Fate determines Preliminary Round groups for Riga 2006 at Draw
The draw for the 2006 IIHF World Chmapionship took place in Riga on Tuesday. The draw placed the 16 World Championship teams into their respective Preliminay Round groups based on the IIHF World Ranking.
Several interesting Preliminary Round games will be played thanks to the luck of the draw. The A Group is sure to be a fan favorite with the host Latvia, defending champion Czech Republic and fan frenzied Finland in the mix. Sweden and Switzerland highlight the B Group and Russia and Slovakia are the headliners of the C Group. Meanwhile, in the D Group, fate has put North American rivals Canada and USA in the same group.
The top level teams in the draw (ranked 1-4) were Canada, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. The Czechs are the defending champion, while Canada was the silver medalist. The second level (ranked 5-included Russia, USA, Finland, and Switzerland. Russia was this year's bronze medalist, but was still placed on the second tier because of its current place in the IIHF World Ranking.
The third level (ranked 9-12) were Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Denmark. And finally, the fourth level (ranked 13-16) consisted of Kazakhstan, Slovenia, Norway, and Italy.
Based on the above, the draw determined the following Preliminary Round groups for the 2006 IIHF World Championship:
Group A
Czech Republic
Finland
Latvia
Slovenia
Group B
Sweden
Switzerland
Ukraine
Italy
Group C
Slovakia
Russia
Belarus
Kazakhstan
Group D
Canada
United States
Denmark
Norway
For the Qualification Round, it will be Groups A and D that come together, and Groups B and C that combine.
Nachfolger von Vladimir Ruzicka in Tschechien ist Alois Hadamczik
Quelle: http://www.iihf.com