2011 IIHF World Championships Update

The 2011 IIHF World Championships continue today in Bratislava and Kosice, Slovakia. Highlights of the Preliminary Round were the performances of Germany and Norway.

In Group A, Germany shocked everyone with their tournament opening shutout of Russia 2-0. They then took care of hosts Slovakia 4-3 and outlasted plucky Slovenia 3-2 in a shootout to earn 8 of a possible 9 points to win their group for the first time in their history. Also advancing to the Qualifying Round were Russia, who rebounded by defeating Slovakia and Slovenia, and Slovakia, whose opening day 3-1 win over Slovenia proved to all the points they would need.

Group B saw Canada take care of business with regulation wins over Belarus and France before requiring overtime to down Switzerland, who also defeated France, in overtime, and Belarus before gaining a point against Canada to also advance. The surprise of the group was 15th ranked France's overtime win over #10 Belarus 2-1 to avoid the Relegation Round and move on to the Qualifying Round.

In Group C, Sweden's easy win over the United States gave them the top spot in Group C with just 7 points, the lowest total by a group winner. The USA's two wins over Norway and Austria put them through as well. Norway gained the final place thanks to their first ever win over Sweden in a shootout, and an easy 5-0 win over Austria, who were badly outplayed in the first round, scoring just one goal while giving up 13, by far the worst goal differential of all.

The only team to go undefeated in regulation play and earn the maximum nine points was Group D winning Czech Republic. Finland started strong with a three point win over Denmark, but needed a shootout to get past Latvia before losing to the Czechs in a subpar round for the Finns. The most dramatic game of Group D was the final game with a Qualifying Round spot on the line when Denmark surprised with a shootout win over Latvia.

While Qualifying Round play continues today, the most tense games will be the two Relegation Round games between Slovenia and Belarus in addition to Latvia taking on Austria.

Belarus and Slovenia looked to be on their way to safety when Belarus dominated the Austrians 7-2 and #19 Slovenia pounded #12 Latvia 5-2. But then a funny thing happened and Austria, who had now been outscored 20-3, got up off the mat and defeated Slovenia 3-2 in regulation before the Latvians delighted their raucous fans by easily winning 6-3 over Belarus.

Those two unexpected results left everyone in the group tied with three points. Today's mission is simply win and you're safe, even a win that requires additional time will suffice to protect your place in next year's World Championships in Finland and Sweden.

Slovenia takes on the higher ranked Belarus at the same time Latvia squares off against a desperate Austria with today's losers dropping down to Division 1 for 2012.

Action also continues today with a pair of games, one each in Group E and Group F, to determine the pairings for the quarterfinals which begin on Wednesday. In Group E, Russia takes on the still undefeated Czechs. Four of the six teams in each group advance to the playoffs, with the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany and Russia all set to advance, with only the final order still at stake.

Group F has Sweden taking on Switzerland today. Sweden will be looking to tie Canada on top of the group while the Swiss need as many points as possible in their effort to supplant Norway as the final team to advance, as Norway finishes their schedule on Monday against winless France while Switzerland faces a stronger team in the United States.

While only Canada is a lock to advance, Sweden and the United States seem safe, and will officially become so if Switzerland loses in regulation today. Norway comes next with 5 points, two ahead of the Swiss at 3, who still have today's game in hand. France will not advance past this round based on their single point in four games.

The quarterfinal pairings will be determined after Monday's six games which involve all the remaining teams. After a day off on Tuesday, the top four finishers in each group will be paired in a crossover with the teams in the opposite group, with the first place teams facing the fourth place team from the other group, while the second place finishers take on the third place team from the other group.

Update: Scores from today show the Czech Republic staying perfect with their 3-2 win over Russia. The Czechs have now locked up the top spot in Group E and will play the fourth place team in Group F, likely Norway or possibly the United States.

