Press releases

MINSK, 21 May (BelTA) – Belarus has ranked 14^th with 3085 points in the new IIHF men’s rankings, BelTA has learned.

Canada (3990 points) tops the rankings released following the 2018 IIHF World Championship, where Canada lost the bronze medal game to the United States.

Second goes Sweden (3945) who retained their champion title in Copenhagen this year. Russia is third with 3930 points. The top ten includes the United States (3765), Finland (3765), the Czech Republic (3690), Switzerland (3590), Germany (3575), Norway (3270), and Slovakia (3245).

Belarus is surpassed in the IIHF rankings by Latvia (3235; 11^th), Denmark (3130; 12^th) and France (3115; 13^th).

Next year Belarus will play in the 2019 IIHF World Championship Division I Group A in Kazakhstan. The tournament will take place at Barys Arena in Astana from 29 April to 5 May 2019. The teams playing for promotion will be Kazakhstan, Belarus, Slovenia, Hungary, South Korea and Lithuania. The top-two teams of the event will be promoted to the 2020 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Switzerland.