Ice hockey at the 2006 Winter Olympics – Men's qualification explained

Qualification for the men's tournament at the 2006 Winter Olympics was determined through the IIHF World Ranking following the 2004 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. The top eight teams in the World Ranking received automatic berths into the Olympics, Italy received a berth as the host, while all other teams had an opportunity to qualify for the remaining three spots in the Olympics through qualifying tournaments.

Qualified teams

Event	Date	Location	Vacancies
2004 IIHF World Ranking	26 March 2001 – 9 May 2004	Prague and Ostrava	8
Final qualification tournament	10–13 February 2005	Kloten	1
Final qualification tournament	10–13 February 2005	Riga	1
Final qualification tournament	10–13 February 2005	Klagenfurt	1
Host			1
TOTAL			12

Notes

Qualification seeding

width=10px bgcolor="#ccffcc"		Qualified directly to Olympic Tournament
width=10px bgcolor="#ccccff"		Final qualification tournament
width=10px bgcolor="#fffacd"		Pre-qualification tournament

Qualifying seed	width=165	Team	WC 2004 (100%)	WC 2003 (75%)	WC 2002 (50%)	OLY 2002 (50%)	WC 2001 (25%)	Total
1		1200	1200	1040	1200	1060	3485
2		1160	1160	1120	1060	1120	3400
3		1100	1120	1200	880	1020	3235
4		1060	1100	1060	1020	1200	3225
5		1040	1060	1100	1040	1160	3195
6		1120	880	1020	1160	1100	3145
7		940	1020	1160	1120	1040	3105
8		960	1040	1000	1000	1000	2990
9		1000	1000	940	920	960	2920
10		1020	960	920	960	880	2900
11		920	940	900	900	920	2755
12		860	900	960	940	940	2720
13		780	860	800	1100	860	2590
14		900	920	780	840	700	2575
15		840	820	820	740	820	2440
16		800	840	880	700	800	2420
17		880	800	720	780	720	2410
18		820	780	760	860	740	2400
		760	680	840	800	900	2315
19		720	760	860	760	780	2295
20		740	740	700	820	840	2265
21		660	720	740	640	680	2060
22		700	660	660	660	640	2015
23		680	700	560	720	600	1995
		640	640	680	680	760	1990
24		620	620	640	600	560	1845
25		560	580	540	620	580	1720
26		540	500	580	540	620	1630
27		520	520	500	580	460	1565
		600	560	600	0	540	1455
28		500	600	620		660	1425
29		420	460	440	560	440	1375
		580	540	520		400	1345
		440	480	480		520	1170
		480	420	420		480	1125
		380	400	460		500	1035
		460	440	320			950
		340	380	400		420	930
		320	360	380		380	875
		400	320	280		360	870
		280	340	300		340	770
		360	300	340			755
		300	280	360			690
		260					260
		240					240

Great Britain and South Korea chose not to participate in Olympic qualifying.

Olympic pre-qualification tournaments

Three round-robins were played from 11 to 14 November 2004. The teams seeded 18th, 19th, and 20th reserved the right to host these tournaments. The winners of each advanced to the final qualification tournaments.

Group D

Games were played in Briançon, France.

Group E

Games were played in Nowy Targ, Poland.

Group F

Games were played in Stavanger, Norway.

Final Qualification Tournaments

Three round-robins were played from 10 to 13 February 2005. The teams seeded 9th, 10th and 11th reserved the right to host these tournaments. The three group winners qualified for the Olympic tournament.

Group A

Games were played in Kloten, Switzerland.

Group B

Games were played in Riga, Latvia.

Group C

Games were played in Klagenfurt, Austria.