Ostrava 2021 World Championships competition schedule announced

The schedule has been set for the World Para Ice Hockey Championships from 19-26 June in Ostrava, Czech Republic and will include three days of preliminary pool play followed by two days of playoff matchups and then the medal round.

In Ostrava, the top eight-ranked teams will compete for a world title and qualification slots for the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games. The top five finishers will automatically qualify for Beijing 2022; the last three finishers will take part in a qualification tournament to be held at a later date to try to earn their Paralympic spots.

The top four-seeded teams (USA, Canada, South Korea and Czech Republic) will make up Group A in the preliminary round, with the next four teams (Norway, Italy, RPC and Slovakia) making up Group B.

The top two finishers from Group A will automatically advance to the semi-final round, with the bottom two finishers challenging the top two finishers from Group B for the other two spots.

The puck will drop at Ostravar Arena on 19 June with host nation Czech Republic taking on Paralympic bronze medallist South Korea, a rematch of the last World Championships third-place game at the same venue.

That will immediately be followed by the highly anticipated Canada-USA rivalry game. The two nations have combined to win the last seven world titles and all but two of the World Championships since the event began in 1996.

Canada took home gold in 2008, 2013 and 2017, while the USA won the title in 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2019.

Day one of preliminary play will also feature Norway against Italy followed by Slovakia making their first World Championships appearance when they take on the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) Team.

Following two days of playoff games, the medal round will take place on 26 June.

The complete tournament schedule is as follows, with all times listed local to Ostrava (CET):

PRELIMINARY ROUND

19 June

12:00: South Korea-Czech Republic

15:00: USA-Canada

18:00: Norway-Italy

21:00: RPC-Slovakia

20 June

11:30: Canada-South Korea

14:30: Czech Republic-USA

17:30: Italy-RPC

20:30: Slovakia-Norway

22 June

11:30: Norway-RPC

14:30: Canada-Czech Republic

17:30: Italy-Slovakia

20:30: USA-South Korea

PLAYOFF ROUND

23 June

14:30: B3-B4

17:30: A3-B2

20:30: A4-B1

25 June

14:00: 2A-W(A3-B2)

17:00: 2A-W(A4-B1)

20:00: L(A3-B2)-L(A4-B1)

MEDAL ROUND

26 June

18:00: Bronze-medal game

21:00: Gold-medal game

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