1996 IIHF European U18 Championship

The 1996 IIHF European U18 Championship was the twenty-ninth playing of the IIHF European Junior Championships.
==Group A==
Played April 7th to the 14th, in Ufa Russia.
=== First round ===
Because of Germany's success in the previous year, the draw for this year's championship guaranteed a final four berth for either Germany, Switzerland or Belarus. Group 1 was made up of the teams that finished 1st, 4th, 5th, and the newly promoted country, Group 2 contained 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th. Unfortunately, this meant that Slovakia's first time playing at the top level, they would face Finland, Russia, and the Czech Republic, in the first round. The Swiss made the most of their opportunity, becoming just the seventh nation to finish in the top four.
;Group 1
Team	FIN	RUS	CZE	SVK	GF/GA	Points
1. 	 	3:3	2:0	5:3	10:6 	5
2. 	3:3	 	4:4	6:2	13:9 	4
3. 	0:2	4:4	 	3:1	7:7 	3
4. 	3:5	2:6	1:3	 	6:14 	0
;Group 2
Team	SWE 	SUI	GER	BLR 	GF/GA	Points
1. 	 	4:2	6:0	11:2	21:4 	6
2. 	2:4 	 	5:4	5:2 	12:10	4
3. 	0:6 	4:5	 	4:3 	8:14 	2
4. 	2:11	2:5	3:4	 	7:20 	0
=== Final round=== 
On the final day the Russians and the Finns both won to finish tied for first, and since they had tied each other, it came down to goal differential in the final round. Both teams beat the Swedes by three goals, but Russia's seven goal margin against the Swiss clinched the gold.Gold for Russia
;Championship round
Team	RUS 	FIN 	SWE 	SUI 	GF/GA	Points
1. 	 	(3:3)	5:2 	8:1 	16:6 	5
2. 	(3:3)	 	3:0 	4:3 	10:6 	5
3. 	2:5 	0:3 	 	(4:2)	6:10 	2
4. 	1:8 	3:4 	(2:4)	 	6:16 	0
;Placing round
On the final day of competition, Slovakia avenged their surprising loss in 1993, by beating, and in effect relegating, Belarus.
Team	CZE 	GER 	SVK 	BLR 	GF/GA	Points
1. 	 	8:0 	(3:1)	10:1 	21:2 	6
2. 	0:8 	 	6:4 	(4:3)	10:15	4
3. 	(1:3)	4:6 	 	7:4 	12:13	2
4. 	1:10 	(3:4)	4:7 	 	8:21 	0
Belarus was relegated to Group B for 1997.
==Tournament Awards==
*Top Scorer Marco Sturm (11 points)
*Top Goalie: Adam Svoboda
*Top Defenceman:Andrei Zyuzin
*Top Forward: Markus Nilsson
== Group B ==
Played from March 23rd to the 29th, in Tychy and Sosnowiec Poland.
=== First round ===
;Group 1
Team	UKR	NOR	ITA	HUN	GF/GA	Points
1. 	 	6:2	6:1	5:3	17:6 	6
2. 	2:6	 	6:3	6:1	14:10	4
3. 	1:6	3:6	 	3:0	7:12 	2
4. 	3:5	1:6	0:3	 	4:14 	0
;Group 2
Team	DEN 	FRA	POL 	ROM 	GF/GA	Points
1. 	 	6:3	7:5 	12:4	25:12	6
2. 	3:6 	 	7:3 	8:3 	18:12	4
3. 	5:7 	3:7	 	20:0	28:14	2
4. 	4:12	3:8	0:20	 	7:40 	0
=== Final round=== 
;Championship round
Team	UKR 	DEN 	FRA 	NOR 	GF/GA	Points
1. 	 	5:4 	4:2 	(6:2)	15:8 	6
2. 	4:5 	 	(6:3)	3:2 	13:10	4
3. 	2:4 	(3:6)	 	5:1 	10:11	2
4. 	(2:6)	2:3 	1:5 	 	5:14 	0
;Placing round
Team	POL 	ITA 	HUN 	ROM 	GF/GA	Points
1. 	 	6:0 	7:4 	(20:0)	33:4 	6
2. 	0:6 	 	(3:0)	9:4 	12:10	4
3. 	4:7 	(0:3)	 	7:0 	11:10	2
4. 	(0:20)	4:9 	0:7 	 	4:36 	0
The Ukraine was promoted to Group A and Romania was relegated to Group C, for 1997.
== Group C ==
Played from March 15th to 19th, in Maribor Slovenia.
=== First round ===
;Group 1
Team	AUT	EST	GBR 	CRO 	GF/GA	Points
1. 	 	1:1	4:3 	9:1 	14:5 	5
2. 	1:1	 	3:3 	6:4 	10:8 	4
3. 	3:4	3:3	 	10:2	16:9 	3
4. 	1:9	4:6	2:10	 	7:25 	0
;Group 2
Team	SLO 	LAT 	LTU 	ESP 	GF/GA	Points
1. 	 	3:0 	16:3	13:0	32:3 	6
2. 	0:3 	 	12:3	13:0	25:6 	4
3. 	3:16	3:12	 	11:0	17:28	2
4. 	0:13	0:13	0:11	 	0:37 	0
=== Placing round===
7th place		10:2(5:0, 1:0, 4:2)		
5th place		12:3(4:1, 4:1, 4:1)		
3rd place		9:2(4:0, 1:2, 4:0) 		
Final 		4:3(1:1, 3:1, 0:1) 		
Slovenia was promoted to Group B and Croatia was relegated to Group D, for 1997.
== Group D ==
Played from March 6th to 10th in Sofia Bulgaria.
=== First round ===
;Group 1
Team	NED 	BUL 	TUR 	GF/GA	Points
1. 	 	16:0	40:0	56:0 	4
2. 	0:16	 	23:1	23:17	2
3. 	0:40	1:23	 	1:63 	0
;Group 2
Team	YUG 	ISR 	GRE 	GF/GA 	Points
1. 	 	6:2 	(14:0)	6:2 	2
2. 	2:6 	 	(5:0) 	2:6 	0
3. 	(0:14)	(0:5)	 	(0:19)	(0)
*The Greek team did not have the minimum required number of players, and were disqualified. However, they still played their games against Israel and Yugoslavia as exhibition matches. They also played an exhibition game against fifth place Turkey, defeating them seven to five.Greece still plays
=== Placing round ===
3rd place		4:3 o.t.(0:2, 3:0, 0:1, 1:0)		
Final 		6:4(2:2, 0:2, 4:0) 		
The Netherlands was promoted to Group C for 1997.
==References==
*Complete results
*
Category:European Junior Championships
Category:1996 in hockey
Category:IIHF European U18 Championships