ROAD TO 2006 OLYMPICS
- The top eight ranked teams following the 2004 IIHF World Championship in the Czech Republic will be automatically qualified to the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin.
See separate link “IIHF World Ranking†for complete information on the newly introduced ranking system.
- The men̢۪s ice hockey tournament in the 2006 Olympic Winter Games will be played with 12 teams. Apart from the eight teams which will get an automatic berth to Turin, the host team Italy will be placed directly into the Preliminary Round of the Olympic tournament.
- The remaining three teams will be determined following two Olympic qualification phases. The Olympic Pre-Qualifications will take place in November 2004 while the Final Olympic Qualifications will be played in February 2005 in three different groups where the group winners will be qualified for Turin 2006.
- The 2006 Olympic Winter Games Men's Tournament will be played with 12 teams in two rounds; the Preliminary Round and the Playoff Round.
- In the Preliminary Round the 12 teams will be seeded in two groups, A and B, to play each other once within their group. Following completion of the Preliminary Round the top four teams from each group will be promoted to the Playoff Round.
The two bottom teams of each Preliminary Round Group will get their final Olympic ranking based on their performance in the Preliminary Round. No placing games will be played.
- The eight Playoff Round teams will play crossover-quarterfinals, meaning Team 1 in Group A will play Team 4 in Group B, Team 2 in Group A will play Team 3 in Group B, etc. The quarter-finals will be followed by semi-finals, the Bronze and the Gold Medal Game.
