1991 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships

1991 edition of the Men's World Ice Hockey Championships November 2020 1991 Turkuhalli.jpg The main venue of the 1991 World Ice Hockey Championships; Turkuhalli. Finland 19 April – 4 May 8 3 3 ih Sweden 5 Canada USSR USA 40 272 310627 SWE Mats Sundin 14 points 1990 1992 The 1991 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships was the 55th such event sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), and at the same time served as the 66th and last Ice Hockey European Championships. Teams representing 25 countries participated in several levels of competition. The competition also served as qualifications for group placements in the 1992 competition. The top Championship Group A tournament took place in Finland from 19 April to 4 May 1991, with games played in Turku, Helsinki and Tampere. Eight teams took part, with each team playing each other once. The four best teams then played each other once more. Sweden became world champions for the fifth time, and the Soviet Union won their 27th European title. In the European Championships, only matches between European teams in the first round were counted towards scoring. There were three significant 'lasts' in this year's championships. This would be the last year that a separate European title would be awarded, which the Soviets captured in their last appearance before the dissolution of the Soviet Union seven months later. Their position in Group A would be inherited by Russia, while newly independent former Soviet member states Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine began play in 1993 in qualification tournaments for Group C. The tournament itself would change significantly after this year as well. This was the last time the top level was contested by eight teams; beginning in 1992 it would expand to twelve, requiring both Groups B and C to promote four nations each. The final round of four teams was a very tight battle, except for the United States. Getting only a tie against the last place Germans, the Americans only advanced to the final round by narrowly defeating the host Finns. The USA were easily defeated by the three other teams in the final round, but were involved in a controversial finish. The Canadians, having tied both the Swedes and the Soviets, needed to win their game against the US by five goals, then hope that the Swedes and Soviets tied, ensuring Canada the gold. Winning 7–4 in the final minute, and despite playing short-handed, they scored the two goals they needed. American coach Tim Taylor, trailing 9–4, pulled his goalie in the final minute, later claiming that he was trying to score the necessary number of goals to win the bronze medal. It was the last of many questionable finishes over the years that hastened the IIHF to change the format of the tournament. The Soviets and Swedes took a 1–1 tie into the third period of the last game, which would have given the gold medal to Canada had it held up. However, Mats Sundin scored at 9:37, and the Swedes held on to capture gold.Summary at Passionhockey.comvideo of Sundin's goal World Championship Group A (Finland) First round main WDL QR 2 URS URS SWE SWE CAN CAN USA USA FIN FIN TCH TCH SUI SUI GER GER 6 1 0 41 16 3 4 0 30 21 4 1 2 24 20 3 2 2 23 28 3 1 3 22 15 3 0 4 19 19 1 0 6 13 26 0 1 6 13 40 #ccffcc A A A A red1 R R R R complete #eeeeee 19 April FIN 2–0 TCH #eeeeee 19 April CAN 4–3 USA #eeeeee 19 April URS 3–1 SUI #eeeeee 19 April SWE 8–1 GER #eeeeee 20 April CAN 3–0 SUI #eeeeee 20 April