The 2023 World Para Ice Hockey Championships was the 12th edition of World Para Ice Hockey Championships (originally named IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships) held in 2023. The tournament was hosted by Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in Canada from May 28 to June 3. It was the first time Canada has ever hosted the Championships.[1]
The USA won their third straight championship after winning the 2019 and 2021 editions. Team China made their world championship debut while Germany will be in the top pool for the first time since 2017.
Format
The teams are divided into two groups based on their ranking. The top two teams from Group A advance directly into Semi-Finals while the remaining two teams together with the best two teams from Group B advance to the Quarter-Finals.
Group A features the 2 powerhouses in Canada and the US as well as the teams from Czech Republic and Korea.
In game 1 of the group between Czech and Korea, after a scoreless first period, Korea took a delay of game penalty that lead to a power-play goal by Patrik Sedlacek roughly halfway through the game. the Czechs would add another two minutes later and score again with 3 minutes left in the game to come away with a 3–0 victory.[2] In The second game between the Czechs and USA, Czechia was overmatched by the Americans speed losing 7–1. USA's Travis Dodson led the way with a hat trick. The game between Canada and Korea saw one of the best scoring performances in the championships history with Canada's Dominic Cozzolino picking up 4 goals and 4 assists for 8 points leading the Canadians to a 15–1 win over the Koreans. History was also made as 20 year old Raphaelle Tousignant became the first women to ever play on the Canadian National Sledge Hockey Team.[3] The Americans them took down the Koreans 9–0 with points from the top players like Kevin McKee, Brody Roybal and Declan Farmer. In the Final game of the Round Robin for the Czechs, they gave Canada their hardest competition yet keeping the Canadians to just 2 goals but fell short in the game losing 2–1.[4] Canada and USA played the final game of the round robin for Group A. USA's speed was just too much for the Canadians as USA were victorious 3–0.
In China's world championships debut, they took a 2–1 lead over Italy into the first intermission, but in the second period things got much more one sided as China would score 3 in the second and 5 in the third to win their worlds debut 10–1. Yifeng Shen lead the way with 5 goals for China.[5] In the second game of Group B. Germany and Norway played a back and forth game. After Germany took a 4–1 lead early in the third, Norway scored 2 goals in 2 minutes to cut the lead to one but the Germans would add an empty netter and win 5–3.[6] China would keep rolling in their debut tournament with a 5–1 win over Norway with 2 goals from Shen giving him 7 in 2 games. Italy and Germany played in the closest game in the tournament yet as they went back and forth. regulation and 5 minutes of overtime solved nothing but in the shootout the Italians put in 2 for the 1–0 shootout win. China would finish the round robin with a perfect 3–0 record after beating Germany 7–0. Yifeng Shen had another 4 goals to give him 11 through 3 round robin games. In the final game of group B Italy got outshot greatly by Norway but still came way with a 3–1 win.
Pool B was hosted in Astana, Kazakhstan at the Terlan Arena.[8] The schedule was released on the 27 September.[9] The top two will get promoted to the A division for next year.[10] Japan and Slovakia would end up being promoted to pool A for 2024, while Finland were relegated after losing all their games.[11]
Each games was live streamed on the Paralympic Youtube channel.
Pool C was held for the first time since 2018. The tournament was held for the first time in Asia, being organise in Bangkok, Thailand at the Thailand International Ice Hockey Arena.[12] The top two were promoted to the 2023 Pool B. Great Britain won the competition, winning every game.[13] Six teams were going to participate, before Armenia withdrew just before the tournament started. Had the Armenians entered, they would've made their Para Ice Hockey debut. This event saw the Para Ice Hockey debut of France, Kazakhstan and Thailand.
Each game was live streamed on the Paralympic Youtube channel.
↑ Starting in 2024, Pool C will no longer be a feeder competition for the same season's Pool B and thus France took the vacant spot in Pool B for 2024.
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Canada 
United States (6th title)
Czech Republic 
China 
