Ice hockey at the 2022 Winter Olympics – Men's qualification explained

Qualification for the men's tournament at the 2022 Winter Olympics was determined by the IIHF World Ranking following the 2019 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships. The host along with the top eight teams in the world ranking received automatic berths into the Olympics, while all other teams have an opportunity to qualify for the remaining three spots in the Olympics.

Qualified teams

EventDateLocationVacanciesQualified
Hosts17 May 2018[1] Copenhagen1
2019 IIHF World Ranking31 March 2016 – 26 May 2019 Bratislava and Košice8[2]






Final qualification tournaments26–29 August 2021 Bratislava1
Riga1
Oslo1
Total 12
Notes

Qualification seeding

To qualify directly, a nation had to be ranked in the top eight following the 2019 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. Using the IIHF World Ranking points system, the current year received full value, and each preceding year was worth 25% less. The following is a ranking based on points that were accumulated toward Olympic qualification of all countries participating in 2019.

Points were earned based on overall finish in 2019:

Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ...
Points 1200 1160 1120 1100 1060 1040 1020 1000 960 940 920 900 880 860 840 820 800 780 760 740 ...
    Qualified directly to Olympic Tournament
    Entered qualifying in the final round
    Entered qualifying in the pre-qualification round 3
    Entered qualifying in the pre-qualification round 2
    Entered qualifying in the pre-qualification round 1
Qualifying seedwidth=165TeamWC 2019
(100%)
WC 2018
(75%)
OLY 2018
(75%)
WC 2017
(50%)
WC 2016
(25%)
Total
1 1160 1100 1120 1160 1200 3705
2 1120 1040 1200 1120 1120 3640
3 1200 1060 1040 1100 1160 3615
4 1060 1200 1060 1200 1040 3615
5 1100 1020 1100 1020 1060 3465
6 1020 1120 1020 1060 1100 3430
7 1040 920 1160 1000 1020 3355
8 1000 1160 940 1040 920 3325
9 960 960 920 860 960 3040
10 940 1000 860 940 880 3025
11 900 880 1000 920 940 3005
12 920 940 800 900 1000 2925
13 840 900 840 960 860 2840
14 780 840 880 880 900 2735
15 820 860 780 800 740 2635
16 860 780 760 820 780 2620
17 760 820 900 780 720 2620
18 740 720 960 840 800 2620
19 800 760 820 760 820 2570
20 880 800 660 680 660 2480
21 720 740 700 720 840 2370
22 660 700 740 740 760 2300
23 640 660 720 660 700 2180
24 700 680 560 640 640 2110
25 600 620 680 700 680 2095
26 620 640 600 620 600 2010
27 680 600 580 560 580 1990
28 580 560 640 580 560 1910
29 540 580 620 600 620 1895
30 560 520 540 520 500 1740
31 500 440 520 460 540 1585
Host 480 500 440 440 460 1520
32 420 460 480 480 480 1485
33 440 400 460 400 400 1385
520 540 540 440 1305
34 360 360 500 360 420 1290
460 480 500 520 1200
35 320 300 420 300 340 1095
380 320 400 280 0 1060
400 420 420 380 1020
340 380 380 360 905
36 300 280 340 320 760
37 260 340 320 280 745
220 240 240 300 595
38 240 260 220 545
39 180 220 260 240 535
280 200 430
40 200 160 200 420
41 140 180 0 260 340
42 120 140 225
43 160 160
44 100 100

Pre-qualification Round 1

Eight teams began the qualification process in two tournaments. The winners of each tournament advanced to round 2 as qualifiers ten and eleven, where qualifier ten was the winner with the higher qualification seeding.

Group N

Games were played in Kockelscheuer, Luxembourg from 8 to 10 November 2019.

All times are local (UTC+1).

--------

Group O

Due to unrest in Hong Kong this tournament was moved to Sanya, China, and was played from 7 to 10 November 2019.[3]

All times are local (UTC+8).

--------

Pre-qualification Round 2

Twelve countries played in three tournaments to determine qualifiers for the next round. Each tournament winner was ranked by their qualification seeding and entered the next round as qualifier seven, eight, or nine.

Group K

All times are local (UTC+2).

--------

Group L

All times are local (UTC+1).

------------

The game was originally supposed to be played on 15 December 2019 but was stopped after a scoreless first period because of problems with the ice surface.[4] [5]

Group M

All times are local (UTC+1).

--------

Pre-qualification Round 3

Group G

All times are local (UTC+1).

--------

Group H

All times are local (UTC+6).

--------

Group J

All times are local (UTC±0).

--------

Final qualification

The tournaments were scheduled to take place from 27 to 30 August 2020, but were moved to 26 to 29 August 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[6] [7]

Group D

The tournament was held at the Ondrej Nepela Arena in Bratislava, Slovakia.[8]

All times are local (UTC+2).

--------

Group E

The tournament was played at the Arēna Rīga in Riga, Latvia.

All times are local (UTC+3).[9]

--------

Group F

The tournament was played at the Jordal Amfi in Oslo, Norway.

All times are local (UTC+2).--------

Notes and References

  1. News: China set for Olympic ice hockey. 17 May 2018. IIHF. 26 May 2019.
  2. Web site: Olympic Winter Games. IIHF. 26 May 2019.
  3. News: Olympic Qualification group moved to Hainan. 14 October 2019. IIHF. 10 November 2019.
  4. Web site: Group L showdown abandoned. IIHF. 15 December 2019.
  5. Web site: Netherlands-Spain on 8 January. IIHF. 19 December 2019.
  6. News: Olympic qualifiers moved. 6 May 2020. IIHF. 6 May 2020.
  7. News: Dates for Olympic Qualification. 10 March 2021. IIHF. 10 March 2021.
  8. News: Olympic Qualification in Bratislava. 6 March 2020. IIHF. 6 March 2020.
  9. News: Paziņots Olimpiskā kvalifikācijas turnīra kalendārs Rīgā . lv . Latvijas Hokeja federācija . 27 July 2021 . 25 August 2021 .