FIN 4–4 SWE #eeeeee 20 April GER 3–7 URS #eeeeee 20 April USA 4–1 TCH #eeeeee 22 April CAN 3–2 GER #eeeeee 22 April FIN 0–3 URS #eeeeee 22 April TCH 4–1 SUI #eeeeee 22 April SWE 4–4 USA #eeeeee 23 April GER 1–7 TCH #eeeeee 23 April FIN 3–5 CAN #eeeeee 23 April SWE 4–3 SUI #eeeeee 23 April USA 2–12 URS #eeeeee 25 April SWE 2–1 TCH #eeeeee 25 April SUI 2–4 USA #eeeeee 25 April URS 5–3 CAN #eeeeee 25 April FIN 6–0 GER #eeeeee 26 April CAN 3–3 SWE #eeeeee 26 April GER 4–4 USA #eeeeee 26 April TCH 2–6 URS #eeeeee 26 April FIN 6–1 SUI #eeeeee 28 April FIN 1–2 USA #eeeeee 28 April SUI 5–2 GER #eeeeee 28 April URS 5–5 SWE #eeeeee 28 April TCH 4–3 CAN Final Round main WDL 2 SWE SWE CAN CAN URS URS USA USA 2 1 0 13 08 1 2 0 15 10 1 1 1 10 09 0 0 3 12 23 gold 1ST silver 2ND #cc9966 3RD complete #eeeeee 30 April URS 6–4 USA #eeeeee 30 April SWE 3–3 CAN #eeeeee 2 May USA 4–8 SWE #eeeeee 2 May CAN 3–3 URS #eeeeee 4 May USA 4–9 CAN #eeeeee 4 May SWE 2–1 URS Consolation round main WDL 2 5 FIN FIN TCH TCH SUI SUI GER GER 6 1 3 35 21 4 0 6 28 27 2 1 7 22 38 0 2 8 19 51 complete No team was relegated because of the expansion to twelve teams. #eeeeee 29 April GER 2–4 FIN #eeeeee 29 April SUI 4–3 TCH #eeeeee 1 May TCH 4–1 GER #eeeeee 1 May FIN 6–2 SUI #eeeeee 3 May FIN 3–2 TCH #eeeeee 3 May GER 3–3 SUI World Championship Group B (Yugoslavia) Played in Ljubljana, Bled and Jesenice 28 March to 7 April. With the expansion of Group A impending, promotion was available to the top four finishers. As well, the top three qualified directly for the Olympics, with fourth place needing to defeat the winner of Group C.Olympic Qualifier main WDL Q 2 9 ITA ITA NOR NOR FRA FRA POL POL AUT AUT YUG YUG NED NED JPN JPN 7 0 0 49 11 5 0 2 26 13 5 0 2 28 18 4 0 3 24 15 3 1 3 21 18 2 0 5 18 36 1 0 6 09 40 0 1 6 10 34 #ccffcc A A A A complete Italy, Norway, France, and Poland all were promoted to Group A, no one was relegated. #eeeeee 28 March AUT 2–2 JPN #eeeeee 28 March FRA 4–2 POL #eeeeee 28 March ITA 13–0 NED #eeeeee 28 March NOR 5–1 YUG #eeeeee 29 March POL 2–1 AUT #eeeeee 29 March NED 0–4 NOR #eeeeee 29 March FRA 4–2 YUG #eeeeee 29 March JPN 2–7 ITA #eeeeee 31 March FRA 9–1 NED #eeeeee 31 March ITA 2–1 POL #eeeeee 31 March AUT 6–1 YUG #eeeeee 31 March NOR 6–1 JPN #eeeeee 1 April AUT 6–4 NED #eeeeee 1 April ITA 13–3 YUG #eeeeee 2 April JPN 3–5 FRA #eeeeee 2 April POL 2–4 NOR #eeeeee 3 April ITA 5–1 AUT #eeeeee 3 April YUG 3–6 POL #eeeeee 4 April JPN 1–2 NED #eeeeee 4 April FRA 2–3 NOR #eeeeee 5 April YUG 5–1 JPN #eeeeee 5 April FRA 1–5 ITA #eeeeee 6 April NED 1–4 POL #eeeeee 6 April AUT 3–1 NOR #eeeeee 7 April NOR 3–4 ITA #eeeeee 7 April YUG 3–1 NED #eeeeee 7 April POL 7–0 JPN #eeeeee 7 April AUT 2–3 FRA World Championship Group C (Denmark) Played in Brøndby 23 March to 3 April. With the expansion of Group A, four openings in Group B were available. In addition, the winner got to play off for the last Olympic spot against the fourth place Group B finisher. main WDL Q 2 17 DEN DEN CHN CHN ROU ROU BUL BUL GBR GBR HUN HUN PRK PRK KOR KOR BEL BEL 7 1 0 71 13 6 1 1 44 24 6 0 2 51 22 4 1 3 35 26 4 1 3 45 25 3 1 4 37 32 2 1 5 29 35 1 0 7 19 64 0 0 8 11 101 #ccffcc A A A A complete Denmark, China, Romania and Bulgaria were all promoted. With no Group D in existence at this time, there was no relegation. #eeeeee 23 March HUN 11–1 BEL #eeeeee 23 March DEN 15–1 KOR #eeeeee 23 March CHN 6–5 GBR #eeeeee 24 March ROU 14–0 BEL #eeeeee 24 March GBR 7–2 PRK #eeeeee 24 March BUL 3–4 CHN #eeeeee 25 March KOR 4–9 HUN #eeeeee 25 March ROU 7–2 PRK #eeeeee 25 