The 2006 IIHF World Championship was held in between 5–21 May 2006 in Riga, Latvia. It was the 70th annual event, and was run by the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 ...

(IIHF). One of the requirements of the IIHF for Latvia to host the event was that a new arena would be constructed. Sweden was the stand-by organizer in case the arena was delayed, but the construction was completed on schedule, marking the first time a former

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

state apart from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

has hosted the event. The

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

of the championships was a beaver called RIX (after

Riga International Airport Riga International Airport ( lv, Starptautiskā lidosta "Rīga"; ) is the international airport of Riga, the capital of Latvia, and the largest airport in the Baltic states with direct flights to 76 destinations as of November 2019. It serves ...

's IATA code.) Sweden shut out the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

4-0 in the Gold Medal Game to win the

IIHF World Championships The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, it is the sport's highest profile annual ...

. Sweden had won the

2006 Winter Olympic The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

Men's Ice Hockey Gold 3-2 versus

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

two months earlier. They therefore became the first hockey team to win both the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

and the

in the same year.Recap of Swedish golden double at IHWC official site
/ref>

Venues

Nations

The following 16 nations qualified for the elite-pool tournament – 13 nations from Europe, two nations from North America and one nation from Asia are represented. ;Asia * ;Europe * * * * * * * * * * * * * ;North America * *

Rosters

Preliminary round

Sixteen participating teams were placed in the following four groups. After playing a round-robin, the top three teams in each group advanced to the Qualifying Round. The last team in each group competed in the Relegation Round. Groups A and D were played in Kloten, groups B and C in Berne.

Group A

All times local ( UTC +3)

Group B

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Group C

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Group D

All times local (UTC +3)

Qualifying round

The top three teams from each group in the Preliminary round advance to the Qualifying Round. The top three teams from Groups A and D advance to Group E, and the top three teams from Groups B and C advance to Group F. Teams in the Qualifying Round carry forward the results and points gained in the Preliminary Round with the teams that they have played and advance with. Teams, which have played in the Preliminary Round, do not meet again in the Qualifying Round.

Group E

All times local ( UTC+3)

Group F

All times local (UTC +3)

Relegation round

The relegation round is composed of the four teams that placed last in Groups A through D. They play in a round-robin fashion, and the bottom two teams get relegated to the Division I group in next year's World Championships.

Group G

All times local ( UTC +3)

Playoff round

Bracket

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Bronze medal game

Gold medal game

Ranking and statistics

Tournament Awards

*Best players selected by the directorate: **Best

Goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

: Johan Holmqvist **Best

Defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the latter a reference to ...

Niklas Kronwall Hans Niklas Kronwall (; born 12 January 1981) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey defenceman, who currently serves as an advisor to the general manager of the Detroit Red Wings. He previously played for the Red Wings of the National Hock ...

**Best Forward:

Sidney Crosby Sidney Patrick Crosby (born August 7, 1987) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL). Nicknamed "Sid the Kid" and dubbed " The Next One", he was selected first o ...

**Most Valuable Player: Niklas Kronwall *Media All-Star Team: **Goaltender: Andrei Mezin **Defence: Niklas Kronwall,

Petteri Nummelin Timo Petteri Nummelin (born November 25, 1972) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey defenceman who played in the National Hockey League for the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets. He was drafted by the Columbus Blue ...

**Forward:

Alexander Ovechkin Alexander Mikhailovich Ovechkin ( rus, Александр Михайлович Овечкин, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐˈvʲetɕkʲɪn; born 17 September 1985) is a Russian professional ice hockey left winger and captain of the Washington Capital ...

, David Výborný

Final standings

The final standings of the tournament according to

IIHF The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 m ...

Scoring leaders

List shows the top 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. Source
IIHF.com
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Leading goaltenders

Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played 40% of their team's minutes are included in this list. Source
IIHF.com
/small>

IIHF broadcasting rights

*Austria: ** ''Austrian Matches'':

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the ...

** ''Other Matches'': ORF Sport Plus *Canada: ** ''English'': TSN ** ''French'': RDS *Czech Republic:

Česká televize Czech Television ( cs, Česká televize, italics=no ; abbreviation: ČT) is a public television broadcaster in the Czech Republic, broadcasting seven channels. Established after the Velvet Revolution in 1992, it is the successor to Czechoslov ...

(

ČT2 ČT2 (ČT Dva, Česká televize 2, "''Dvojka''") is Czech public television channel, operated by Česká televize. ČT2 broadcasts documentaries nature-oriented shows, frequently showing foreign films in the original versions with Czech subtitles ...

, ČT4 Sport) *Denmark: TV2 Sport *Finland:

YLE Yleisradio Oy ( Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, found ...

*France: Sport+ *Germany: ** ''German Matches'': ARD, ZDF ** ''Other Matches'': DSF *Latvia: TV3, 3+ Latvia *Norway: ** ''Norwegian Matches'':

NRK NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...

** ''Other Matches'':

Viasat SportN Viasat Sport N ("N" as in "Norway") was the name of a former sports channel which broadcast to Norway. The channel launched on 29 November 2005, as a replacement for the then pan-Nordic Viasat Sport 1 channel in Norway. The channel was a joint ve ...

Viasat Sport 3 Viasat Sport 3 was a Scandinavian sports channel mainly showing basketball, combat sports, auto racing and American football. The channel started on 1 February 2004 together with Viasat Sport 2. The main sports in the summer are NASCAR, Indy Racin ...

*Russia: RTR Sport *Slovakia: STV *Slovenia:

RTV Slovenija Radiotelevizija Slovenija ( en, Radio-Television of Slovenia) – usually abbreviated to RTV Slovenija (or simply RTV within Slovenia) – is Slovenia's national public broadcasting organization. Based in Ljubljana, it has regional broadcastin ...

*Sweden: Viasat *Switzerland: ** ''German'':

SF zwei SRF zwei (''Swiss Radio and Television Two'') is a Swiss German-language free-to-air television channel run under the public SRG SSR broadcasting group. History The channel was launched in 1997 as 'SF 2' as the German-speaking replacement f ...

** ''French'':

TSR 2 RTS 2 (''RTS deux''), launched on 1 September 1997 as TSR2 and renamed in 2012, is the second Swiss (French-speaking) public television channel owned by RTS Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS); the other is RTS 1. Logos and identities TSR2 logo ...

** ''Italian'': TSI 2 *Ukraine:

Mega Mega or MEGA may refer to: Science * mega-, a metric prefix denoting 106 * Mega (number), a certain very large integer in Steinhaus–Moser notation * "mega-" a prefix meaning "large" that is used in taxonomy * Gravity assist, for ''Moon-Eart ...

sport

References

External links

2006 IIHF World Championship official site
{{Ice Hockey World Championships IIHF World Championship 1 Latvian Sports competitions in Riga 2006 May 2006 sports events in Europe 2000s in Riga Ice hockey in Riga

Venues

Nations

Rosters

Preliminary round

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Qualifying round

Group E

Group F

Relegation round

Group G

Playoff round

Bracket

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Bronze medal game

Gold medal game

Ranking and statistics

Tournament Awards

Final standings

Scoring leaders

Leading goaltenders

IIHF broadcasting rights

See also

References

External links