1998 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships

The 1998 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships (1998 WJHC) were held in Helsinki and Hameenlinna, Finland. The championships began on December 25, 1997 and finished on January 3, 1998. Home team Finland was the winner, defeating Russia 2-1 in the gold medal game, thanks to the goaltending of Mika Noronen and the overtime heroics of Niklas Hagman. Switzerland defeated the Czech Republic 4-3 to capture the bronze medal. 
Also worth noting was that Canada had its five year title streak broken with its worst placing to date (8th). Canada also suffered perhaps one of the most shocking losses in hockey history during the tournament, losing 6-3 at the hands of Kazakhstan. The Kazakhstanis were considered the "joke" of the tourney, using borrowed equipment from other teams for one game. Canada would miss out on gold seven years in a row before beginning their current streak of five straight championships. As of 2009, this tournament is the only one since 1992 in which Canada failed to medal. 
==Championship results==
=Pool A=
==Group A==
Team 	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
 	4 	3	0	1	17	10	7
 	4 	2	1	1	16	12	5
 	4 	2	2	0	16	6 	4
Canada	4 	2	2	0	9 	7 	4
 	4 	0	4	0	1 	24	0
==Group B==
Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
 	4 	3	0	1	22	6 	7
 	4 	2	1	1	17	5 	5
 	4 	2	2	0	17	12	4
 	4 	1	3	0	8 	30	2
 	4 	1	3	0	8 	30	2
==Final Round==
==Relegation Round==
Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
 	2 	2	0	0	17	3 	4
 	2 	0	2	0	3 	17	0
Germany relegated to Pool B for 1999.
==Final Ranking==
Rank	Country
 	
 	
 	
4 	
5 	
6 	
7 	
8 	
9 	
10 	
==Scoring leaders==
Player 	Country	GP	G	A	Pts
Jeff Farkas 	 	7 	6	4	10
Olli Jokinen 	 	7 	4	6	10
Eero Somervuori 	 	7 	3	6	9
Ladislav Nagy 	 	6 	6	2	8
Brian Gionta 	 	7 	5	3	8
Timo Vertala 	 	7 	4	4	8
Marián Hossa 	 	6 	4	4	8
Marcus Nilson 	 	7 	3	5	8
Andrej Podkonický	 	6 	3	5	8
Maxim Balmochnykh	 	7 	2	6	8
==Tournament awards==
All-star team
*Goaltender: David Aebischer
*Defencemen: Pierre Hedin, Andrei Markov
*Forwards: Maxim Balmochnykh, Olli Jokinen, Eero Somervuori
==Team Photos==
1998FinlandJr.jpg|Finland
==External links==
*Statistics and results from Hockey Canada
Category:1998 in hockey
Category:World Junior Championships