Slovakia Hosts World Championships

Unfortunately it's getting drowned out by the excitement and drama of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the IIHF World Championships of Hockey is being hosted by Slovakia. But the built in hype of it surrounds the bigger picture of national pride on the line (instead of just a civic one), it's an event that collects the best of the best that makes it really exciting hockey.

Like a host city should, Slovakia welcomes everyone to the country for this year's World Championship with an official anthem song sung by Kristína Peláková called Life is a Game. The video for the song is an exciting sound of drum beats. It's main features more of exciting highlights from past years with dancers in body paint being patriotic. You can watch it here:I've seen and heard Kristína perform last year at the EuroVision 2010 competition and impressed me with her range of singing dance beats and more calming lullaby ballad tones.

This song, Life is a Game, is very Europop sounding, but sung in English instead of her native Slovak which I have gotten used to. Her prior hits have been Horehronie about the earthy beauty of central Slovakia and Ešte Váham. Personally, I hope this song can propel her to more international recognition. What do you guys think?

The games start April 29th in Košice and meet in Bratislava to end the 15th of May. I'll be covering the news from there once the tournament starts.

Czechs Win 2010 World Championships

Team Czech Republic wins the "NIT" of hockey tournaments this spring hosted by Germany. It has to be bittersweet since the criticism of the once A-listed tournament has accumulated to knock it down by it being overshadowed by the Stanley Cup playoffs and the fact that many professional players chose to sit it out.

There was already a huge and highly contested affair in Vancouver this year called the Winter Olympics and it seems from most players, pundits and fans that another IIHF tournament seemed to be overkill. The NHL players had just come off of a grueling year that was condensed to support an Olympic year.

Czech Republic, who have been on the winning Gold Medal podium before, ended a dominant team Russia program that had been steamrolling through a 27 game winning streak at the Worlds.

Jakub Klepis gave the Czechs the lead just 20 seconds in, and captain Tomas Rolinek made it 2-0 with less than 2 minutes left in the second period. Pavel Datsyuk cut Russia's deficit to a goal with 35.3 seconds remaining in the game, but it wasn't enough.

The World Championships wasn't totally bereft of star NHL players. Florida Panthers goalie Tomas Vokoun also got a chance to shine in the affair.

Tomas Vokoun of the Florida Panthers made 35 saves for the Czechs

And the most interesting note the Czechs have won the World Championships of hockey is how dynasty-like they have been since spiting the program up when the country divorced itself from Slovakia.

who have won the world championship title six times since the separation of Czechoslovakia. They also finished first in 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005.

Team Slovakia has won the World Championships once and will be the host city in 2011.

[Via: Minneapolis St. Paul Star Tribune]

Russia Wins World Championships

The Russian hockey team has risen back to the top of the elite levels in international hockey by winning the World Championship held quietly over top the current Stanley Cup playoffs.

Critics on the radio and blogs were quick to choose to validate the win and declare the Russians back on the relevancy map, but the way they handled the Canadian team was pretty decisive. One would argue though the world championship rosters weren't necessarily populated with the world's best players. Crosby, Malkin, and Ovechkin are all still involved with their teams in the playoffs and unavailable to their respective countries. The back to back gold medal wins also vaults the Russians past the Canadians in the IIHF rankings.

Russia was once thought of as a hockey program in disaray. They put together a miserable outing in 2004's World cup and a poorer showing in 2006s Olympics and World Championships. It was only a matter of time before the Russians developed more players and cycled out some older ones. Young faces like Malkin are sure to keep the Russian hockey team in the top ranks of international sports.

As far as the game itself, Russia took advantage of its chances.

"It was like a playoff game," Radulov said. "Instead of being a best-of-seven, it was a best of one. We know the way they play, and they know the way we operate. I think we started the game better than they did, but by the second period they got more shots. Our goalie was outstanding."

The familiar "Koval-chick" was the tournament's most valuable player because apparently he was out there for so long everybody just remembered him the best.

And then there was tournament MVP Ilya Kovalchuk. He was double-shifted all night long by coach Vyacheslav Bykov, and by the end of the night the superstar had played more than half of the game – 30:33, to be exact.

The next big challenge for the international players and teams will be in Vancouver for the Winter Olympics. Can the North Americans recover and get back the top rankings on their home ice?

IIHF.com

World Championship Winners

Congratulations, Canada, this is just about the only Cup you are going to see this summer.

The Northern boys played well this year and it will start debate on weather or not to keep the team together for the World Cup and the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010. Canadians really take it hard when they don't win it all in hockey, so this little trinket will again be a bullett point in their sporting superiority.

I would like to see Crosby and the young players take the ice for Team Canada in a few years. Then THAT would be a game to see.

IIHF World Championships

If once wasn't enough, USA and Slovakia lock horns once again in the Czech Republic for the IIHF World Championships of Hockey, but this time it's for the Bronze Medal and Third Place in the tournament.

Andy Roach scored the games only goal as Team USA came out on top to shut out Team Slovakia 1-0.

Canada won the Tournament's top honor by defeating Sweden.