The 2015 IIHF World Championship Division I was an international

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

tournament run by the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; ; ) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries. The IIHF maintains the IIHF World Ranking based on international ice hockey to ...

. Group A was contested in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, after the original host,

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; ; ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin, and Stalino, is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine located on the Kalmius River in Donetsk Oblast, which is currently occupied by Russia as the capita ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, withdrew, from 19 to 25 April 2015 and Group B was held in

Eindhoven Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also locat ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, from 13 to 19 April 2015. In Group A

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

finished first, winning their group in Division I for the fourth time in their last four appearances, thereby securing promotion to the 2016 World Championship.

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

surprised and placed second, defeating host

in the final game to secure promotion; it was the first time Hungary earned promotion to the top division since

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, and only the second time since 1939.

finished last in the group and was relegated to Group B for 2016. Group B saw

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

finish first and win promotion.

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

finished second, losing out on first and promotion with a loss to

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

in the final game of the tournament. Host

ended the tournament in last place and was relegated to Division II A for the next year.

Venues

Division I A

Participants

Match officials

7 referees and 7 linesmen were selected for the tournament. ;Referees * Andris Ansons * Péter Gebei * René Hradil * Daniel Konc * Marcus Linde * Viki Trilar * Marc Wiegand ;Linesman * Andrew Dalton * Dmitri Golyak * Matjaž Hribar * Rene Jensen * Wojciech Moszczyński * Tibor Rovenský * Alexander Waldejer

Standings

Results

''All times are local (

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. As standard time (year-round) Principal cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Por ...

).''

Awards and statistics

Awards

*Best players selected by the directorate: ** Best Goalkeeper: Przemysław Odrobny ** Best Defenseman: Kevin Dallman ** Best Forward: Roman Starchenko Source
IIHF.com
*Media All-Stars: ** MVP: Roman Starchenko ** Goalkeeper: Pavel Poluektov ** Defenceman: Kevin Dallman / Mateusz Rompkowski ** Forwards: Roman Starchenko / Andrew Sarauer / Marcin Kolusz Source
IIHF.com

Scoring leaders

List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals. ''GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalties in minutes; POS = Position''
Source
IIHF.com
/small>

Goaltending leaders

Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, are included in this list. ''TOI = Time on Ice (minutes:seconds); SA = Shots against; GA = Goals against; GAA =

Goals against average Goals against average (GAA), also known as average goals against (AGA), is a statistic used in field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and water polo that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender or goalkeeper (depending on spo ...

; Sv% = Save percentage; SO =

Shutout In team sports, a shutout (North American English, US) or clean sheet (Commonwealth English, UK) is a game in which the losing team fails to score. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketba ...

s''
Source
IIHF.com
/small>

Division I B

Participants

Match officials

4 referees and 7 linesmen were selected for the tournament. ;Referees * Jacob Grumsen * Jeff Ingram * Anssi Salonen * Shane Warschaw ;Linesmen * Louis Beelen * Marek Hlavatý * Frederic Monnaie * Pasi Nieminen * Ulrich Pardatscher * David Perduv * Sotaro Yamaguchi

Standings

Results

''All times are local (

).''

Awards and statistics

Awards

*Best players selected by the directorate: ** Best Goalkeeper: Mantas Armalis ** Best Defenseman: Ben O'Connor ** Best Forward: Lee Yong-jun Source
IIHF.com

Scoring leaders

Goaltending leaders

; Sv% = Save percentage; SO =

s''
Source
IIHF.com
/small>

References

{{2014–15 in men's ice hockey IIHF World Championship Division I 2

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2015 IIHF World Championship Division I 2015 IIHF World Championship Division I

World The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...

2015 IIHF World Championship Division I 2015 IIHF World Championship Division I 21st century in Kraków 21st century in Eindhoven April 2015 sports events in Europe