1973 World Ice Hockey Championships

The 1973 World Ice Hockey Championships were the 40th Ice Hockey World Championships and the 51st European Championships of ice hockey. The tournament took place in the Soviet Union from 31 March to 15 April and the games were played at the Palace of Sports of the Central Lenin Stadium in the capital, Moscow. Six teams took part in the main tournament, with each team playing each other twice. The Soviet Union took back their world title, winning all ten games on home ice, with an incredible points difference, and becoming World Champions for the twelfth time.

World Championship Group A (Soviet Union)
West Germany was relegated to Group B.

World Championship Group B (Austria)
Played in Graz, 22 to 31 March. East Germany was promoted to Group A, both Switzerland and Italy were relegated to group C. Rating Austria, Japan and Switzerland against each other head to head, they each had two points, Austria had a goal differential of +2, Japan +1, and Switzerland -3.

World Championship Group C (Netherlands)
Played in Geleen, Rotterdam, Nijmegen, Utrecht, Tilburg and The Hague, from 9 to 18 March.

Norway and the Netherlands were promoted to Group B.

Ranking and statistics
{| style="float:right;"
 * style="width:3px;;"|
 * style="width:3px;;"|

Final standings
The final standings of the tournament according to IIHF:

European championships final standings
The final standings of the European championships according to IIHF: