On April 25, the 2022 World Men's Ice Hockey Championships Division B Group A match will be played in Zagreb, Croatia. China has sent a squad that has just played in the Beijing Winter Olympics to strive to achieve the goal of winning the championship and promoting the group in this World Championship.
A week ago, the Chinese men's ice hockey team assembled in Italy. In the Chinese men's ice squad participating in this World Championships, many players have just participated in the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, including Ye Jinguang, Fu Shuai, Wang Taylor, Zhang Zesen, Zheng Enlai, Chen Zimeng and other players who have performed well in the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, as well as Zhou Kelin, Shen Jialei, Guo Ning and several other players who missed the Winter Olympics due to injury and illness, and will play for their country at the World Championships. The head coach is still the Beijing Winter Olympics national team coach Saneta.
Due to the announcement of australia's withdrawal, there are 5 teams participating in this competition, namely China, Croatia, the Netherlands, Spain and Israel, the competition adopts a single round robin format, and the team with the highest points will win the championship of this group and obtain the only qualification for promotion to the first division.
After the Beijing Winter Olympics, the World Ranking of the Chinese men's ice hockey team rose five places to currently rank 27th, the highest-ranked team in this tournament. Previously, in order to prepare for the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese players participated in the Russian mainland ice hockey league as kunlun Hongxing club team. In the following Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese team has successively played with the United States, Canada and Germany and gained self-confidence.
The Chinese men's ice hockey team has not been promoted to the second division for 15 years after falling from the first division to the second division at the 2007 World Championships. Due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the men's ice hockey world championship division B group A match has been cancelled in the past two years, and in the 2019 world championships, the Chinese team ranked fifth with 1 win and 4 losses. If the Chinese men's ice hockey team wants to enter the Milan Winter Olympics through rankings and results, it needs to return to the first division through this World Championship to have the opportunity to advance to the next Winter Olympics.
Text/Beiqing Sports Chu Peng