Slovakia | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 19 | 10 | +9 | 5 | Playoff round |
| Switzerland | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 15 | −3 | 4 | Eliminated |
| Ukraine | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 29 | −25 | 0 | Eliminated |
All times local (UTC +3)

## Relegation round

The relegation round is composed of the four teams that placed last in Groups A through D. They play in a round-robin fashion, and the bottom two teams get relegated to the Division I group in next year's World Championships.

### Group G

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| Denmark | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 5 | +6 | 5 | Qualified for the 2007 IIHF World Championship |
| Italy | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 10 | −4 | 3 | Qualified for the 2007 IIHF World Championship |
| Kazakhstan | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 6 | +3 | 2 | Relegated to Division I |
| Slovenia | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 11 | −5 | 2 | Relegated to Division I |
All times local (UTC +3)

## Playoff round
### Bracket

| Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Finals | Finals | Finals |
| F1 | Russia | 3 | | | | | | |
| E4 | Czech Republic | 4 | | | | | | |
| E4 | Czech Republic | 4 | QF1 | Czech Republic | 3 | | | |
| | | | QF2 | Finland | 1 | | | |
| E2 | Finland | 3 | QF2 | Finland | 1 | | | |
| F3 | Belarus | 0 | | | | | | |
| F3 | Belarus | 0 | | | | SF1 | Czech Republic | 0 |
| | | | | | | SF2 | Sweden | 4 |
| E1 | Canada | 4 | | | | | | | SF2 | Sweden | 4 |
| F4 | Slovakia | 1 | | | |
| F4 | Slovakia | 1 | QF4 | Canada | 4 | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game |
| | | | QF3 | Sweden | 5 |
| F2 | Sweden | 6 | QF3 | Sweden | 5 | SF2 | Canada | 0 |
| E3 | United States | 0 | | | | SF1 | Finland | 5 |

### Gold medal game
## Ranking and statistics

* 2006 IIHF World Championship winners
* Sweden 8th title

### Tournament Awards

* Best players selected by the directorate:
** Best Goaltender: Johan Holmqvist
** Best Defenceman: Niklas Kronwall
** Best Forward: Sidney Crosby
** Most Valuable Player: Niklas Kronwall
* Media All-Star Team:
** Goaltender: Andrei Mezin
** Defence: Niklas Kronwall, Petteri Nummelin
** Forward: Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, David Výborný

### Final standings

The final standings of the tournament according to IIHF:
| | Sweden |
| | Czech Republic |
| | Finland |
| 4 | Canada |
| 5 | Russia |
| 6 | Belarus |
| 7 | United States |
| 8 | Slovakia |
| 9 | Switzerland |
| 10 | Latvia |
| 11 | Norway |
| 12 | Ukraine |
| 13 | Denmark |
| 14 | Italy |
| 15 | Kazakhstan |
| 16 | Slovenia |

### Scoring leaders

List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals. If the list exceeds 10 skaters because of a tie in points, all of the tied skaters are left out.
| Player | GP | G | A | Pts | +/− | PIM | POS |
| Sidney Crosby | 9 | 8 | 8 | 16 | +7 | 10 | F |
| Patrice Bergeron | 9 | 6 | 8 | 14 | +5 | 2 | F |
| Petteri Nummelin | 9 | 3 | 11 | 14 | -1 | 2 | D |
| Niklas Kronwall | 8 | 2 | 8 | 10 | +3 | 10 | D |
| Alexander Ovechkin | 7 | 6 | 3 | 9 | +6 | 6 | F |
| Mikhail Grabovski | 7 | 5 | 4 | 9 | +2 | 2 | F |
| Andreas Karlsson | 9 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 6 | F |
| Mikael Samuelsson | 8 | 4 | 5 | 9 | +7 | 4 | F |
| Anže Kopitar | 6 | 3 | 6 | 9 | -2 | 2 | F |
| Evgeni Malkin | 7 | 3 | 6 | 9 | +7 | 6 | F |
Source: IIHF.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 | MIP | SOG | GA | GAA | SVS% | SO |
| Fredrik Norrena | 325:43 | 122 | 6 | 1.11 | 95.08 | 3 |
| Andrei Mezin | 417:01 | 239 | 14 | 2.01 | 94.14 | 0 |
| Karol Križan | 379:41 | 142 | 12 | 1.90 | 91.55 | 3 |
| Sergey Zvyagin | 278:32 | 105 | 9 | 1.94 | 91.43 | 1 |
| Marc Denis | 262:41 | 123 | 11 | 2.51 | 91.06 | 1 |
Source: IIHF.com

## IIHF broadcasting rights

* Austria
** Austrian Matches: ORF
** Other Matches: ORF Sport Plus
* Canada
** English: TSN
** French: RDS
* Czech Republic: Czech Television (ČT2, ČT4 Sport)
* Denmark: TV2 Sport
* Finland: YLE
* France: Sport+
* Germany
** German Matches: ARD, ZDF
** Other Matches: DSF
* Latvia: TV3, 3+ Latvia
* Norway
** Norwegian Matches: NRK
** Other Matches: Viasat SportN, Viasat Sport 3
* Russia: RTR Sport
* Slovakia: STV
* Slovenia: RTV Slovenija
* Sweden: Viasat
* Switzerland
** German: SF zwei
** French: TSR 2
** Italian: TSI 2
* Ukraine: Megasport