In Group F, Sweden defeated Switzerland 2-0, locking in quarterfinal berths for both Sweden as well as the United States. Switzerland must now win on Monday to have a chance to advance to the quarterfinals, as they have 3 points with Norway at 5. Norway has a relatively easy matchup with France on Monday, and even a single point for reaching overtime would put them through, as they hold the tiebreaker over Switzerland thanks to their earlier 3-2 win over the Swiss last Thursday.

The only way Switzerland can advance is by winning in regulation combined with a French win in regulation over Norway.

In the Relegation Round, there was not much drama as Belarus dominated Slovenia 7-1, sending Slovenia down to Division 1 for next season.

Andrei Kostitsyn celebrates his goal today for Belarus

In the other game, Latvia cruised to a 4-1 win over demoted Austria. Those two relegated squads will be replaced by Italy and Kazakhstan for the 2012 World Championships in Finland and Sweden.

Roberts Bukarts scores for Latvia

1998 Germany National Team Uwe Krupp jersey

It certainly did not take long for the first upset in the 2011 IIHF World Championships, as in the very first game of the tournament Germany defeated Russia for the first time ever at the World Championships in 32 previous meetings dating back to 1954 when Russia was a part of the Soviet Union.

And not only did Germany defeat Russia, but it was by a shutout as well. With a the Russian lineup stocked with the likes of Ilya Kovalchuk, Maxim Afinogenov, Alexander Radulov and Alexei Morozov, German goaltender and last year's tournament MVP Dennis Endras stopped 31 shots for the win.

Goalie Dennis Endras was the center of focus for Germany prior to the game

"Our players executed the game plan perfectly, and we had good goaltending," said the Germans head coach Uwe Krupp. "It was a day when just about everything worked in our favor."

Unlike in the past, when teams with admittedly lesser talent sit back and play tight defense, only counter attacking when after an opponent's mistake, Germany nearly equalled the Russians in shots on goal with 27. Playing in his first game in months after leaving his KHL club early in December of 2010 and refusing to report to the New York Islanders after being claimed on waivers as part of an attempt to re-enter the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings, Evgeni Nabokov took the loss in goal for Russia.

The first period was a tightly played one, which saw both teams get several chances and throw some big hits, but it ended with no score.

Endras keeps Russia off the scoreboard

Germany broke the stalemate with a goal at 4:19 of the second period when Thomas Greilinger's shot got under Nabokov's right arm and trickled across the goal line.

Germany's first goal about to creep over the line

Patrick Reimer sealed the victory for Germany when he scored on a backhander during a breakaway with 2:07 remaining in the game. Russian tried to respond, but an ill-advised penalty against Radulov for roughing scuttled any remaining Russian hopes.

"We played hard for 60 minutes," said Endras. "I think we were the better hockey team for the first 40 mintues. We made our gaps pretty tight and they didn't have much room."

The Germans celebrate their historic win

In other Group A action, the host Slovaks opened with a win in front of a partisan crowed 3-1 over Slovenia. The next vital game for Germany comes when they face Slovakia on Sunday, with both teams keen to try to win the group in light of the unexpected vulnerability of the Russians.

Today's featured jersey is a 1998 Germany National Team Uwe Krupp jersey as worn by the German head coach during the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

Krupp was only the second German-born player in the NHL, following Walk Tkaczuk, who played for first the Buffalo Sabres followed by the New York Islanders and Quebec Nordiques. He then moved with the club when they became the Colorado Avalanche, where he scored the Stanley Cup clinching goal in the third overtime in 1996.

His career concluded 30 games with the Detroit Red Wings as well as playing briefly for the Atlanta Thrashers in 2002-03 before retiring.

Krupp became head coach of the Germany National Team in late 2005.

This style of German jersey had a controversial beginning and is known in the collecting hobby as "The Double Eagle" jersey, due to it originally being designed for the 1998 Nagano Olympic Games with the eagle head on the crest facing to the left.

The jersey design began in the summer of 1996 in order to meet production deadlines for the summer of 1997 six to nine months prior to the Olympics in February of 1998. At the time, such reference options as GettyImages.com or the image search functions found on Google or Yahoo did not exist and the designer used books in the Nike sports library for inspiration. Photos were found of a German long jumper from he late 70's as well as a crowd shot from a German National Team soccer match.

