The Men’s Ice Hockey World Cup tournament will be played in Prague and Ostrava from 10 to 26. May.
The men’s ice hockey World Cup carnival will be held this spring in the Czech Republic from 10 to 26. May. The competition cities are Prague and Ostrava.
For Finns, the games have a special charge, at least because they are the Lion King Jukka Jalonen the last ones as Finland’s head coach.
Jalonen named the Finnish competition team on Sunday, which includes four NHL players, seven men’s world champions and ten first-timers at the World Cup level.
Jalonen has coached Leijon from 2008–2013 and 2018–2024. The brightest achievements – before this spring – are three World Championship golds (2011, 2019 and 2022) and Olympic gold (2022). At the turn of the year 2015–16, Jalonen piloted Nuoret Leijonat to gold in the under-20 World Cup.
He will start as the head coach of the Lions after the World Cup in the Czech Republic Antti Pennanen.
Finland plays its match in Group A in Prague. The Lions will face the reigning champion Canada, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Austria and Great Britain in the opening series.
Right away in the opening match, the Lions face the host country in the frenzy of Friday night.
You can see the match schedule in the graphic below. The story continues after the graphics.
The United States, Sweden, Germany, Kazakhstan, Poland, France, Latvia and Slovakia play in Group B.
In the semifinals, the winner of group A will face the four of group B, and the winner of group B will face the four of group A. The group winner will receive the third place finisher from the second group.
Two of the semifinals will be played in Prague and two in Ostrava.
In the semifinals, based on the preliminary groups, the best team meets the weakest team that advanced to the semifinals.
The semi-finals and medal games will be played in Prague.
In the spring 2023 games, Hungary and Slovenia were eliminated from the main series of the World Cup. This spring, Poland and Great Britain were among the top contenders. Poland was last involved at the highest level in 2002 and Britain in 2022.
In Prague, it is played in the O2 Arena, which has an audience capacity of more than 17,000 for hockey matches and 20,000 for concerts.
The Prague arena was built inspired by the golden days of Czech ice hockey, when the team celebrated Olympic gold in 1998 and World Cup gold in 1999, 2000 and 2001. The arena was opened for the spring 2004 Czech World Cup. Nowadays, on the hockey side, it serves as the home base of Sparta Prague in the Czech league.
In Ostrava, the game is played at the Ostravar Arena, which attracts around 10,000 spectators. HC Vitkovice’s home hall was already opened in 1986, but it was renovated for the 2004 World Cup tournament.
Czechoslovakia or the Czech Republic has hosted the World Cup 10 times before, most recently in 2015. That time, Finland missed the quarterfinals after losing to the host country. In the final game, Canada crushed Russia 6–1, and the United States beat the Czech Republic in the bronze medal game.
In the previous two years, the World Championships were enjoyed in Tampere. In the spring of 2023, Finland and Latvia will host the Games together, as they were moved away from St. Petersburg. Russia has been banned from international hockey due to the war of aggression in Ukraine, and neither it nor Belarus will be seen at this spring’s games either.
Finland won World Cup gold in 2019 and hosted the competition for the first time in 2022. Silver’s Leijonat was in 2021 and the 2020 competitions were canceled due to the corona pandemic.
Last year, Finland’s medal streak was broken when it lost to Canada in the quarterfinals. Canada is also the reigning world champion, but last year’s medal trio was otherwise pleasantly surprising, with Germany taking silver and Latvia bronze.
It was Latvia’s first World Cup medal in history. It was the fifth World Cup medal for Germany, but the first since 1953.
Viaplay has the TV rights for the World Cup in Finland, but MTV also shows Finland’s matches, semi-finals and the final. does not have broadcast rights, but the games are naturally followed closely in the app, Urheilu’s website, Urheiluruudii and Urheiluradio.
In the table below, the medal trio and the organizer of the 10 previous World Championships. The 2020 World Cup in Switzerland was canceled due to the corona pandemic.