Ice Hockey World Championships interrupt the arrival of summer sports

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It is that time of year again.
      Just as the Finnish football season gets into gear, golfers take out their clubs, and cyclists inspect their mounts for a new summer campaign, the winter sports enthusiasts have their last hurrah.
      The domestic ice hockey season may have been wrapped up in victory for JYP of Jyväskylä, but there is still one more big event to come - the IIHF World Championships.
     
This year the tournament is being held in Switzerland, with matches played in Bern and Kloten, starting tomorrow and running through to the final match on May 10th, which conveniently happens to be... Mother's Day.
      Finland is one of the 16 countries taking part, and the national side open their account on Saturday with a Preliminary Round Group D match against Norway.
      Next Monday sees them take on Denmark, and on Wednesday they play what will - hopefully - be their first "serious" opposition in the shape of the Czech Republic.
     
Always assuming they do not slip on the banana-skins of the Norwegians and the Danes, the Finns should progress to the next phase: the top three teams in the standings of each group of the Preliminary Round advance to the Qualifying Round.
      This sees two groups of six teams each, and in the case of Finland they will face the three best-placed teams in Group A, made up of Canada, Slovakia, Hungary, and Belarus.
     
Points already scored against other teams that progressed from one's own Preliminary Round group can be put into the bank, and the object of the exercise is to ensure that you finish in the top four of the Qualifying Round group, in order to go into the normal knock-out stages of quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final.
      As usual, the better the team performs in the Qualifying Round phase, the more likely it is that the quarter-final opposition will not be someone awkward like Sweden or Russia.
     
The IIHF World Championships are an annual event, and are taken fairly seriously here, even though the national teams represented are not quite at full strength, owing to high-profile absentees who are still involved in the NHL play-offs.
      Teams can and do improve their rosters during the competition, as and when star players become available when their North American employers get knocked out of the battle for the Stanley Cup.
     
Finland has only won the title once, back in 1995, but hope springs eternal that history can repeat itself.
      Ideally, it would come in the shape of a famous final victory over the Swedish neighbours and regular nemesis, just like in Stockholm fourteen years ago. Last year in Quebec and Nova Scotia, the Finns took the bronze medals with a 4-0 victory over Sweden, while hosts Canada were upset in the final by Russia, who claimed a 5-4 overtime victory to collect their first gold medals since 1993.
     
There will be blanket coverage on television over the next two weeks, with all of Finland's games and the knock-out stages shown on YLE's TV2, and a number of other matches available on the Urheilukanava sports channel.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish Lions bring home bronze medal after 4-0 shutout against Sweden (19.5.2008)

Links:
  IIHF World Championships 2009
  IIHF World Championships (Wikipedia)

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