ZURICH – The 77th IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship (3-19 May 2013) will go back to Stockholm, Sweden, and Helsinki, Finland as part of the two-year co-hosting agreement. This year, Stockholm will host both semi-final games as well as the medal games.

Main host Sweden will open its World Championship campaign against Switzerland on the opening day, 3rd May 2013, at the Globe Arena. The Swedes hold a three-game winning streak against the red-and-white team at the World Championship stage, most recently a narrow 2-0 victory in Bratislava in 2011.

Co-host Finland will face Germany the same evening at Hartwall Arena. The last encounters between the two teams ended with a 5-4 shootout win for Finland in Bratislava 2011 and a 1-0 victory one year earlier on the opponent’s ice in Cologne.

Before the opening ceremony and the hosts taking the ice, France vs. Slovakia in Helsinki and Czech Republic vs. Belarus in Stockholm will play the afternoon games of the first day.

Saturday, 4th May 2013 will provide three games of action at each venue. After the USA-Austria game, defending champion Russia will play its first game in Helsinki in a neighbouring clash against Latvia while both hosts will be busy in the evening.

Finland will face 2012’s runner-up Slovakia in a clash between semi-finalists of this year’s event while Sweden will challenge this year’s bronze medallist Czech Republic. Norway-Slovenia and Canada-Denmark are the other games of the second game day in Stockholm.

Click here for the full schedule.

Each of the 16 participating nations will play seven games in the Preliminary Round consisting of two groups with eight teams each. The Quarter-Finals will be played within the group (1st vs. 4th, 2nd vs. 3rd) at the same venue before the best two teams from Helsinki will move over to Stockholm for the Semi-Finals and the Medal Games.

The 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship will end on 19th May 2013 with the Gold Medal Game in Stockholm at 20:30 local time.

The official 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship website as well as ticket information will be published at a later stage.

The future IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships are allocated to:
2013: Stockholm, Sweden & Helsinki, Finland
2014: Minsk, Belarus
2015: Prague & Ostrava, Czech Republic
2016: Moscow & St. Petersburg, Russia

Other game schedules published for the upcoming season:
2013 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship in Ufa, Russia
2013 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship in Ottawa, Canada

Click here for an overview of all events of the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship program.

Click here for the groups and teams for the Olympic Qualification.