Ice hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympics – Men's qualification

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Ice hockey at the
1998 Winter Olympics
Qualification
men
Tournament
menwomen
Rosters
menwomen

Fourteen nations would qualify for the Olympic tournament, eight to the preliminary round, and six to the first round. The

1995 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships to determine qualification. First, the top six nations from Pool A would go directly to the first round. The preliminary round was made up of the nations ranked seventh and eighth, along with the host Japan, and five others from a series of qualification tournaments. The nations ranked nine through twelve went straight to the final qualification round.[1]

Regional Pre-Qualification

Group A

Five nations played each other twice, both home and away, from October 25, 1995, until December 12, 1996.

Rank Team GP W L T GF GA PTS Switzerland United Kingdom Denmark Slovenia Netherlands
1   Switzerland 8 6 0 2 42 14 14 2–2 8–1 5–3 7–1
2  Great Britain 8 5 0 3 31 15 13 3–3 1–1 5–0 4–1
3  Denmark 8 3 4 1 23 28 7 2–6 2–3 4–2 4–0
4  Slovenia 8 3 5 0 32 24 6 1–4 4–5 5–1 9–0
5  Netherlands 8 0 8 0 8 55 0 1–7 2–8 3–8 0–8
Group B

This tournament was played in Tychy, Poland, from December 17 to 22, 1996.

Rank Team GP W L T GF GA PTS Ukraine Poland Romania Bulgaria Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
1  Ukraine 4 3 0 1 51 3 7 3–3 10–0 17–0 21–0
2  Poland 4 3 0 1 36 8 7 3–3 6–3 14–0 13–2
3  Romania 4 2 2 0 19 22 4 0–10 3–6 7–2 9–4
4  Bulgaria 4 1 3 0 7 40 2 0–17 0–14 2–7 5–2
5  Yugoslavia 4 0 4 0 8 48 0 0–21 2–13 4–9 2–5
  • Note: In January 1996 Greece beat Israel 10–2, but forfeited the result because of an ineligible player. Following that, in March of the same year Israel played Yugoslavia, in Lithuania, losing 5–3. Israel's loss is officially a 5–0 loss, the match was declared forfeit because they used ineligible players from Russia.
Group C

This tournament was played in Riga, Latvia, from August 27 to September 1, 1996.

Rank Team GP W L T GF GA PTS Belarus Latvia Hungary Estonia Lithuania
1  Belarus 4 4 0 0 54 4 8 4–1 13–1 16–1 21–1
2  Latvia 4 3 1 0 53 6 6 1–4 10–2 15–0 27–0
3  Hungary 4 2 2 0 19 31 4 1–13 2–10 7–4 9–4
4  Estonia 4 1 3 0 14 41 2 1–16 0–15 4–7 9–3
5  Lithuania 4 0 4 0 8 66 0 1–21 0–27 4–9 3–9
  • Note: In January 1996 Hungary played a challenge series against Croatia winning 7–0 and 6–0.
Group D

The Asian Winter Games were used as a qualifying tournament, and were played in Harbin, China, from February 5 to 8, 1996. Japan participated though already qualified for the Olympics.

Team GP W L T GF GA PTS Kazakhstan Japan China South Korea
 Kazakhstan 3 3 0 0 33 2 6 4–1 20–0 9–1
 Japan 3 2 1 0 14 6 4 1–4 7–1 6–1
 China 3 1 2 0 7 29 2 0–20 1–7 6–2
 South Korea 3 0 3 0 4 21 0 1–9 1–6 2–6

Final Olympic Qualification

The top two from each group qualify, the two third placed nations play for the final spot.

Group 1

Played in Oberhausen, Germany, from February 6 to 9, 1997.

Team GP W L T GF GA PTS Germany Slovakia Switzerland Ukraine
 Germany 3 2 0 1 11 7 5 3–2 4–1 4–4
 Slovakia 3 1 1 1 9 7 3 2–3 3–3 4–1
  Switzerland 3 1 1 1 6 8 3 1–4 3–3 2–1
 Ukraine 3 0 2 1 6 10 1 4–4 1–4 1–2
Group 2

Played in Innsbruck, Austria, from February 6 to 9, 1997.

Team GP W L T GF GA PTS Belarus Kazakhstan Austria Norway
 Belarus 3 1 0 2 12 8 4 4–4 6–2 2–2
 Kazakhstan 3 1 0 2 11 8 4 4–4 4–1 3–3
 Austria 3 1 2 0 7 11 2 2–6 1–4 4–1
 Norway 3 0 1 2 6 9 2 2–2 3–3 1–4
Play-off
February 11, 1997Austria 2–0
(0–0, 1–0, 1–0)		  SwitzerlandDuisburg Germany

 Austria secures the final spot in the preliminary round.

References

  1. ^ qualification process

Sources

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