2003 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships

The 2003 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships were held in Helsinki, Turku and Tampere in Finland from April 26 to May 11. This international event was the 67th such event sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The competition also served as qualification for division placements in the 2004 competition. Canada won the gold medal, beating Sweden 3–2 in the final.

2003 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships

Tournament details
Host country	Finland
Dates	April 26, 2003 (2003-04-26) - May 11, 2003 (2003-05-11)
Teams	16
Venue(s)	3 (in 3 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Canada (16th title)
Runner-up	Sweden
Third place	Slovakia
Fourth place	Czech Republic
Tournament statistics
Matches played	56
Attendance	449,193 (8,021 per match)
Scoring leader(s)	Žigmund Pálffy
MVP	Mats Sundin
← 2002 2004 →

In the quarterfinal between Sweden and Finland, the Swedes completed an outstanding comeback. Being down 5–1 7 minutes into the second period, Sweden decided to change goaltender from Tommy Salo to Mikael Tellqvist. After the change, the Swedes scored 3 goals in the same period to reduce the lead to 5–4. In the third period, Peter Forsberg scored a famous goal to tie the game up, when he skated from the Swedes' zone all the way to Finland's offensive zone, scoring on a wrap around. Later in the same period, Per Johan Axelsson scored the game-winning goal to win the game 6–5 for the Swedes.

The final game and the championship title was decided by Anson Carter’s goal in overtime which needed to be reviewed by the video goal judge who needed five minutes to confirm the goal was good and the gold went to Canada.

Contents

Championship

Main article: 2003 IIHF World Championship

Preliminary round

Group A

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Slovakia	3	3	0	0	22	5	6
Germany	3	2	1	0	9	8	4
Ukraine	3	1	2	0	9	13	2
Japan	3	0	3	0	6	20	0

Group B

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Russia	3	3	0	0	14	5	6
Switzerland	3	2	1	0	9	7	4
Denmark	3	1	2	0	8	14	2
United States	3	0	3	0	4	9	0

Group C

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Canada	3	3	0	0	12	2	6
Sweden	3	2	1	0	6	5	4
Latvia	3	1	2	0	6	9	2
Belarus	3	0	3	0	1	9	0

Group D

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Czech Republic	3	3	0	0	15	4	6
Finland	3	2	1	0	18	3	4
Austria	3	1	2	0	8	15	2
Slovenia	3	0	3	0	4	23	0

Qualification round

Group E

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Slovakia	5	4	0	1	27	9	9
Czech Republic	5	4	0	1	22	7	9
Finland	5	2	2	1	18	10	5
Germany	5	2	2	1	11	11	5
Austria	5	1	4	0	9	27	2
Ukraine	5	0	5	0	8	31	0

Group F

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Canada	5	4	0	1	18	6	9
Sweden	5	4	1	0	20	9	8
Russia	5	2	3	0	16	14	4
Switzerland	5	2	3	0	14	16	4
Latvia	5	2	3	0	10	16	4
Denmark	5	0	4	1	8	25	1

Final round

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	May 7 - Elysee Arena
	Canada	3
					May 9 - Hartwall Areena
	Germany	2
					Canada	8
	May 7 - Elysee Arena
					Czech Republic	4
	Czech Republic	3
									May 11 – Hartwall Areena
	Russia	0
									Canada	3
	May 7 - Hartwall Areena
									Sweden	2
	Slovakia	3
					May 9 - Hartwall Areena
	Switzerland	1
					Slovakia	1
	May 7 - Hartwall Areena
					Sweden	4			Third place
	Sweden	6
									May 10 – Hartwall Areena
	Finland	5
									Czech Republic	2
									Slovakia	4

Relegation round

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
United States	3	3	0	0	19	5	6
Belarus	3	2	1	0	9	8	4
Slovenia	3	0	2	1	8	14	1
Japan	3	0	2	1	5	14	1

Japan avoids relegation by defeating South Korea 4-1 in the Far East Qualification of the 2004 World Championship.
Belarus and Slovenia are demoted to Division I at the 2004 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships.

Scoring leaders

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Žigmund Pálffy	9	7	8	15	18
Jozef Stümpel	9	4	11	15	0
Ľubomír Višňovský	9	4	8	12	2
Teemu Selänne	7	8	3	11	2
Saku Koivu	7	1	10	11	4
Dany Heatley	9	7	3	10	10
Mats Sundin	7	6	4	10	10
Miroslav Šatan	9	6	4	10	2
Martin Straka	9	6	4	10	4
Kimmo Rintanen	7	5	4	9	0

Goaltending leaders

Player	MINS	GA	GAA	SO	Sv%
Sean Burke	328	7	1.28	1	.955
Oliver Jonas	180	4	1.33	0	.960
Mikael Tellqvist	393	9	1.37	0	.940
Marco Bührer	297	9	1.82	1	.934
Ján Lašák	359	11	1.84	0	.935

Division I

Group A

Played at Budapest, Hungary April 15–21

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Kazakhstan	5	5	0	0	34	9	10
Poland	5	4	1	0	24	9	8
Hungary	5	2	2	1	14	13	5
Netherlands	5	1	3	1	17	22	3
Romania	5	1	3	1	13	26	3
Lithuania	5	0	4	1	7	30	1

Group B

Played at Zagreb, Croatia April 13–20

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
France	5	4	0	1	21	5	9
Norway	5	4	1	0	19	9	8
Estonia	5	2	3	0	12	20	4
Italy	5	2	3	0	16	11	4
Great Britain	5	1	3	1	16	14	3
Croatia	5	1	4	0	10	35	2

France and Kazakhstan are promoted to the 2004 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, Croatia and Lithuania are demoted to Division II.

Division II

Group A

Played at Seoul, South Korea, April 5–12

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
South Korea	5	5	0	0	50	10	10
Yugoslavia	5	4	1	0	46	11	8
Spain	5	3	2	0	27	23	6
Australia	5	2	3	0	25	26	4
South Africa	5	1	4	0	19	32	2
Mexico	5	0	5	0	5	70	0

Group B

Played at Sofia, Bulgaria, March 24–30

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Belgium	5	4	1	0	29	8	8
China	5	4	1	0	19	13	8
Bulgaria	5	2	2	1	15	10	5
North Korea	5	2	2	1	16	13	5
Israel	5	1	2	2	11	19	4
Iceland	5	0	5	0	4	31	0

Belgium and South Korea are promoted to Division I, Iceland and Mexico are demoted to Division III.

Division III

Played at Auckland, New Zealand April 3–6

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
New Zealand	2	2	0	0	14	3	4
Luxembourg	2	1	1	0	7	10	2
Turkey	2	0	2	0	4	12	0

Luxembourg and New Zealand are promoted to Division II.

See also

To celebrate the games, the Finnish government issued a high value commemorative coin: the 2003 Ice Hockey World Championships commemorative coin, with three ice hockey sticks and a puck engraved on the reverse.

External links

• IIHF Website
• Complete results at Passionhockey.com
• Podnieks, Andrew (2010). IIHF Media Guide & Record Book 2011. Moydart Press. pp. 169–70.

See also: World Juniors