The 2014 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships (formerly called the IIHF U20 World Championship)[1] was the 38th edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship (WJHC), hosted in Malmö, Sweden.[2][3] The 13,700-seat Malmö Arena was the main venue, with the smaller Malmö Isstadion the secondary venue. It began on December 26, 2013, and ended with the gold medal game on January 5, 2014.[4]
Finland defeated host team Sweden in the final 3–2 in overtime and won their first gold medal since 1998, as well as their third gold medal in total. It was also their first medal in the tournament since 2006. Sweden earned their second consecutive silver medal, their ninth silver medal in total, as well as their third consecutive medal in the tournament.
For the first time since 1979–81, Canada failed to capture a medal for the second consecutive year by losing the bronze medal game 1–2 to Russia, who captured the team's fourth consecutive medal at the tournament. The 2014 tournament marked the first time since 1998 that all three medalists were European teams.
A total of 144,268 spectators attended the 31 games, setting a new attendance record for IIHF World Junior Championship tournaments hosted in Europe. 12,023 spectators attended the gold medal game, setting a new record for a single IIHF World Junior Championship game in Europe.[5]
The playoff round was expanded to eight teams (again), with group leaders no longer getting a bye into the semifinals, the first time since the 2002 tournament.
The IIHF selected 12 referees and 10 linesmen to work the 2014 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship.
They were the following:[6]
Referees
Tobias Björk
Antti Boman
Jacob Grumsen
Rene Hradil
Jozef Kubus
Marcus Linde
Timothy Mayer
Steve Papp
Devin Piccott
Evgeniy Romasko
Daniel Stricker
Marc Wiegand
Linesmen
Kenji Kosaka
Andreas Kowert
Benoît Martineau
Fraser McIntyre
Eduard Metalnikov
Joris Müller
Henrik Pihlblad
Joonas Saha
Peter Šefčík
Rudolf Tosenovjan
Format
A change in format was implemented for the Top Division. The four best ranked teams from each group of the preliminary round advanced to the quarterfinals, while the last placed teams from each group played a relegation round in a best of three format to determine the relegated team.[7] This format was last used in 2002, except the current tournament will not incorporate playoff games to determine places five through eight.
Player eligibility
A player is eligible to play in the 2014 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships if:[8]
the player was born at the earliest in 1994, and at the latest, in 1999;
the player is a citizen in the country he represents;
the player is under the jurisdiction of a national association that is a member of the IIHF.
If a player who has never played in IIHF-organized competition wishes to switch national eligibility, he must have played in competitions for two consecutive years in the new country without playing in another country, as well as show his move to the new country's national association with an international transfer card. In case the player has previously played in IIHF-organized competition but wishes to switch national eligibility, he must have played in competitions for four consecutive years in the new country without playing in another country, he must show his move to the new country's national association with an international transfer card, as well as be a citizen of the new country. A player may only switch national eligibility once.[9]
