2015 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship

The 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship was the 39th edition of World Junior Ice Hockey Championship, played from December 26, 2014 to January 5, 2015. It was co-hosted by Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and organized by Hockey Canada, Hockey Quebec, the Ontario Hockey Federation, the Montreal Canadiens, Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment and Evenko."Heading to hockey’s meccas", IIHF.com. June 20, 2013 Games were split between Air Canada Centre in Toronto and Bell Centre in Montreal, with Montreal hosting Group A matches and two quarter finals, and Toronto hosting Group B, along with the relegation games, two quarter finals, along with the semi-finals, bronze medal, and gold medal games."Montreal and Toronto to host 2015, 2017 world junior championships", Canadian Press, June 20, 2013The Gazette (Montreal), "World Junior Championship is coming to town", Brenda Branswell, June 20, 2013
After failing to medal at the previous two editions of the tournament, Canada beat Russia in the final to win the gold medal, marking Canada's first medal at the World Juniors since 2012, and Canada's first gold since 2009. Slovakia defeated Sweden in the bronze medal game to win their second-ever medal. Germany finished tenth overall and was relegated to Division IA for the 2016 tournament. Slovak goaltender Denis Godla was named the tournament's most valuable player, while Sam Reinhart of Canada was the scoring leader with 11 points.
== Player eligibility ==
A player is eligible to play in the 2015 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships if:
* the player is of male gender;
* the player was born at the earliest in 1995, and at the latest, in 2000;
* the player is a citizen in the country he represents;
* the player is under the jurisdiction of a national association that is a member of the IIHF.
If a player who has never played in IIHF-organized competition wishes to switch national eligibility, he must have played in competitions for two consecutive years in the new country without playing in another country, as well as show his move to the new country's national association with an international transfer card. In case the player has previously played in IIHF-organized competition but wishes to switch national eligibility, he must have played in competitions for four consecutive years in the new country without playing in another country, he must show his move to the new country's national association with an international transfer card, as well as be a citizen of the new country. A player may only switch national eligibility once.
==Top Division==
===Venues===
Air Canada CentreCapacity: 19,746	Bell CentreCapacity: 21,287
150px 	
– Toronto 	– Montreal
===Officials===
The IIHF selected 12 referees and 10 linesmen to officiate during the tournament:
Referees
* Vladimír Baluška
* Lars Bruggemann
* Roman Gofman
* Antonin Jerabek
* Mikko Kaukokari
* Geoffrey Miller
* Linus Ohlund
* Konstantin Olenin
* Steve Patafie
* Pascal St-Jaques
* Marcus Vinnerborg
* Tobias Wehrli
Linesmen
* Jordan Browne
* Pierre Dehaen
* Gleb Lazarev
* Miroslav Lhotský
* Andreas Malmqvist
* Bevan Mills
* Jani Pesonen
* Nikolaj Ponomarjow
* Judson Ritter
* Simon Wust
===Format===
The four best ranked teams from each group of the preliminary round advance to the quarterfinals, while the last placed teams from each group played a relegation round in a best of three format to determine the relegated team.
===Rosters===
=== Preliminary round ===
All times are local. (Eastern Standard Time – UTC-5)
	Team qualified to Quarterfinals
	Team will play in Relegation round
====Group A====
|}
====Group B====
|}
=== Relegation round ===
===Playoff round===
====Quarterfinals====
====Semifinals====
====Bronze medal game====
====Final====
=== Statistics ===
==== Scoring leaders ====
Pos	Player 	Country	GP	G	A	Pts	+/−	PIM
1 	Sam Reinhart 	 	7 	5	6	11 	+13	6
2 	Nicolas Petan 	 	7 	4	7	11 	+4 	0
3 	Connor McDavid 	 	7 	3	8	11 	+8 	0
4 	Max Domi 	 	7 	5	5	10 	+10	4
5 	William Nylander	 	7 	3	7	10 	–2 	0
6 	Curtis Lazar 	 	7 	5	4	9 	+8 	0
7 	Oskar Lindblom 	 	7 	4	5	9 	–1 	0
7 	Martin Reway 	 	7 	4	5	9 	–1 	2
9 	Adrian Kempe 	 	6 	4	4	8 	0 	2
10 	Anthony Duclair 	 	7 	4	4	8 	+11	16
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus-minus; PIM = Penalties In Minutes
Source: IIHF.com
==== Goaltending leaders ====
(minimum 40% team's total ice time)
Pos	Player 	Country	TOI 	GA	GAA 	Sv% 	SO
1 	Zachary Fucale 	 	300:00	6 	1.20	93.94	2
2 	Igor Shestyorkin	 	242:13	8 	1.98	93.80	1
3 	Thatcher Demko 	 	241:42	7 	1.74	93.75	1
4 	Denis Godla 	 	391:35	18	2.76	92.56	1
5 	Ville Husso 	 	183:12	7 	2.29	92.31	1
TOI = Time On Ice (minutes:seconds); GA = Goals Against; GAA = Goals Against Average; Sv% = Save Percentage; SO = Shutouts
Source: IIHF.com
===Tournament awards===
Reference: 
Most Valuable Player
* Goaltender: Denis Godla
All-star team
* Goaltender: Denis Godla
* Defencemen: Gustav Forsling, Josh Morrissey
* Forwards: Sam Reinhart, Max Domi, Connor McDavid
IIHF best player awards
* Goaltender: Denis Godla
* Defenceman: Vladislav Gavrikov
* Forward: Max Domi
===Final standings===
 	Team
 	
 	
 	
4th 	
5th 	
6th 	
7th 	
8th 	
9th 	
10th	
Relegated to the 2016 Division I A
Note that due to the lack of playoff games for determining the spots 5–8, these spots were determined by the preliminary round records for each team.
==Division I==
===Division I A===
The Division I A tournament was played in Asiago, Italy, from 14 to 20 December 2014.Division I A statistics
|}
Promoted to the 2016 Top Division	Relegated to the 2016 Division I B
===Division I B===
The Division I B tournament was played in Dunaújváros, Hungary, from 14 to 20 December 2014.Division I B statistics
|}
Promoted to the 2016 Division I A	Relegated to the 2016 Division II A
==Division II==
===Division II A===
The Division II A tournament was played in Tallinn, Estonia, from 7 to 13 December 2014.Division II A statistics
|}
Promoted to the 2016 Division I B	Relegated to the 2016 Division II B
===Division II B===
The Division II B tournament was played in Jaca, Spain, from 13 to 19 December 2014.Division II B statistics
|}
Promoted to the 2016 Division II A	Relegated to the 2016 Division III
==Division III==
The Division III tournament was played in Dunedin, New Zealand, from 20 to 25 January 2015.Division III statistics
On December 27, 2014 organizers announced that the Bulgarian Ice Hockey Federation withdrew their U20 team from the tournament.Bulgaria withdraws
|}
Promoted to the 2016 Division II B
==References==
==External links==
* http://www.worldjunior2015.com Official site
* http://hockeycanada.ca/2015juniors Hockey Canada site
{{wikipedia]]
World Junior Ice Hockey Championships
2015
2015 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships