Published 26.05.2014 00:11 GMT+3 | Author Martin Merk

With the conclusion of the World Championship the new 2014 IIHF World Ranking and the groups for the 2015 World Championship in the Czech Republic became known.

Bronze medallist Sweden defends first position in the IIHF World Ranking 35 points ahead of Finland, while Russia moves up from fourth to third place after winning gold today in the 2014 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Minsk, Belarus.

The IIHF World Ranking measures the success of the national team programs based on the last four IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships and the most recent Olympic Winter Games played earlier this year in Sochi, Russia.

After missing the semi-finals in Minsk, Olympic champion Canada dropped down to fourth place followed by the Czech Republic (5th), the United States (6th), Switzerland (7th) and Slovakia (8th), whose positions remained unchanged.

Latvia moved up to ninth place after a strong campaign in Minsk, in place of Norway, now tenth.

Host Belarus, which reached the quarter-finals for the first time in five years, made the biggest jump from 15th to 11th place and overtook France (12th), Germany (from 11th to 13th), Slovenia (14th) and Denmark (from 13th to 15th). Among Division I countries, Croatia improved most, moving from 30th to 28th place, while most other positions changed by zero to one positions only.

Click here for the 2014 IIHF World Ranking: Men, Women

The IIHF World Ranking is used to determine the seeding of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in the top division as well as for the Olympic Winter Games and Olympic Qualification. With the new ranking, the groups and seeding for the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Prague and Ostrava, Czech Republic, were established.

The IIHF exercised the option of amending the seeding to accommodate special requirements of the organizing committee and for geographical considerations in accordance with the IIHF Sport Regulations by switching Slovakia and Switzerland. Pending formal approval, the groups will be as below. Proposed Groups for 2015:

(brackets: World Ranking position) Group A Group B (in Prague) (in Ostrava) Sweden (1) Finland (2) Canada (4) Russia (3) Czech Republic (5) USA (6) Switzerland (7) Slovakia (8) Latvia (9) Norway (10) France (12) Belarus (11) Germany (13) Slovenia (14) Austria (16) Denmark (15)

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