IIHF World Championship 2007 Roundup

MAY 22, 2007 -- Moscow, Russia --  After the hockey season in Europe was over for the elite leagues, all eyes were focused on Moscow, where the 71^st World Championships took place.

In the States and Canada this great event isn´t so interesting because the “real” World Championship for them is the hunt for the Stanley Cup, so they are sending teams with college boys, young players, and NHLers from non-playoff or eliminated clubs  In addition many of the best European players of the other European national teams are playing in North America (NHL, AHL, etc.) and so their teams also are not the best.

Nevertheless it´s a World Championship where the 16 best national teams are starting their hunt for the world cup in four groups. Four countries in each group play out the quarter finals in a qualifying round and the last one of each group has to play against each other to achieve one of the two spots that authorizes them to take part in next years championships in Halifax/Quebec City in Canada.

One surprise in the preliminary round: Instead of Italy, the higher regarded team of Latvia found themselves in the battle against going down to division B in the relegation round – together with Norway, Austria & Ukraine. But at the end Latvia & Norway got the tickets for Canada ´08. Ukraine and Austria had to step down into the second division.

“It has been a tough game – with a little bit more luck the result could have been different. I heard a lot about today's German hockey from my friends still working there. I was told that the under-18 team is very strong – and today I can add that the German team playing here in Moscow is likely to reach higher goals! We knew that Germany would be hard to play and so was the match … we have to become better!”

“The times are gone when only the amount of goals we would score was discussed! This team has a great coach (in Krupp), a hungry and young team that can achieve a lot in the future," added General Manager Steve Yzerman.

The qualifying round: Germany defeated the Czech Republic 2-0 but didn´t make the final rounds while the Czechs had one point more (they lost vs. Canada 1-2, but only in OT & Germany lost 2-3 in regulation). Together with Germany, Belarus, Denmark and Italy had to say “Good Bye” and left Moscow.

PLAY-OFFS:

The quarterfinals were a war zone. Russia defeated the Czechs after hard fought 40 minutes in the last period 4-0 (0-0;1-0;3-0).

The game between Finland and the States was nothing for a weak heart. After the regular 60 minutes the score was tied 4-4; after 10 minutes extra time the score was the same although it was going up & down.

Finland's Jere Lehtinen of the Dallas Stars converted the decisive penalty. The Minnesota Wild's Petteri Nummelin (one of the tourney's all-stars) told me after being out with a knee injury that he is not happy that his Wild are out of the play offs but that is the reason he played in the IIHF WC's.

“It means a lot to me that I´m playing for my country – I´m proud! In Finland we have so many excellent hockey players and I have the honor to be part of this team. Now I´m very sad that I can´t help my team win gold!”

Sweden beat Slovakia 7-4 after losing the first period, 2-1. Canada – becoming better and better after every game – gave Switzerland no chance in the quarterfinals. 

In the semi-finals Finland was playing the host Russia where 14,000 fanatics showed up to cheer the home team in the brand new “Ice Palace on Khodynka field”. But finally the Finnish team did it, winning at 5:40 in overtime when the Wild's Mikko Koivu scored the game winner.

In the other semi-final, the Canadians dominated Sweden. After three goals in the opening period they cruised to victory.

Now the finals were made: In the small final the Russians met Sweden for the bronze, while Finland played Canada.

With home advantage, the Russian bear won bronze by beating last year's world & Olympic champion Sweden, 3-1. Being number three in the world it was a big disappointment for Russia, because their last world championship was in Germany, back in 1993. Fourteen years later, they wanted to go for gold in their own country – but Finland proved to be Russia's stumbling block.

In the championship match, Canada was energetic and started the game vs. Finland very concentrated.

Finland's WC All-Star Petteri Nummelin, Minnesota Wild

Columbus Blue Jackets wing Rick Nash (MVP of WC 2007) marked the first goal on a power play only 6:30 in the game. Carolina's Eric Staal scored seven minutes later and this was the foundation for the title. Staal who had a disappointing (not personally) season with his Hurricanes finishing out of the NHL playoffs played together with his brother & Penguin shooting star Jordan. With his play and goals he was an very important player for the World Champion 2007. This gold medal means for him coming a huge step closer of becoming a "Triple Gold Club" member – Stanley Cup, World Championship and Olympic Gold Medal. After bringing the Stanley Cup to North Carolina last year this championship means for him and three other “Hurricanes” (Cam Ward, Mike Commodore & Justin Williams) the chance to step into this club at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.

After ´97 & ´03 this was the third gold medal for coach Murray, who started coaching the St. Louis Blues in the middle of the season after they had a terrible first half. He also has some coaching experience in Europe.

Nearly everybody in the winning team is praising the coach for having the ability to make a team out of 25 players who do not know each other. Defender Eric Brewer said: “Most of the Canadian international success deserves to him! He is the reason we are standing here with the gold medal around our necks.”

Unbeaten in nine games, Canada became world champion in the final against Finland,  whose coach Erkka Westerlund admiringly said: “Congratulations – it nearly seems to be impossible to win against you in Europe!”

All-Star-Team WC 2007:

Kari Lehtonen (FIN)

Petteri Nummelin (FIN)

Andrei Markov (RUS)

Alexei Morozov (RUS)

Evgeni Malkin (RUS)

Rick Nash (CAN)  

MVP ´07:

Rick Nash (CAN)

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