March DEN 7–3 BUL #eeeeee 26 March KOR 7–2 BEL #eeeeee 26 March HUN 3–4 CHN #eeeeee 26 March DEN 3–2 GBR #eeeeee 27 March BUL 1–3 ROU #eeeeee 27 March BEL 0–11 GBR #eeeeee 27 March PRK 2–3 CHN #eeeeee 28 March DEN 11–1 PRK #eeeeee 28 March BUL 4–3 HUN #eeeeee 28 March ROU 11–3 KOR #eeeeee 29 March DEN 17–1 BEL #eeeeee 29 March CHN 9–1 KOR #eeeeee 29 March HUN 3–3 GBR #eeeeee 30 March BEL 0–12 PRK #eeeeee 30 March GBR 4–5 BUL #eeeeee 30 March ROU 3–1 CHN #eeeeee 31 March DEN 8–2 ROU #eeeeee 31 March KOR 2–4 BUL #eeeeee 31 March PRK 2–6 HUN #eeeeee 1 April DEN 8–1 HUN #eeeeee 1 April GBR 7–1 KOR #eeeeee 1 April BEL 5–15 CHN #eeeeee 2 April ROU 5–6 GBR #eeeeee 2 April PRK 1–1 BUL #eeeeee 3 April ROU 6–1 HUN #eeeeee 3 April BEL 2–14 BUL #eeeeee 3 April KOR 0–7 PRK #eeeeee 3 April DEN 2–2 CHN Ranking and statistics ih 1991 IIHF World Championship winners SWE 5th Tournament Awards Best players selected by the directorate: Best Goaltender: FIN Markus Ketterer Best Defenceman: CAN Jamie Macoun Best Forward: URS Valeri Kamensky Media All-Star Team: Goaltender: CAN Sean Burke Defence: URS Viacheslav Fetisov, URS Alexei Kasatonov Forwards: URS Valeri Kamensky, FIN Jari Kurri, SWE Thomas Rundqvist Final standings The final standings of the tournament according to IIHF: SWE CAN URS4 USA5 FIN6 CSK7 SUI8 GER European championships final standings The final standings of the European championships according to IIHF: Image:gold medal icon.svg URSImage:silver medal icon.svg SWEImage:bronze medal icon.svg FIN4 CSK5 SUI6 GER Scoring leaders List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals. Player GP Games played G Goals A Assists Pts Points +/− Plus/Minus PIM Penalties in minutes POS PositionSWE Mats Sundin 10 7 5 12 +2 12 FFIN Jari Kurri 10 6 6 12 +1 2 FURS Valeri Kamensky 10 6 5 11 +8 10 FCAN Joe Sakic 10 6 5 11 +6 0 FFIN Teemu Selänne 10 6 5 11 +8 2 FUSA Jeremy Roenick 9 5 6 11 +4 8 FFIN Mika Nieminen 10 5 6 11 +3 2 FURS Pavel Bure 10 3 8 11 +5 2 FFIN Christian Ruuttu 10 7 3 10 +3 10 FUSA Danton Cole 10 6 4 10 +1 14 FSWE Thomas Rundqvist 10 6 4 10 +2 4 FSource: Leading goaltenders Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played 50% of their team's minutes are included in this list. Player MIP Minutes played GA Goals against GAA Goals against average per 60 minutes SVS% Save percentage SO ShutoutsFIN Markus Ketterer 420 12 1.71 .939 2CAN Sean Burke 479 21 2.63 .923 0SUI Renato Tosio 420 27 3.86 .895 0CSK Petr Bříza 480 23 2.88 .893 0SWE Rolf Ridderwall 479 21 2.63 .892 0Source: Citations References Complete results Duplacey James Total Hockey: The official encyclopedia of the National Hockey League 1998 Total Sports 0-8362-7114-9 498–528 registration https://archive.org/details/totalhockeyoffic0000unse/page/498 Podnieks Andrew IIHF Media Guide & Record Book 2011 2010 Moydart Press 154–5 Category:IIHF Men's World Ice Hockey Championships Men World 1991 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships Men's Ice Hockey World Championships Category:International sports competitions in Helsinki Category:1990s in Helsinki Category:Sports competitions in Tampere Category:International sports competitions in Turku Category:1990s in Turku Men's Ice Hockey World Championships Category:Sports competitions in Ljubljana Category:1990–91 in Yugoslav ice hockey Category:1991 in Slovenian sport Category:International ice hockey competitions hosted by Yugoslavia Category:International ice hockey competitions hosted by Denmark Men's World Championships Category:Sport in Bled Category:Sport in Jesenice, Jesenice