Great Britain’s recent success in gaining promotion to the top tier of the World Championship competition and remaining there has led to a meteoric rise up the IIHF rankings.

Following a successful campaign in Latvia, GB has risen three places to 16th.
It’s the highest that Great Britain has ever been ranked since the IIHF introduced the system in 2003.

The annual ranking is based on the results in World Championship tournaments and Olympic Winter Games (including Olympic qualification) over the past four years.

Points awarded in the current year are valued at the full amount.
Points award in the prior years decline linearly by 25% until the fifth year when they are dropped from the calculation.

Per IIHF website:

Value of winning the goal medal
Year 1: 100% value — 1200 points
Year 2: 75% value — 900 points
Year 3: 50% value — 600 points
Year 4: 25% value — 300 points
Year 5: 0% value — 0 points

Another strong performance and avoiding relegation in 2022 will lead to another rise in the rankings inside the top sixteen. An unthinkable premise five years ago.

Image courtesy of Dean Woolley

The 2022 IIHF World Championships will be hosted by Finland in Tampere and Helsinki.

Great Britain will face hosts Finland, along with the USA, Czech Republic, Sweden, Latvia, Norway and Belarus in Group B based in Tampere.

Certainly, GB will not fear facing Belarus again after recording a regulation win against them last month.

Pete Russell will also feel his team will be able to compete against Norway and Latvia and will be looking to do battle against Sweden and the Czech Republic for the second straight campaign.

The tournament takes place between 13th and 29th May 2022 and ticket information can be found here: https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2022/wm/news/25487/ticket_draw_for_games_in_tampere

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