2021 IIHF World Championship
The 2021 IIHF World Championship (Latvian: 2021. gada Pasaules čempionāts hokejā) took place from 21 May to 6 June 2021. It was originally to be co-hosted by Minsk, Belarus and Riga, Latvia, as the IIHF announced on 19 May 2017 in Cologne, Germany. Their joint bid won by a very tight margin against the Finnish bid with the cities of Tampere and Helsinki. On 18 January 2021 the IIHF decided to remove Belarus as a co-host due to the rising political unrest and COVID-19 concerns there. On 2 February, the IIHF voted to confirm Latvia as the sole host for the 2021 IIHF World Championship.
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | Latvia |
| Venue(s) | 2 (in 1 host city) |
| Dates | 21 May – 6 June |
| Opened by | Egils Levits |
| Teams | 16 |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Canada (27th title) |
| Runner-up | Finland |
| Third place | United States |
| Fourth place | Germany |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Games played | 64 |
| Goals scored | 324 (5.06 per game) |
| Attendance | 934 (15 per game) |
| Scoring leader(s) | Connor Brown (16 points) |
| MVP | Andrew Mangiapane |
This tournament was notable for the number of upsets that occurred in the preliminary round, including Denmark and Belarus' victories over Sweden, Kazakhstan's victory over Finland, Slovakia's victory over Russia, and Latvia's victory over Canada. Sweden did not qualify for the quarter-finals for the first time since the current format has been introduced. On the other hand, Kazakhstan recorded their best World Championship result to date, finishing tenth, while only narrowly missing their first-ever play-off appearance.
Canada won their 27th title, after defeating Finland in the final in overtime. Canada was the first team in history to win gold despite losing four times during the tournament. The United States won the bronze medal game, defeating Germany 6–1.