Starting from May 1st, IIHF Ice Hockey World Champion will run the show at two different venues Prague and Ostrava in Czech Republic till May 17th. The tournament has a unique gaming format. Divided into two groups with 8 teams in each group, the world championship will showcase 5 stages.
The most interesting fact about the IIHF Ice Hokey World Championship, which only a true fan knows is that out of 16 selected teams, 15 teams were selected from the previous year’s championship and Czech Republic qualified as the host team. From these 16 teams, each team who will score the points will qualify for 2016 championships. Accumulating the points from 2014, teams that score the highest points will secure the spot in Olympics 2018.
Before going into the further details, let’s have a look at previous year’s championship.
Summary of IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship 2014
The IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship 2014 was hosted by Belarus in its capital city Minsk. This was the first time when Belarus hosted the games. The games were started on 9th May 2014 and ended on 25th May. The games were organized on 2 venues including the Minsk-Arena and Chizhovka-Arena. The final results of the championship were,
Gold Medal – Russia (undefeated throughout the tournament and won the title for the 5th time)Silver Medal – FinlandBronze Medal – SwedenFourth Position – Czech Republic
Total Matches played – 64
Total Goal Scored in the Tournament – 352
Star Player of the Tournament - Viktor Vasilievich Tikhonov (Russia)
What’s coming in IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship 2015?
The year 2015 is no different than any other past year for Ice Hockey World Championship. The game format is same and so do most of the selected teams. But still, everyone is pumped up and eagerly waiting for the game show to begin. O2 Arena in Prague and CEZ Arena in Ostrava is ready to welcome the guests. The interesting twist this year is in the division of the teams. The undefeated champion of the former championship and the runner-up are aligned in the same group, ‘Group B’ along with USA, Belarus, Slovakia, Norway, Slovenia and Denmark. All the fights of group B will have more viewership than group A because of the division of the teams.
Russia still holds the strongest team title since this is the only team to win the title for 5 times. USA and Finland can give a tough competition to each other. Only 4 teams from each group will make it through the first stage and the rest will be sent to the home.
Here’s a small preview of the tournament format:
First Stage:Group A - 12 matches between the teams within the groupGroup B - 12 matches among the teams within the group
Second Stage: The Knock Outs – 4 winning teams from each group (4 Quarter Finals)
Third Stage:Semi Finals – 4 winning teams from Knock out will battle for advancing in final.
Fourth Stage:The Bronze Medal – Loser of SF1 will face Loser of SF2 and the winner will awarded with a Bronze Medal
Final Stage:The Gold Medal – Winner of SF1 will play against the winner of SF2 (Winner of this match will win the Gold Medal and runner-up will win Silver Medal)
How to Watch the Tournament Live Online?
The live streaming of IIHF Ice Hockey World Tournament is available on very few and selected broadcasters like NBC, XSports, Sports 1 US, Premier Sports and some other. Unfortunately, all the broadcasters are Geo-restricted to the USA, Europe and Canada. If you are a fan of Ice Hockey and living in a far place like China or Japan, you will need a backdoor like VPN to access the live streaming of IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship online.
My personal Suggestion is to try PureVPN. It provides exclusive service to stream live sports games from anywhere. The good thing is that you can enjoy live ice hockey games on any device including Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and Linux, gaming consoles, routers and smart TVs.
Now, an ice hockey fan will not miss a single game, be it USA vs RUS or CAN vs CZE. Get ready to support your team
