1996 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships

World Championship Group A (Austria)

First round

Group 1

Group 2

Playoff round

|30 April||3||2 |1 May||6||1 |30 April||1||3 |1 May||5||2 |3 May||0||5 |3 May| (GWS)|3||2 |5 May||4||2 |4 May||3| (OT)|4

Quarterfinals

Consolation round 11–12 place

Austria was relegated to Group B.

Semifinals

Match for third place

Final

1–1 2–1 2–2 3–2 4–2 Robert Lang – 07:49 Robert Lang – 26:02

Martin Procházka – 59:41 Jiří Kučera – 59:54

29:40 − Steve Thomas

World Championship Group B (Netherlands)

Played 10–20 April in Eindhoven. Latvia won at this level for the first time. In their final game, superb goaltending by Artūrs Irbe kept them in it, and a late tying goal by Oļegs Znaroks sealed the tournament victory. The final game had high drama for the host crowd, the Japanese and Danish teams among them. If the Netherlands were to lose to Poland, they would finish last and be relegated, a tie and Japan would be last, a win and Denmark would be last. A third period goal by Poland sealed Japan's fate.

Latvia was promoted to Group A while Japan was relegated to Group C.

World Championship Group C (Slovenia)

Played 22–31 March in Jesenice and Kranj. For the fourth year in row the Kazakhs and Ukrainians met in Group C. For the first time the Kazakhs came out on top, and it was the difference in winning the tournament.

Kazakhstan was promoted to Group B while Croatia was relegated to Group D.

World Championship Group D (Lithuania)

Played in Kaunas and Elektrenai 25–31 March. To narrow the field of the bottom tier to eight nations, two regional qualifying tournaments were used.

Qualifying round

Group 1 (Australia)

Played 5 and 6 November 1995 in Sydney.

Group 2 (Israel)

Played 27–29 January 1996 in Metulla.

The Greek team originally won both their games, but it was later found that they had used ineligible players. Both games were declared 5–0 forfeits in favour of the opposing team.

5–0 by default 5–0 by default

First round

Group 1

Group 2

The Israeli team, that had qualified for the tournament after the Greek forfeits, had to forfeit its first two games because they used two Russian players who did not have the proper clearance to play.

5–0 by default 5–0 by default

Final Round 29–32 Place

Host Lithuania won all five games to earn promotion to Group C.

Consolation round 33–36 place

Ranking and statistics

Tournament awards

• Best players selected by the directorate:
  • Best Goaltender: CZE Roman Turek
  • Best Defenceman: RUS Alexei Zhitnik
  • Best Forward: CAN Yanic Perreault
• Media All-Star Team:
  • Goaltender: CZE Roman Turek
  • Defence: CZE Michal Sýkora, RUS Alexei Zhitnik
  • Forwards: CAN Paul Kariya, CZE Robert Reichel, CZE Otakar Vejvoda

Final standings

The final standings of the tournament according to IIHF:

Scoring leaders

List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals.

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.

Citations

References

• Complete results

References

1. Duplacey page 508
2. Podnieks page 160
3. [http://www.passionhockey.com/hockeyarchives/mondial1996.htm Summary at Passionhockey.com]