After completion of the Ice Hockey World Championship 2014 in Minsk, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) published a new world rating of national teams.
The Belarus national team has made the biggest jump in the IIHF ratings, from 15th to 11th place, which today, is equal to 3,170 points. For the first time in five years the Belarusians appeared in the quarterfinal of the tournament, and this fact provided them considerable progress, and allowed them to outstrip such countries as France, Germany, Slovenia and Denmark. The bronze winners of the World Championship-2014, Sweden (3,990), have preserved their first place in the IIHF world ratings, and outstrip Finland (3,955) by 35 points. The Russian national team, the winners of the championship (3,915), has moved up one position, having moved from 4th to 3rd place. After defeat in the semi-final, the current Olympic champions, Canada (3,850) fell to 4th place. It is followed by the Czech Republic (5), the USA (6), Switzerland (7) and Slovakia (8), whose positions remained unchanged.
The last position, 49th, is occupied by Mongolia (260). The teams which have left the top division, following the results of the 2014 World Championship, Kazakhstan and Italy, have not managed to keep their positions among the 16 best national teams of the planet, while two winners of the World Championship in division I, Slovenia and Austria, were included into their number. Among the countries of division I, Croatia has made the greatest progress, moving from 30th to 28th place.
The new rating of the IIHF is calculated taking into account the World Championships since 2011 and includes the Winter Olympic Games of 2014. Indicators of the rating are used to define the distribution of teams of the IIHF World Championship in the top-division, and also the winter Olympic Games and Olympic qualification. With the help of the rating, groups have been formed in anticipation of the World Championship-2015, which will be held in the Czech Republic.
The first top-twenty of world rating looks like this:
1. Sweden
2. Finland
3. Russia
4. Canada
5. The Czech Republic
6. The USA
7. Switzerland
8. Slovakia
9. Latvia
10. Norway
11. Belarus
12. France
13. Germany
14. Slovenia
15. Denmark
16. Austria
17. Kazakhstan
18. Italy
19. Hungary
20. Ukraine