The eagle head in the long jumper photo was oriented to the athlete's left and the waving flags held by the soccer fans were seen from both sides, and as a result, the eagles were seen facing both left and right. The long jump photo in particular, lacked any signage or numbering of any sort to give a clear indication of the orientation of the original photo.

Other reference materials showed the eagle heads facing both ways and the designer proceeded to orient the eagle head to the left as shown in the photo of the long jumper.

Of note, the eagle was given four feathers on it's wings to distance the Nike produced jerseys from the familiar, iconic three-stripes of competitor Adidas.

The Nike legal department, the German Ice Hockey Federation (the DEB) and the German culture office of the government all signed off on the design of the jersey, which included the logo, and it then went into production.

Press photos were then released of the jersey with the left facing eagle crest, shown here modeled by national team goaltender Olaf Kolzig.

Then the phone rang at Nike customer service...

Someone, reportedly from the southern United States, perhaps near Atlanta, claimed the left facing eagle was the style used by the Nazi party in World War II and the proper eagle now would only be one that faced to the right.

Meetings were called and the designer was questioned about the design and why it faced to the left. A German employee at Nike backed up the designer, saying it was fine that way and it was pointed out that not only had the Nike legal department approved it, but so had the Germans, including a branch of their own government, where one would expect sensitivities to Nazi imagery would be at it's highest.

Still, not wanting to risk any bad publicity, due to concerns at the time over sweat shops in Asia producing Nike goods and recent issues Reebok had undergone with Muslims over a clothing design, it was decided to alter the jerseys to re-orient the eagle so that it would now be looking to the right.

A new set of right-facing eagle patches were quickly manufactured and sewn over the original dye-sublimated logo prior to the Olympics in February. None of the jerseys were sold at retail with the over-patching, so all of the "double eagle" jerseys in existence are game worn examples.

Today's featured jersey is a retail version, as designated by it's tagging as a size "L", where a team issued jersey would be tagged with a number designation such as a size "56", and therefore has a dye-sublimated crest, which in it's original left orientation which caused all the concern in the first place.

Today's video segment are the highlights from Germany's stunning upset of Russia at the 2011 World Championships in Slovakia.

Our next highlight is Uwe Krupp scoring the cup winning goal in the third overtime of Game 4 of the 1996 finals. Note the Florida fans unleashing their final torrent of rats on the ice after the goal which goaltender Patrick Roy forced them to hang on to throughout the game following his declaration of "no more rats" after being pelted with them following a goal earlier in Game 3.

2002 Slovakia National Team Peter Bondra Jersey

Today the 2011 IIHF World Championships begin in Slovakia, which is hosting the event for the first time.

Games are being played in Košice, located in the eastern part of the country, and in Bratislava, 250 miles away, located on the far western border with Austria. Bratislava has previously hosted the World Championships in 1959 and 1992 when it was then a part of Czechoslovakia prior to the division into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on January 1, 1993.

Since gaining their independence, Slovakia have been regular participants in the World Championships, first being assigned to Pool C as a new country, the lowest rung of the ladder system, despite the Czechs remaining in the Top Divison. Having felt they were undeservedly placed far too low on the ladder system, the Slovaks proved their point by immediately winning Pool C in 1994 and followed that by winning Pool B the very next year, completing a rise to the Top Division in the shortest time possible, aided by a 38-year-old Peter Stastny, who scored 8 goals and 16 points in just 6 games to lead Slovakia to the top of the IIHF ladder, where they have remained ever since.

Slovakian legend and National Team captain Peter Stastny

They slowly rose from a 10th place finish at the top level in 1996 to 9th and then a pair of 7ths before winning a silver medal in 2000. A drop back to 7th in 2001 was followed by the highlight of Slovakian hockey history, as they captured the World Championship in 2002.

