1996 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships

First round Group 1 Group 2 Playoff round Quarterfinals Consolation round 11–12 place Austria was relegated to Group B. Semifinals Match for third place Final ==World Championship Group B (Netherlands)==

Played 10–20 April in Eindhoven. Latvia won at this level for the first time. In their final game, superb goaltending by Artūrs Irbe kept them in it, and a late tying goal by Oļegs Znaroks sealed the tournament victory. The final game had high drama for the host crowd, the Japanese and Danish teams among them. If the Netherlands were to lose to Poland, they would finish last and be relegated, a tie and Japan would be last, a win and Denmark would be last. A third period goal by Poland sealed Japan's fate. Latvia was promoted to Group A while Japan was relegated to Group C. ==World Championship Group C (Slovenia)==

Played 22–31 March in Jesenice and Kranj. For the fourth year in row the Kazakhs and Ukrainians met in Group C. For the first time the Kazakhs came out on top, and it was the difference in winning the tournament. Kazakhstan was promoted to Group B while Croatia was relegated to Group D. == World Championship Group D (Lithuania) ==

Played in Kaunas and Elektrenai 25–31 March. To narrow the field of the bottom tier to eight nations, two regional qualifying tournaments were used. Qualifying round Group 1 (Australia) Played 5 and 6 November 1995 in Sydney. Group 2 (Israel) Played 27–29 January 1996 in Metulla. The Greek team originally won both their games, but it was later found that they had used ineligible players. Both games were declared 5–0 forfeits in favour of the opposing team. First round Group 1 Group 2 The Israeli team, that had qualified for the tournament after the Greek forfeits, had to forfeit its first two games because they used two Russian players who did not have the proper clearance to play. Final Round 29–32 Place Host Lithuania won all five games to earn promotion to Group C. Consolation round 33–36 place ==Ranking and statistics==

Tournament awards • Best players selected by the directorate: • Best Goaltender: Roman Turek • Best Defenceman: Alexei Zhitnik • Best Forward: Yanic Perreault • Media All-Star Team: • Goaltender: Roman Turek • Defence: Michal Sýkora, Alexei Zhitnik • Forwards: Paul Kariya, Robert Reichel, Otakar Vejvoda Final standings The final standings of the tournament according to IIHF: Scoring leaders List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals. Source: Leading goaltenders Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played 40% of their team's minutes are included in this list. Source: [http://www.quanthockey.com/whc/en/seasons/1996-whc-goalies-stats.html ==Citations==