1998 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships

The 1998 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships were held in Helsinki and Hameenlinna, Finland. The championships began on December 25, 1997 and finished on January 3, 1998. Home team Finland was the winner, defeating Russia 2-1 in the gold medal game, thanks to the goaltending of Mika Noronen and the overtime heroics of Niklas Hagman. Switzerland defeated the Czech Republic 4-3 to capture the bronze medal. Also worth noting was that Canada had its five year title streak broken with its worst placing to date (8th). Ironically, Canada would miss out on gold 5 years in a row before beinging their current streak of 4 staight championships.

Pool A

Group A

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Finland	4	3	0	1	17	10	7
Czech Republic	4	2	1	1	16	12	5
Sweden	4	2	2	0	16	6	4
Canada	4	2	2	0	9	7	4
Germany	4	0	4	0	1	24	0

Group B

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Russia	4	3	0	1	22	6	7
Switzerland	4	2	1	1	17	5	5
United States	4	2	2	0	17	12	4
Kazakhstan	4	1	3	0	8	30	2
Slovakia	4	1	3	0	8	30	2

Relegation Round

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Slovakia	2	2	0	0	17	33	4
Germany	2	0	2	0	3	17	0

Germany relegated to Pool B for 1999.

Final Ranking

Rank	Country
	Finland
	Russia
	Switzerland
4	Czech Republic
5	United States
6	Sweden
7	Kazakhstan
8	Canada
9	Slovakia
10	Germany

Scoring leaders

Player	Country	GP	G	A	Pts
Jeff Farkas	United States	7	6	4	10
Olli Jokinen	Finland	7	4	6	10
Eero Somervuori	Finland	7	3	6	9
Ladislav Nagy	Slovakia	6	6	2	8
Brian Gionta	United States	7	5	3	8
Timo Vertala	Finland	7	4	4	8
Marian Hossa	Slovakia	6	4	4	8
Marcus Nilson	Sweden	7	3	5	8
Andrej Podkonicky	Slovakia	6	3	5	8
Maxim Balmochnykh	Russia	7	2	6	8

Tournament awards

All-star team

• Goaltender: David Aebischer
• Defencemen: Pierre Hedin, Andrei Markov
• Forwards: Maxim Balmochnykh, Olli Jokinen, Eero Somervuori

External links

• Statistics and results from Hockey Canada