The 2008 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship was the 12th

IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship The IIHF Inline Hockey World Championships were an annual international men's inline hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The first World Championship was held in 1996 in which eleven nations participat ...

, an international

inline hockey Inline hockey or roller hockey is a variant of hockey played on a hard, smooth surface, with players using inline skates to move and ice hockey sticks to shoot a hard, plastic puck into their opponent's goal to score points. The sport is a v ...

tournament run by the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; ; ) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries. The IIHF maintains the IIHF World Ranking based on international ice hockey to ...

. The World Championship runs alongside the 2008 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship Division I tournament and took place between 21 and 28 June 2008 in

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

, Slovakia. The tournament was won by

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, earning their second straight World Championship title and fourth overall.

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

finished in second place and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in third after defeating the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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.

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 2008 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship Division I 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 playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

. The last team in each group compete in the

qualifying round Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

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 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. As standard time (year-round) Principal cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Por ...

).''

Group A

Group B

Qualifying round

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

advanced to the qualifying round after finishing last in Group A and Group B respectively. Austria faced off against

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

, who finished first in Group C of the Division I tournament, and Germany was drawn against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, 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 (

).''

Playoff round

and

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 Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

, while the

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

finished fifth after defeating

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

in the fifth place game. In the semifinals the

defeated Germany and

beat the

, 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 Sasu Hovi (born 12 August 1982) is a Finnish retired professional ice hockey goaltender. He has worked as a scout for the Seattle Kraken of the NHL since 2020. During his goaltending career, Hovi played in the Finnish SM-Liiga with Tappara, the C ...

**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 Djurgårdens IF of the HockeyAllsvenskan (Allsv). Playing career Klasen started his career with Huddinge IK and has p ...

**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 Hockeyallsvenskan. He was drafted 62nd overall by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. Axelsson wo ...

Final standings

The final standings of the tournament according to

IIHF The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; ; ) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries. The IIHF maintains the IIHF World Ranking based on international ice hockey tourn ...

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