2018 IIHF World Championship Division I explained

See main article: 2018 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships.

The 2018 IIHF World Championship Division I was an international ice hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation.

The Group A tournament was held in Budapest, Hungary and the Group B tournament was held in Kaunas, Lithuania from 22 to 28 April 2018. Warsaw, Poland planned on bidding for the tournament, but as Poland had hosted both the 2015 and 2016 tournaments, decided to apply for a later year.^[1]

Great Britain and Italy were promoted to the Top Division, while Poland was relegated to Division I B.^[2] The Group B tournament was won by Lithuania, who moved up to Group A and Croatia was relegated to Division II.^[3]

Group A tournament

Participants

Team	Qualification
	Placed 15th in the Elite Division and was relegated.
	Placed 16th in the Elite Division and was relegated.
	Placed 3rd in Division I A last year.
	Placed 4th in Division I A last year.
	Host, placed 5th in Division I A last year.
	Placed 1st in Division I B last year and was promoted.

Match officials

7 referees and 7 linesmen were selected for the tournament.^[4]

Referees

• Alex Dipietro
• Lasse Heikkinen
• Oldřich Hejduk
• Jeff Ingram
• Marc Iwert
• Trpimir Piragić
• Ladislav Smetana

Linesmen

• Thomas Caillot
• Michael Harrington
• Ludvig Lundgren
• Márton Németh
• Marc-Henri Progin
• Daniel Soós
• Josef Špůr

Results

All times are local (UTC+2).

Awards and statistics

Awards

• Best players selected by the directorate:
  • Best Goaltender: Ádám Vay
  • Best Defenseman: Ben O'Connor
  • Best Forward: Jan Urbas

Source: IIHF.com

• Media All-Stars:
  • MVP: Brett Perlini
  • Goaltender: Ádám Vay
  • Defenceman: Ben O'Connor / Sabahudin Kovačević
  • Forwards: Brett Perlini / Roman Starchenko / Balázs Sebők

Source: IIHF.com

Scoring leaders

List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals.

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	+/−	PIM	POS
	5	6	2	8	0	4	F
	5	3	4	7	+4	2	F
	5	4	2	6	+2	2	D
	5	4	2	6	+2	2	F
	5	3	3	6	+3	0	F
	5	2	4	6	+2	2	F
	5	1	5	6	+2	2	F
	5	3	2	5	+1	2	F
	5	2	3	5	0	2	F
	5	3	1	4	−1	0	F

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalties in minutes; POS = Position
Source: IIHF.com

Leading goaltenders

Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, are included in this list.

Player	TOI	GA	GAA	SA	Sv%	SO
	300:00	10	2.00	159	93.71	1
	304:46	13	2.56	189	93.12	0
	157:33	5	1.90	66	92.42	0
	290:13	14	2.89	173	91.91	0
	159:18	9	3.39	93	90.32	0

TOI = Time on Ice (minutes:seconds); SA = Shots against; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage; SO = Shutouts
Source: IIHF.com

Group B tournament

Participants

Team	Qualification
	Placed 6th in Division I A and was relegated.
	Placed 2nd in Division I B last year.
	Host, placed 3rd in Division I B last year.
	Placed 4th in Division I B last year.
	Placed 5th in Division I B last year.
	Placed 1st in Division II A last year and was promoted.

Match officials

4 referees and 7 linesmen were selected for the tournament.^[5]

Referees

• Damien Bliek
• Miha Bulovec
• Stian Halm
• Liam Sewell

Linesmen

• Karolis Janušauskas
• Andreas Kroyer
• Ivan Nedeljković
• Tommi Niittylä
• Elias Seewald
• Laurynas Stepankevičius
• Roman Výleta

Results

All times are local (UTC+3).

Awards and statistics

Awards

• Best players selected by the directorate:
  • Best Goaltender: Villem-Henrik Koitmaa
  • Best Defenseman: Ryo Hashimoto
  • Best Forward: Arnoldas Bosas

Source: IIHF.com

Scoring leaders

List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals.

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	+/−	PIM	POS
	5	5	3	8	+4	0	D
	5	6	0	6	+2	4	F
	5	4	2	6	+4	4	F
	5	3	3	6	+5	2	F
	5	2	4	6	+4	0	D
	5	1	5	6	+8	0	F
	5	1	5	6	+3	4	F
	5	1	5	6	+3	6	F
	5	0	6	6	+4	2	F
	5	2	3	5	+1	6	F
	5	2	3	5	+2	29	F

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalties in minutes; POS = Position
Source: IIHF.com

Leading goaltenders

Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, are included in this list.

Player	TOI	GA	GAA	SA	Sv%	SO
	239:40	4	1.00	138	97.10	2
	301:04	9	1.79	140	93.57	1
	147:38	6	2.44	90	93.33	1
	242:24	10	2.48	150	93.33	0
	122:29	5	2.45	55	90.91	0

TOI = Time on Ice (minutes:seconds); SA = Shots against; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage; SO = Shutouts
Source: IIHF.com

Notes and References

1. Web site: 27 tournaments assigned. IIHF. 19 May 2017.
2. Web site: Great Britain & Italy up!. 29 April 2018. iihf.com. 29 April 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180525133307/http://wmia2018.iihf.hockey/en/news/hun-gbr. 25 May 2018. dead.
3. Web site: Lithuania moving up. 29 April 2018. iihf.com. 29 April 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180429222011/http://wmib2018.iihf.hockey/en/news/ltu-est/. 29 April 2018. dead.
4. http://stats.iihf.com/Hydra/638/IHM638000_35B_1_0.pdf Group A Assignments
5. http://stats.iihf.com/Hydra/639/IHM639000_35B_2_0.pdf Group B Assignments