Tournament Format

The 12 teams are seeded in three groups of four teams each and will play a round robin within their group including 18 games (three per team).

The teams and groups were seeded according to the 2012 IIHF Men’s World Ranking. The tournament includes the top-nine nations and three qualifiers.

The 2014 Olympic Winter Games Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament is to operate between 8 and 23 February 2014. The game format will be the same game format used in Vancouver 2010.

The Final Round includes 4 Qualification Playoff Games, 4 Quarter-Final Games, 2 Semi-Final Games, one Bronze Medal Game and one Gold Medal Game:

At the conclusion of the Preliminary Round all 12 teams will be ranked according to a special criterion. This ranking will be used for seeding the teams in the Qualification Playoff games and will used for calculating the Final Ranking at the conclusion of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games Men’s Tournament.

The following criteria will be used in the order presented to determine this ranking following completion of the Preliminary Round (1D – 12D):

Higher position in the group

Higher number of points

Better goal difference

Higher number of goals scored for

Better 2013 IIHF World Ranking

After the Preliminary Round, 1D, 2D, 3D and 4D will receive a bye into the Quarter-Finals and will be named as the Home Team for their Quarter-Final pairing. The teams ranked 5-12 will play in the Qualification Playoff games called Group E with the following match-ups:

5D – 12D (Winner will become E1)

6D – 11D (Winner will become E2)

7D – 10D (Winner will become E3)

8D – 9D (Winner will become E4)

The four winning teams of the Qualification Playoff games will advance to the Quarter Final Round. The four losing teams of the Qualification Playoff games will be ranked 9 through 12 according to their ranking after the Preliminary Round.

The Quarter-Final Games will be played with the following match-ups (Group F ):

1D – E4 (Winner will become F1)

2D – E3 (Winner will become F2)

3D – E2 (Winner will become F3)

4D – E1 (Winner will become F4)

The four winning teams of the Quarter-Final games will advance to the Semi-Finals. The four losing teams of the Quarter Finals will be ranked 5 through 8 according to their ranking after the Preliminary Round.

The Semi-Final games will be played with the following match-ups. The home team will be the higher ranked team as determined at the completion of the Preliminary Round (Group D):

F1 – F4

F2 – F3

The two winning teams of the Semi-Finals will play for the Gold Medal while the two losing teams of the Semi-Finals will play for the Bronze Medal. The team with the higher Preliminary Round ranking will be the home team in each medal game.

Three Point System

For all games points shall be awarded as follows:

3 points for the winning team at the conclusion of regulation time

1 point for both teams at the conclusion of regulation time if the game is tied

An additional point earned for the team winning the game in a 5-minute overtime period, or the Game Winning Shots Procedure if the teams are still tied following conclusion of the overtime period

0 points for the team losing the game in regulation time

Overtime Operations

If a game is tied at the end of regulation time, a five-minute overtime period shall be played immediately after an intermission of three minutes. The teams will defend the same goals as in the third period. The game will end when the five minutes has expired or when a goal is scored; the scoring team will be declared the winner. If no goal is scored in the overtime period then the Game Winning Shots Procedure will apply. All overtime periods of any IIHF game shall be played with each team at the numerical strength of four (4) skaters and one (1) goalkeeper.

Overtime procedure in Play-Off Games:

In case of a tie at the conclusion of regulation time in a Quarter Final, Semi Final and Bronze Medal Game, there will be a 10-minute sudden-death overtime period played, following a three-minute intermission.

The teams will defend the same goals as in the third period.

The team, which scores a goal during this period is the winner.

In the Gold Medal game there will be a 20-minute sudden-death overtime period, following a 15-minute intermission during which the ice will be resurfaced.

The teams will change ends.

The team which scores a goal during this period is declared winner.

If no goal is scored during the sudden-death overtime, there will be Game Winning Shot (GWS) competition ("shootout") according to the Game Winning Shots Procedure.

Game Winning Shots Procedure

If no goal is scored in the overtime period then the Game Winning Shots (GWS) procedure will apply. The following procedure will be utilized:

Three different shooters from each team will take alternate shots, until a decisive goal is scored.

If the game is still tied after three shots by each team, the GWS will continue with a tie-break shoot out by one player of each team, with a reversed shooting order. The same or new players can take the tie-break shots.

The same player can also be used for each shot by a team in the tie-break shoot-out.

Only the decisive goal will count in the result of the game.

Shots will be taken at both ends of the ice. The area of the ice to be used will be dry scraped.

A coin toss will determine which team takes the first shot, with the winner of the toss having the choice whether his team will shoot first or second.

Any player whose penalty was not over when overtime ended cannot take the shots and must stay in the penalty box or in the dressing room.

Once named, players may only be replaced in the event of injury or penalty.

The substitute stand-by player is placed last in the shooting order.

The goalkeepers will defend the same goal, as determined by the Referee. The goalkeepers from each team may be changed after each shot.

The players of both teams will take the shots alternately until a decisive goal is scored.

The decisive goal will be credited to the player who scored and to the goalkeeper concerned.

Tie breaking formula

The tie-breaking system for two teams with the same number of points in a standing will be the game between the two teams, the winner of the game taking precedence.

Due to the fact that the three-point system does not allow a game to end in a tie, then the following tie breaking procedure is applicable when three or more teams are tied in points in a Championship standing.

Should three or more teams be tied on points, then a tie breaking formula will be applied as follows, creating a sub-group amongst the tied teams. This process will continue until only two or none of the teams remain tied. In the case of two tied teams remaining, the game between the two would then be the determining tie-breaker as the game could not end as a tie. In the case of none of the teams being tied, the criteria specified in the respective step applies.

Step 1: Taking into consideration the games between each of the tied teams, a sub-group is created applying the points awarded in the direct games amongst the tied teams from which the teams are then ranked accordingly.

Step 2: Should three or more teams still remain tied in points then the better goal difference in the direct games amongst the tied teams will be decisive.

Step 3: Should three or more teams still remain tied in points and goal difference then the highest number of goals scored by these teams in their direct games will be decisive

Step 4: Should three or more teams still remain tied in points, goal difference and goals scored then the results between each of the three teams and the closest best-ranked team outside the sub-group will be applied. In this case the tied team with the best result (1. points, 2. goal difference, 3. more goals scored) against the closest best ranked-team will take precedence

Step 5: Should the teams still remain tied, then the results between each of the three teams and the next highest best-ranked team outside the sub-group will be applied.

Step 6: Should the teams still remain tied after these five steps have been exercised then Sport considerations will be applied and the teams will be ranked by their positions coming into the Championship (seeding).

Note: If not all mutual games have been played yet in an ongoing tournament, the tied teams will be ranked in the standings according to the following criteria: 1. Lower number of games played, 2. Goal difference, 3. Goals scored, 4. Positions coming into the Championship.

World Ranking

The post-Olympic 2014 IIHF World Ranking will be produced after the Olympic men's ice hockey tournament. It is based on the rankings of the four most recent IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships and of the last Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament (including qualification tournaments).

Click here for more information on the IIHF World Ranking system.

More information

Click here to download the IIHF’s Rule Book and Sport Regulations.