KYIV – At the elite IIHF World Championships, no home team has won gold since the Soviet Union in 1986. But the same curse doesn’t hold true in Division I competition.
Since Division I was instituted in 2001 with the elimination of the “A Pool,” “B Pool,” and so on, teams vying for promotion to the top 16 have mostly done quite well on home cooking. The prime example from the last 10 years? Slovenia.
The Central European nation earned promotion for 2011 in its capital, Ljubljana, last year with 14 out of a possible 15 points. In fact, the Slovenes have always triumphed when they’ve hosted a Division I group. They achieved the same feat in 2001 and 2007. In the latter case, they were led by a whopping 14 points in five games by then-NHL rookie Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings.
Austria offers another example of “Home ice curse? What home ice curse?” In 2008, it posted a perfect record with five straight wins in Innsbruck en route to promotion. Four of the five top scorers that year were Austrian, including captain Dieter Kalt (11 points) and NHL sniper Thomas Vanek (10 points).
Of course, having home ice doesn’t guarantee good things. Just ask Croatia and China, both of which recently lived out the ultimate Division I nightmare.
In 2003, the Croats hosted Division I Group B in Zagreb, but were outscored 35-10. All their fans got to cheer about was a tournament-closing 7-5 win over Estonia. Croatia finished last and was sent down to Division II.
The Chinese struggled even more as the hosts of Division I Group A in 2007. The tone was set in the opener when Kazakhstan pounded China 12-0. The Chinese could barely muster any offence, and suffered more lopsided losses to Poland (9-1) and France (10-0). Five straight failures on Qiqihar ice saw China demoted.
So how about 2011? There is a reasonable chance that, for the first time in IIHF history, we could see the host teams of both Division I groups promoted for next year.
In Group A, host Hungary will get its stiffest competition from Italy, fresh from a 15th-place finish at the 2010 elite Worlds. Japan, a perennial third-place finisher in Division I play, has withdrawn from Group A this year due to the tragic earthquake and tsunami disaster in March. Japan’s absence opens the door a little wider for Hungary, who made its first top-level appearance in 70 years in 2009.
Ukraine, the site of Group B, bid unsuccessfully to host the 2015 IIHF World Championship, and is bidding again for the top-level tournament in 2016. Earning promotion this year in Kyiv under new head coach Dave Lewis wouldn’t hurt Ukraine’s 2016 hopes. In any case, the Ukrainians will have to battle past Kazakhstan and Poland to return to the elite division for the first time since 2007.
LUCAS AYKROYD
