Seven of the eight teams automatically qualified for the 2009 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship while the eighth spot was awarded to the winner of the 2008 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship Division I tournament. Six nations from Europe, and two nations from North America were represented. The 2008 Division I tournament was won by Canada who defeated Great Britain to earn promotion to the World Championship.[1]
Canada − Winner of 2008 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship Division I[1]
Eight participating teams were placed in the following two groups. After playing a round-robin, the top three teams in each group advance to the playoff round. The last team in each group compete in the qualifying round where they face-off against the top ranked teams of Group C and Group D from the Division I tournament for a chance to participate in the Top Division playoffs.[3]
Canada and Slovakia advanced to the qualifying round after finishing last in Group A and Group B respectively.[4] Canada faced off against Austria, who finished first in Group C of the Division I tournament, and Slovakia was drawn against Brazil, who finished first in Group D of the Division I tournament, for a chance to participate in the Top Division playoffs.[5][6] Both Canada and Slovakia won their matches and advanced to the Top Division playoffs, while Austria and Brazil advanced to the Division I playoffs.[6]
Canada and Slovakia advanced to the playoff round after winning their qualifying round matches. They were seeded alongside the six other teams of the tournament based on their results in the preliminary round. The four winning quarterfinalists advanced to the semifinals while the losing teams moved on to the placement round.[7] Slovakia was relegated to Division I after losing the seventh/8th game against Canada, while Slovenia finished fifth after defeating the Czech Republic in the fifth/6th game.[7][8] In the semifinals the United States defeated Finland and Sweden beat Germany, both advancing to the gold medal game.[7] After losing the semifinals Finland and Germany played off for the bronze medal with Germany winning 9–5.[7] Sweden defeated the United States 7–6 in the gold medal game, earning their third straight World Championship title and fifth overall.[7][9]
List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals. If the list exceeds 10 skaters because of a tie in points, all of the tied skaters are shown. Games from the qualifying round do not count towards the statistics.[12]
Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played 40% of their team's minutes are included in this list. Games from the qualifying round do not count towards the statistics.[13]