1966 Ice Hockey World Championships

Template:Short description Template:Infobox international ice hockey competition The 1966 Ice Hockey World Championships was the 33rd edition of the Ice Hockey World Championships. The tournament was held in Hala Tivoli, Ljubljana, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia from 3 to 14 March 1966. For the fourth straight year, the Soviet Union won the tournament. For the Soviets, it was their sixth World and tenth European title. Czechoslovakia beat both Canada and Sweden two to one, to take the Silver, while the Swedes' historic loss to East Germany helped put them fourth behind Canada for the Bronze.

The lower two tiers (Groups B and C) were formalized, so there would be no more qualifying tournaments with promotion and relegation taking places between these two tournaments as well. West Germany won all their games to return to the top level of competition while Great Britain went winless and was replaced by Group C winner Italy.

Qualifying round Group B/C (Bucharest Romania)

Romania qualified in Group B

Italy and France qualified in Group C

World Championship Group A (Ljubljana)

The Canadian national team players wanted to withdraw from the World Championships in protest of the officiating in a loss to the Czechoslovakian national team in which Canada was the more-penalized team and had two goals disallowed. The team's manager Father David Bauer stayed up all night with the team and talked them into continuing to avoid a national embarrassment and sanctions against the team.

Final round

File:1966 postcard of IIHF World Championship.jpg

1966 World Championship opening ceremony

Poland was relegated to Group B for 1967. Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox

World Championship Group B (Zagreb)

Final round

West Germany was promoted to the top level while Great Britain was relegated to Group C for 1967 (but did not participate again until 1971). Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox

World Championship Group C (Jesenice)

A Yugoslav 'B' team participated unofficially in the tournament, playing games against each of the three other participating nations. This was South Africa's last appearance in the World Championships until 1992.

Final round

Italy was promoted to Group B, France decided not to participate, Yugoslavia B team participated instead of France Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox Template:IceHockeybox

Ranking and statistics

Template:Stack begin
Template:(! class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; margin: 0 auto;" |- ! 1966 IIHF World Championship winners  |- |
6th title Template:!)

Tournament Awards

• Best players selected by the directorate:
  • Best Goaltender: Template:Flagicon Seth Martin
  • Best Defenceman: Template:Flagicon Alexander Ragulin
  • Best Forward: Template:Flagicon Konstantin Loktev
• Media All-Star Team:
  • Goaltender: Template:Flagicon Seth Martin
  • Defence: Template:Flagicon Gary Begg, Template:Flagicon Alexander Ragulin
  • Forwards: Template:Flagicon Veniamin Alexandrov, Template:Flagicon Fran Huck, Template:Flagicon Konstantin Loktev

Final standings

The final standings of the tournament according to IIHF:

	Soviet Union
	Czechoslovakia
	Canada
4	Sweden
5	East Germany
6	United States
7	Finland
8	Poland

European championships final standings

File:1966 CPA 3358.jpg

USSR stamp

Please note: At the time of the championship Sweden was awarded the bronze, however, East Germany should have won because of their better record amongst only European clubs. In 1999 this mistake was corrected and living players were presented with the medals they were supposed to have won.

The final standings of the European championships according to IIHF:

	Soviet Union
	Czechoslovakia
	East Germany
4	Sweden
5	Finland
6	Poland

References

• Summary (in french)