Team captain Miroslav Satan hoists the 2002 World Championship trophy

Since that time however, the program has been in a steady, slow decline. They followed their championship with a respectable bronze medal in 2003 and then dropped to 4th, 5th and then 8th place. 2007 saw a rise to 6th, but then the dismal drop to the relegation round and a 13th place finish in 2008 and a 10th place in 2009, avoiding the relegation round thanks only to a narrow 4-3 win over Hungary.

Last year saw Slovakia finish second in Group A thanks two wins over Belarus and Kazakhstan, but that early promise was dashed in the Qualifying Round with a shootout loss to Belarus, a 7-3 drubbing by Canada, an overtime loss to Finland and an 8-0 pounding by rivals the Czech Republic. They completed their tournament by needing overtime to defeat winless Norway to limp home to a 10th place finish.

They will certainly be hoping to repeat the boost of playing in front of the home fans that Germany enjoyed last year by finishing 4th after being spared relegation after their dismal 15th place finish in 2008 due to a protection clause exempting them from relegation to ensure their participation as hosts the following year.

Despite their recent issues in the World Championships, Slovakia enters the tournament ranked 8th in the IIHF World Rankings thanks to a strong 4th place finish in the 2010 Winter Olympics when they were able to field their strongest possible team, free from the conflicts of their best players often being unavailable during the World Championships each spring due to their commitments to their NHL clubs, which are fully engulfed in the Stanley Cup Playoffs each spring.

Without a doubt, the greatest moment in Slovakian hockey history followed one of it's lowest moments. Due to rules in place during the time of the 2002 Winter Olympics in February, Slovakia was required to participate in Group A along with Austria, Germany and Latvia in the Preliminary Round, which took place prior to the NHL taking a break from it's regular season schedule in time for Slovakia's best players to compete in the early games, costing them a chance to advance to the First Round group stage when their star players, such as Peter Bondra, Josef Stumpel, Ziggy Palffy, Pavol Demitra, Marian Hossa, Miroslav Satanand Zedeno Chara, were either unavailable or limited to a game or two at best.

As a result of missing the nation's best, Slovakia finished last in their group with an 0-2-1 record and failed to advance to the First Round, which took place entirely after the break in the NHL season.

Slovakia proved the unfairness of this system just two months later when, allowed to field a more complete roster, they placed second in Group B in the First Round after defeating Poland and Ukraine before losing to Finland.

In the Qualification Round's Group F, they defeated Sweden, Austria and Russia, proving they were to be reckoned with. In the Quarter Finals they eliminated Canada in regulation, coming from behind with two goals in the third, before having to go to a tense shootout to defeat Sweden to move into the Finals, again vs. Russia, where they won the championship on a goal by the great Peter Bondra with less than two minutes remaining after trailing 3-1 after two periods.

Peter Bondra celebrates with his 2002 World Championship gold medal

Starting with the next Olympics in 2006, the schedule was altered to match the NHL schedule break starting in 2006 to prevent such an occurrence from happening again.

This year's World Championships will take place starting today through the championship final on May 15th in Bratislava.

16 countries will participate, with Russia, Slovakia, Germany and Slovenia comprising Group A, Canada, Switzerland, Belarus and France competing in Group B, Sweden, the United States, Norway and Austria fighting it out in Group C and Finland, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Denmark facing off in Group D.

The top three teams in each group will move on to the Qualification Round, with the 12 teams being divided into two six team groups, designated Group E and Group F. From there, the top 4 teams in both of those groups will be paired up for the Quarterfinals, which begins the knockout phase of the tournament, where the true excitement really begins and the winners keep advancing until a champion is crowned.

Meanwhile, the four last place teams from the Preliminary Round will be placed in the Relegation Round with the bottom two being demoted to Division 1 for 2012.

Today's featured jersey is a 2002 Slovakia National Team Peter Bondra jersey as worn when "Peter the Great" scored the game winning goal in the championship Final of the 2002 World Championships, just three months after failing to advance out of the Preliminary Round at the 2002 Olympics.

Our video selection today takes a look back at the excitement of Slovakia winning their first World Championship back in 2002.