2016 IIHF World Championship

The 2016 IIHF World Championship was the 80th such event hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), being held in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia, from 6 May to 22 May 2016. Canada entered the tournament as the defending 2015 champions. Hungary returned to the Championship after a 6-year absence, and Kazakhstan after a 1-year absence.

Canada won their 26th gold medal, defeating Finland 2–0 in the gold medal game. With the win Corey Perry became the second consecutive Canadian team captain to earn membership in the Triple Gold Club. Russia won the bronze medal, defeating the United States 7–2 in the bronze medal game.

Bids
There were three official bids to host these championships. The decision on who hosts the tournament was decided during the final weekend of the 2011 IIHF World Championship in Bratislava, Slovakia.


 * 🇩🇰 Denmark
 * Copenhagen/Herning
 * Denmark has never hosted these championships. The tournament was proposed to run from May 6–22, 2016 in Parken Stadium (Copenhagen, 15,000 seats) and Jyske Bank Boxen (Herning, 12,000 seats).


 * 🇷🇺 Russia
 * Moscow/Saint Petersburg
 * Russia was the only bidder to ever have hosted these championships, with the most recent being in 2007. The tournament was proposed to run from April 29 – May 15, 2016 in Megasport Arena (Moscow, 13,577 seats) and Ice Palace (Saint Petersburg, 12,300 seats).


 * 🇺🇦 Ukraine
 * Kiev
 * Ukraine, like Denmark, has never hosted these championships. The tournament was proposed to run from May 6–22, 2016 in Palace of Sports (Kiev, 7,000 seats) and a new 12,000 seat arena to be built by 2015 in Kiev.

Participants



 *  * = Automatic qualifier after a top 14 placement at the 2015 IIHF World Championship
 *  ^ = Qualified through winning a promotion at the 2015 IIHF World Championship Division I
 * † = Qualified as host

Format
The 16 teams were split into two groups of eight teams. After playing a round-robin, the top four teams advance to the knockout stage, to play out the winner. The last team of each group will be relegated to Division I the following year.

Seeding
The seeding in the preliminary round was based on the 2015 IIHF World Ranking, which ended at the conclusion of the 2015 IIHF World Championship.


 * Group A (Moscow)
 * (2)
 * (3)
 * (6)
 * (7)
 * (10)
 * (11)
 * (15)
 * (17)


 * Group B (St. Petersburg)
 * (1)
 * (4)
 * (5)
 * (8)
 * (9)
 * (12)
 * (13)
 * (19)

Preliminary round
The schedule was released on 15 July 2015.

Final

 * 0 - 2 (0:1, 0:0, 0:1)