Vänersborg and 3 other cities, Sweden, 23 January-3 February
Sweden became the World Championships host for the 10th time. 14 teams participated and they were divided into an Group A with six teams and Group B with eight teams.
The main arena was Arena Vänersborg in the city of Vänersborg on the Swedish westcoast. Three games in the preliminary round were held as events in three other arenas. Game between Norway and Belarus was played at Frogner Stadium in Oslo, the game between Finland and Russia were held in the Slättberg Hall in Trollhättan and the classic game between Sweden and Russia was played outdoors at Arena Heden in Gothenburg, where stadium records were set with 5,812 spectators.
In the final, however, Russia gained revenge (4-3) for the defeat to Sweden in the preliminary round. Russia won the tournament for the 7th time (excluding the 14 USSR titles). The final came to an unusual end, as the Finnish referee Petri Kuusela, a few minutes before, accidentally fell after a collision with a Russian player and had to be helped from the field with a concussion. Kazakhstan won the bronze by defeating Finland 6-3.
The Group B was won by favorites from the USA who went undefeated through the tournament and as in the final defeated Canada by 4-2
1 RUSSIA
Artem Bondarenko, Juri Shardakov, Sergei Lomanov, Maksim Ishkeldin, Aleksandr Tiukavin, Pavel Ryazantsev, Alan Dzhusoev, Dmitri Saveliev, Sergei Shaburov, Igor Larionov, Aleksei Bushuiev, Yuri Vikulin, Petr Zaharov, Kirill Hvalko, Pavel Bulatov, Roman Chernykh, Yevgeni Ivanushkin, Artyom Ahmetzianov
2 SWEDEN
Andreas Bergwall, Olov Englund, Anders Spinnars, Per Hellmyrs, Andreas Westh, Daniel Berlin, Hans Andersson, Johan Löfstedt, Stefan Erixon, Erik Säfström, Daniel Mossberg, Jonas Edling, Patrik Nilsson, Anders Svensson, Daniel Välitalo, Daniel Andersson, Johan Esplund
3 KAZAKHSTAN
Alexander Kosynchuk, Denis Maksimenko, Mikhail Dobrynin, Alexander Nasonov, Sergei Gortchakov, Vyacheslav Bronnikov, Yevgeny Shadrin, Dmitry Zavidovsky, Rauan Isaliev, Alexei Zagarski, Yuri Loginov, Andrei Morokov, Leonid Kucharov, Sergei Potashunov , Andrei Rein, Ruslan Galyutdinov, Dmitry Popov
BEST GOAL SCORERS GROUP A
21 goals – Patrik Nilsson, Sweden
16 goals – Igor Larionov, Russia
12 goals – Daniel Andersson, Sweden, Yevgeny Ivanushkin, Russia and Vyacheslav Bronnikov, Kazakhstan
10 goals – Pavel Ryazantsev, Russia and Sami Laakkonen, Finland
9 goals – Sergei Pochkunov, Kazakhstan
8 goals – Johan Löfstedt and Jonas Edling, Sweden
BEST GOAL SCORERS GROUP B
12 goals – Daren Richardson, USA
10 goals – András Kordis, Hungary and Simon Lilla, Estonia
9 goals – Brendan Ellement, Canada
8 goals – Jonathan Kizel, USA and Dmitri Tsymbal, Ukraine
8 go7ls – Gen Isioka, Japan and Michael Hosfield, USA
Daren Richardson
BEST PLAYERS
Goal keeper
Andreas Bergwall, Sweden
Defender
Andreas Westh, Sweden
Midfielder
Maxim Ishkeldin, Russia
Forward
Yevgeny Ivanushkin, Russia
Most Valuable Player
Sergei Lomanov, Russia