The 2008 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship was the 12th IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship, an international inline hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation. The World Championship runs alongside the

2008 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship Division I The 2008 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship Division I was an international inline hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation. The Division I tournament ran alongside the 2008 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship and to ...

tournament and took place between 21 and 28 June 2008 in

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

, Slovakia. The tournament was won by

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, earning their second straight World Championship title and fourth overall. Slovakia finished in second place and Germany in third after defeating the United States in the bronze medal match. Austria, after losing the seventh place game against Slovenia was relegated to Division I for 2009. The event chairman was

Hans Dobida Hans Dobida (born 13 May 1929) is an Austrian former ice hockey and roller in-line hockey administrator. He was involved with ATSE Graz for almost 40 years, and served as president of the Austrian Ice Hockey Association from 1977 to 1996. He h ...

Seeding and groups

The seeding in the preliminary round was based on the final standings at the 2007 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship. The World Championship groups are named Group A and Group B while the

tournament uses Group C and Group D, as both tournaments were held in

, Slovakia. The teams were grouped accordingly by seeding at the previous year's tournament (in parentheses is the corresponding seeding): Group A * (1) * (4) * (5) * (8) Group B * (2) * (3) * (6) * (7)

Preliminary round

Eight participating teams were placed in the following two groups. After playing a round-robin, the top three teams in each group advance to the playoff round. The last team in each group compete in the qualifying round where they face-off against the top ranked teams of Group C and Group D from the Division I tournament for a chance to participate in the Top Division playoffs. ''All times are local ( UTC+2).''

Group A

Group B

Qualifying round

Austria and Germany advanced to the qualifying round after finishing last in Group A and Group B respectively. Austria faced off against Great Britain, who finished first in Group C of the Division I tournament, and Germany was drawn against Canada, who finished first in Group D of the Division I tournament, for a chance to participate in the Top Division playoffs. Both Austria and Germany won their matches and advanced to the Top Division playoffs, while Great Britain and Canada advanced to the Division I playoffs. ''All times are local ( UTC+2).''

Playoff round

Germany and Austria advanced to the playoff round after winning their qualifying round matches. They were seeded alongside the six other teams of the tournament based on their results in the preliminary round. The four winning quarterfinalists advanced to the semifinals while the losing teams moved on to the placement round. Austria was relegated to Division I for 2009 after losing the seventh place game against Slovenia, while the Czech Republic finished fifth after defeating Finland in the fifth place game. In the semifinals the Slovakia defeated Germany and

beat the United States, both advancing to the gold medal game. After losing the semifinals the United States and Germany played off for the bronze medal with Germany winning 8–7. Sweden defeated Slovakia 7–3 in the gold medal game, earning their second straight World Championship title and fourth overall.

Draw

Quarterfinals

Placement round

5th place game

7th place game

Semifinals

Bronze medal game

Gold medal game

Ranking and statistics

Tournament awards

*Best players selected by the directorate: **Best Goalkeeper: Sasu Hovi **Best Defenseman: Lee Sweatt **Best Forward:

Linus Klasen Robert Linus Alexander Klasen (born 19 February 1986) is a Swedish professional ice hockey player who is currently playing for EHC Visp of the Swiss League (SL). Playing career Klasen started his career with Huddinge IK and has played with Söder ...

**Most Valuable Player:

Dick Axelsson Dick Axelsson (born 25 April 1987) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey winger. He last played for Djurgårdens IF in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). He was drafted 62nd overall by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2006 NHL Entry Dr ...

Final standings

The final standings of the tournament according to IIHF:

Scoring leaders

List shows the top 10 skaters sorted by points, then goals. If the list exceeds 10 skaters because of a tie in points, all of the tied skaters are left out. Games from the qualifying round do not count towards the Division I statistics.

Leading goaltenders

Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played at least 40% of their team's minutes are included in this list. Games from the qualifying round do not count towards the Division I statistics.

References

External links

World Championship at IIHF.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:2008 Iihf Inline Hockey World Championship 2008 in Slovak sport Iihf Inline Hockey World Championship, 2008 IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship Inline hockey in Slovakia I June 2008 sports events in Europe Sports competitions in Bratislava