1992 World Championship

The 1992 Ice Hockey World Championships took place in Czechoslovakia from the 28 April to 10 May. The games were played in Prague and Bratislava. Twelve teams took part, with the first round consisting of two groups of six, with the four best teams from each group advancing to the quarter-finals. This was the 56th World Championships, and Sweden retained their title, beating Finland 5-2 in the final, and becoming world champions for the sixth time. This was Finland's first medal in a World Championship, but should have come as no surprise with their success in Calgary and the most recent Canada Cup.

The pools were drawn the same as the Olympics in Albertville, but yielded much different results. The Swiss were able to tie both the Russians and the Canadians to earn their way into the quarterfinals. The Germans, after an opening loss to Finland, won four straight to earn a second place finish. More importantly, they earned a single game elimination against Switzerland with the winner going to the semi-finals. The Swiss prevailed, and moved on to meet a Swedish team that had shut-out the Russians. The Swedes led by three after the first and easily moved on to the gold medal game. There was nothing easy about the other semi-final. Tying it at two in the third, the Finns clinched their first World medal in a shootout. The Czechoslovaks, playing for the last time as a unified nation, beat the Swiss to settle for bronze, while Sweden, led by Mats Sundin, beat Finland for gold.

A record thirty-two nations competed in 1992, with new entrants Greece, Israel, Luxembourg and Turkey icing teams in a secondary tier of Group C.  Yugoslavia made their final World Championship appearance, before their dissolution. Both Slovenia and Croatia began competing for themselves, in Group C qualifiers in 1993, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia resumed Yugoslavia's former position in Group C in 1995.

Consolation Round 11-12 Place
Poland was relegated to Group B.

World Championship Group B (Austria)
Played in Klagenfurt April 2-12. The hosts went undefeated to return to Group A for the first time since 1957. Austria was promoted to Group A, while Yugoslavia was relegated to Group C but would not play there until 1995.

World Championship Group C1 (Great Britain)
Played in Hull Great Britain March 18-24. The hosts, led by Scot Tony Hand and Canadian Kevin Conway, won all five games easily. Great Britain was promoted to Group B while no team was relegated.

World Championship Group C2 (South Africa)
Played in Johannesburg March 21-28. Though called 'C2' it was no different than being in 'Group D'. Spain completely dominated, playing against five essentially new hockey nations. Only South Africa had participated before, and they last played in 1966. Spain and later South Africa qualified for 1993 Group C. The others had to play in qualification tournaments in November 1992.