2003 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships

The 2003 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships were held in Helsinki, Turku and Tampere in Finland from April 26 to May 11.

In the quarterfinals, between Sweden and Finland, the Swedes completed an outstanding comeback, being down 4 goals 5–1 7 minutes into the second period. At that time, Sweden decided to change goalie, from Tommy Salo to Mikael Tellqvist. After the change, the Swedes scored 3 goals in a row in the second period to reduce the lead to 5–4. In the third period, Peter Forsberg scored a notable goal, when he skated from his own half of the rink all the way to Finland's offensive zone, scoring on a wrap around. Per Johan Axelsson scored the game winning goal in the third period to win the game 6–5 for the Swedes.

Preliminary round

Group A

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Slovakia	3	3	0	0	22	5	6
Germany	3	2	1	0	9	8	4
Ukraine	3	1	2	0	9	13	2
Japan	3	0	3	0	6	20	0

Group B

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Russia	3	3	0	0	14	5	6
Switzerland	3	2	1	0	9	7	4
Denmark	3	1	2	0	8	14	2
United States of America	3	0	3	0	4	9	0

Group C

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Canada	3	3	0	0	12	2	6
Sweden	3	2	1	0	6	5	4
Latvia	3	1	2	0	6	9	2
Belarus	3	0	3	0	1	9	0

Group D

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Czech Republic	3	3	0	0	15	4	6
Finland	3	2	1	0	18	3	4
Austria	3	1	2	0	8	15	2
Slovenia	3	0	3	0	4	23	0

Qualification round

Group E

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Slovakia	5	4	0	1	27	9	9
Czech Republic	5	4	0	1	22	7	9
Finland	5	2	2	1	18	10	5
Germany	5	2	2	1	11	11	5
Austria	5	1	4	0	9	27	2
Ukraine	5	0	5	0	8	31	0

Group F

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Canada	5	4	0	1	18	6	9
Sweden	5	4	1	0	20	9	8
Russia	5	2	3	0	16	14	4
Switzerland	5	2	3	0	14	16	4
Latvia	5	2	3	0	10	16	4
Denmark	5	0	4	1	8	25	1

Final round

	Quarter finals				Semi finals				Final
	May 7 - Elysee Arena
	Canada	3
					May 9 - Hartwall Areena
	Germany	2
					Canada	8
	May 7 - Elysee Arena
					Czech Republic	4
	Czech Republic	3
									May 11 – Hartwall Areena
	Russia	0
									Canada	3
	May 7 - Hartwall Areena
									Sweden	2
	Slovakia	3
					May 9 - Hartwall Areena
	Switzerland	1
					Slovakia	1			Third place
	May 7 - Hartwall Areena
					Sweden	4
	Sweden	6							Czech Republic	2
	Finland	5							Slovakia	4
									May 10 – Hartwall Areena

Relegation round

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
United States of America	3	3	0	0	19	5	6
Belarus	3	2	1	0	9	8	4
Slovenia	3	0	2	1	8	14	1
Japan	3	0	2	1	5	14	1

Japan avoids relegation by defeating South Korea 4-1 in the 2004 IIHF World Championship Far East Qualification game.
Belarus and Slovenia are demoted to Division I at the 2004 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships.

Scoring leaders

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Žigmund Pálffy	9	7	8	15	18
Jozef Stümpel	9	4	11	15	0
Ľubomír Višňovský	9	4	8	12	2
Teemu Selänne	7	8	3	11	2
Saku Koivu	7	1	10	11	4
Dany Heatley	9	7	3	10	10
Mats Sundin	7	6	4	10	10
Miroslav Šatan	9	6	4	10	2
Martin Straka	9	6	4	10	4
Kimmo Rintanen	7	5	4	9	0

Goaltending leaders

Player	MINS	GA	GAA	SO	Sv%
Sean Burke	328	7	1.28	1	.955
Oliver Jonas	180	4	1.33	0	.960
Mikael Tellqvist	393	9	1.37	0	.940
Marco Bührer	297	9	1.82	1	.934
Ján Lašák	359	11	1.84	0	.935

Division I

Group A

Played at Budapest, Hungary April 15-21

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Kazakhstan	5	5	0	0	34	9	10
Poland	5	4	1	0	24	9	8
Hungary	5	2	2	1	14	13	5
Netherlands	5	1	3	1	17	22	3
Romania	5	1	3	1	13	26	3
Lithuania	5	0	4	1	7	30	1

Group B

Played at Zagreb, Croatia April 13-20

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
France	5	4	0	1	21	5	9
Norway	5	4	1	0	19	9	8
Estonia	5	2	3	0	12	20	4
Italy	5	2	3	0	16	11	4
United Kingdom	5	1	3	1	16	14	3
Croatia	5	1	4	0	10	35	2

France and Kazakhstan are promoted to the 2004 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, Croatia and Lithuania are demoted to Division II.

Division II

Group A

Played at Seoul, South Korea April 5-12

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
South Korea	5	5	0	0	50	10	10
Yugoslavia	5	4	1	0	46	11	8
Spain	5	3	2	0	27	23	6
Australia	5	2	3	0	25	26	4
South Africa	5	1	4	0	19	32	2
Mexico	5	0	5	0	5	70	0

Group B

Played at Sofia, Bulgaria March 24-30

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Belgium	5	4	1	0	29	8	8
China	5	4	1	0	19	13	8
Bulgaria	5	2	2	1	15	10	5
North Korea	5	2	2	1	16	13	5
Israel	5	1	2	2	11	19	4
Iceland	5	0	5	0	4	31	0

Belgium and South Korea are promoted to Division I, Iceland and Mexico are demoted to Division III.

Division III

Played at Auckland, New Zealand April 3-6

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
New Zealand	2	2	0	0	14	3	4
Luxembourg	2	1	1	0	7	10	2
Turkey	2	0	2	0	4	12	0

Luxembourg and New Zealand are promoted to Division II.

Ice Hockey World Championships 2003 commemorative coin

See also

To celebrate the games, the Finnish government issued a high value commemorative coin: the 2003 Ice Hockey World Championships commemorative coin, minted also in 2003. On the reverse, three ice hockey sticks with a puck can be seen.