1995 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships

1995 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships
Tournament mascot Snowy
Tournament details
Host country Sweden
Venue(s)2 (in 2 host cities)
Dates23 April – 7 May
Teams12
Final positions
Champions  Finland (1st title)
Runner-up  Sweden
Third place  Canada
Fourth place Czech Republic
Tournament statistics
Games played40
Goals scored229 (5.73 per game)
Attendance326,571 (8,164 per game)
Scoring leader(s)Canada Andrew McKim 14 points
← 1994
1996 →

The 1995 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships was the 59th such event sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Teams representing 39 countries participated in several levels of competition. The competition also served as qualifications for group placements in the 1996 competition.

The top Championship Group tournament took place in Sweden from 23 April to 7 May 1995, with games played in Stockholm and Gävle. In the tournament final, Finland won the gold medal by defeating Sweden 4–1 at the Globen arena in Stockholm. The Finnish goals were scored by Timo Jutila and Ville Peltonen, who scored a hat trick. The gold medal was the first in Finland's history. Sweden had written a fight song, "Den glider in", which also was intended to be the official song of the championships. After the finals, the song became very popular in Finland.[1] The final still has an important place in Finnish hockey culture today, a common exclamation being "95: Never forget!"

Victory celebration in Helsinki, Finland a few hours after the final game

Because of the 1994–95 NHL lockout, it originally created a dream scenario for the tournament hosts. With a cancelled NHL season, all NHL players free from injuries would have been available.[2] But when the NHL season began in late January 1995, it instead created a scenario where fewer NHL players than usual became available. The Canadian and American teams would logically be hit the hardest, but the Americans found a way to lead their group in the first round. The Canadians, who struggled in the early tournament, beat the Americans in the quarter-finals, lasted until overtime against Sweden in the semifinal, and then beat the Czechs for the bronze. Andrew McKim, playing in the minors for the Adirondack Red Wings, ended up being the tournament scoring leader.[3][4]

  1. ^ "Den glider in" performed with Swedish national team on stage
  2. ^ "Sportåret 1995" (in Swedish). Dagens nyheter. 2 January 1995. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  3. ^ Summary at Passionhockey.com
  4. ^ Duplacey page 508

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