The 2013 IIHF World Championship was the 77th event hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), held in Stockholm, Sweden and Helsinki, Finland, between 3–19 May 2013. TV4 and MTV3 served as host broadcasters of the event.
The host team Sweden won the team's ninth title in history by defeating Switzerland in the final 5–1, and became the first host team to win the tournament since the Soviet Union team won the 1986 World Championship in Moscow, Soviet Union. The Swedish team started the tournament with an unconvincing performance but managed to get a collective boost when the Sedin brothers joined the team after the Vancouver Canucks had been eliminated in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Switzerland sent a clear message about their recently improved hockey program by going undefeated through the tournament before the final; finishing first in their group (ahead of Canada and Sweden); and earning their second silver medal in history, as well as the team's first medal since 1953.
Bidding
At the semi-annual congress in Vancouver on 21 September 2007, Sweden was voted the host of the 2013 tournament, defeating the runner-up Belarus by 55 votes. Other countries in the running were Hungary, Czech Republic and Latvia (which withdrew from the race and endorsed the Swedish bid). At the congress in Bern in 2009, it was announced that Finland (the host for the 2012 World Championship) and Sweden would co-host both the 2012 and 2013 tournaments.
Kimmo Leinonen served as the general secretary of the jointly-hosted events.
Voting results
Locations
The host arenas were the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm (12,500 permitted seats) and Hartwall Areena in Helsinki (13,506 permitted seats). Capacity has been limited to these numbers because of modern health and safety rules. Malmö Arena was originally planned to be the second arena, but because of a proposal made by the Finnish federation, the games were transferred to Helsinki, which gave the arena the opportunity to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. Tampere was also a candidate to be the Finnish venue, but due to a delay in construction of the new Tampereen Keskusareena, Helsinki was named as co-host. Also in Stockholm, the Tele2 Arena, a new retractable-roof multi-purpose stadium seating 30,000 spectators on the side of the Globen, was planned to host at least one game, but due to construction delays it would not be finished until July 2013, two months after the World Championship.
Format
The format of the tournament was the same as in 2012, which was also co-hosted by Helsinki and Stockholm. Sixteen teams were divided into two groups of eight, who played a seven-game round-robin within their groups. The top four teams in each group advanced to a three-round single-knockout playoff.
The only difference from 2012 was that the final games were played in Stockholm instead of Helsinki.
Nations
Europe
†
North America
Rosters
Each team's roster consisted of at least 15 skaters (forwards and defencemen) and two goaltenders, and at most 22 skaters and three goaltenders. All sixteen participating nations, through the confirmation of their respective national associations, had to submit a roster by the first IIHF directorate meeting.
Officials
The IIHF selected 16 referees and 16 linesmen to work the 2013 IIHF World Championship. They were the following:
Referees
Matt Kirk
Derek Zalaski
Martin Fraňo
Antonín Jeřábek
Aleksi Rantala
Jyri Rönn
Lars Brüggemann
Daniel Piechaczek
Referees
Vyacheslav Bulanov
Konstantin Olenin
Vladimír Baluška
Morgan Johansson
Marcus Vinnerborg
Brent Reiber
Ian Croft
Keith Kaval
Linesmen
Ivan Dedyulya
Chris Carlson
Jesse Wilmot
Petr Blumel
Sakari Suominen
Pierre Dehaen
Sirko Hunnius
André Schrader
Linesmen
Jon Killian
Sergei Shelyanin
Miroslav Valach
Jimmy Dahmen
Johannes Käck
Roger Arm
Jonathan Morisson
Christopher Woodworth
Seeding and groups
The seeding in the preliminary round is based on the 2012 IIHF World Ranking, which ended at the conclusion of the 2012 IIHF World Championship. The teams were grouped according to seeding (in parentheses is the corresponding world ranking). However, Russia and the Czech Republic swapped their slots between their groups to optimize the seeding for the Finnish-Swedish organizers.
Group S
(3) (4) (5) (8) (9) (12) (13) (18)