Three qualifying tournaments were played to establish the last five entrants to the World Championship. Two groups of four played in Europe, first and second place from each advanced, while the others were relegated to Group B. The winner of the "Far East" tournament advanced to the World Championship, while the losers played in Group C.
In each group, the top two nations advanced to the next round. Third place teams played a final round against each other to determine who escaped having to qualify for next year's tournament. Fourth place teams did not play further, they were automatically entered in qualifiers for next year's tournament.
Each playoff match up consisted of a two-game series. If tied, the two teams would play an overtime-style mini game (10 minutes in duration for the semi-finals and 20 minutes in the final) to determine the winner, and then a shoot-out if no scoring occurred. The only mini-game to go to a shoot-out was the Czech versus Canada tiebreaker, with a 4 to 3 Czech victory. Note that the mini-games show up as a game played in the players statistics. The exception was for the Bronze medal game which was just one game.
Places eleven through sixteen had to play in qualifying tournaments for entry into the 2000 tournament.
World Championship Group B[]
Played at Odense and Rodovre, Denmark April 8–17. The top three teams at the end of the tournament advanced to the qualifying round for the 2000 IIHF World Championship. The Germans, after failing to qualify for Group A, lost their final game to Kazakhstan and finished fourth. The twentieth place overall was by far the worst finish in their history.[1]
Played at Eindhoven and Tilburg, Netherlands April 5–11.Yugoslavia was supposed to participate in this tournament, but was prevented by the host Dutch government.[1]
Because Yugoslavia was unable to participate for political reasons, the IIHF officially maintained their 30th place from the previous World Championship.[2]
Norway
Czech Republic (2 titles)
Saku Koivu (16 pts)
United States
Austria
Kazakhstan
Estonia
Ukraine
France
Slovenia
Germany
Japan
South Korea
China
Canada
Slovakia
Italy
Sweden
Switzerland
Latvia
Finland
Russia
Belarus
