The return of the 'Sbornaya', ticket prices will change for 2013

Ten games, ten wins and the first title since 2009: Russia is again on the top of the hockey world. “The Big Red Machine is back“, said forward Alexander Semin after the convincing 6-2 win against Slovakia in the final of the 2012 IIHF World Championship game on Sunday in Helsinki. They were the first squad to not need overtime since the Soviet Union in 1989 for an undefeated run in the tournament. The Russians also won all their games with at least a two-goal difference.

“We played great from start to finish,“ said coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov. Alexander Ovechkin had praise for his coach as well. “He is the best in Russia right now. He is pushing all the right buttons. I'm very proud to play for him“, said the NHL superstar.

Next year the Russians will start to defend their title where it ended this time. The World champion will be the top seed in the Helsinki group with host Finland, Slovakia, the United States, Germany, Latvia, France and newcomer Austria. The Stockholm group consists of host Sweden, Canada, the Czech Republic, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Belarus and Slovenia. The tournament in 2013 will start on May 3 and run until May 19. This time the semifinals and medal games will be played in Stockholm.

Organizers will do everything to improve attendance. More than 450,000 spectators came this year to the 64 games, but there were a lot of dates with empty seats. “The pricing policy was the wrong one. The hosts are going to change the policy for next year, and I’m happy about that“, said IIHF president René Fasel. Christer Englund, the president of the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation, echoed this sentiment. “We didn’t succeed that well in Sweden with selling tickets. We have learned a lot and we will prepare in another way for next year“, he promised.