The 1995 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships was the 59th such event sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Teams representing 39 countries participated in several levels of competition. The competition also served as qualifications for group placements in the 1996 competition.
The top Championship Group tournament took place in Sweden from 23 April to 7 May 1995, with games played in Stockholm and Gävle. In the tournament final, Finland won the gold medal by defeating Sweden 4–1 at the Globen arena in Stockholm. The Finnish goals were scored by Timo Jutila and Ville Peltonen, who scored a hat trick. The gold medal was the first in Finland's history. Sweden had written a fight song, "Den glider in", which also was intended to be the official song of the championships. After the finals, the song became very popular in Finland.[1] The final still has an important place in Finnish hockey culture today, a common exclamation being "95: Never forget!"
Victory celebration in Helsinki, Finland a few hours after the final game
Because of the 1994–95 NHL lockout, it originally created a dream scenario for the tournament hosts. With a cancelled NHL season, all NHL players free from injuries would have been available.[2] But when the NHL season began in late January 1995, it instead created a scenario where fewer NHL players than usual became available. The Canadian and American teams would logically be hit the hardest, but the Americans found a way to lead their group in the first round. The Canadians, who struggled in the early tournament, beat the Americans in the quarter-finals, lasted until overtime against Sweden in the semifinal, and then beat the Czechs for the bronze. Andrew McKim, playing in the minors for the Adirondack Red Wings, ended up being the tournament scoring leader.[3][4]
Played in Bratislava, 12–21 April. The hosts bettered their Group C record of the previous year, this time winning all their games. Thirty-eight-year-old Peter Stastny led the tournament in scoring.[3]
Played in Sofia 20–26 March. Nine teams took part this year because Yugoslavia was given the right to return to the group that they had last played in as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The consequence was that two teams were relegated.[3] They played in three groups of three where the first place teams contested promotion and the third place teams contested relegation. Two years after failing to qualify for Group C, Belarus got a rematch against Ukraine and Kazakhstan, this time coming out on top.
Played in Johannesburg and Krugersdorp in South Africa from 21 to 30 March. Two groups of five played round robins where the top two from each contested promotion. The bottom five teams were relegated to qualification tournaments for 1996 Group D. Belgian player Joris Peusens was only fifteen years old.
