The 1999 IIHF Women's World Championships was held between March 8–14, 1999, in Espoo and Vantaa in Finland. Team Canada won their fifth consecutive gold medal at the World Championships defeating the United States. Canada skated to a solid 3–1 victory in the final to take the gold with a solid performance that saw them winning all five games.
Finland picked up their fifth consecutive bronze medal, with a win over Sweden who had their strongest performance since 1992.
Qualification
The 1999 tournament created the format that has remained to the present, as the World Championships was greatly expanded to incorporate the European Championships and the Pacific Qualification Tournaments. There were a series of Qualification Tournaments Held to assign teams places in this first year, with the standard Promotion and Relegation model following after that. The top five nations from the Nagano Olympics were joined by three qualifiers.detailed qualification summary
Top five at the Olympics:
Qualifiers from world tournaments: - Final Qualification group A winner - Final Qualification group B winner - Won playoff against for final spot
World Championship Group A
The eight participating teams were divided up into two seeded groups as below. The teams played each other once in a single round robin format. The top two teams from the group proceeded to the Final Round, while the remaining teams played in the consolation round.
First round
Group A
Standings
Results All times local
Group B
Standings
Results All times local
Playoff round
Consolation round 5–8 place
Consolation round 7–8 place
Consolation round 5–6 place
Final round
Semifinals
Match for third place
Final
Champions
Scoring leaders Player GP G A Pts PIM +/- Jenny Schmidgall5571209 Jayna Hefford5561108 Kirsi Hanninen5551026 Petra Vaarakallio5371044 Sari Fisk545903 Karyn Bye553826 Nancy Drolet544806 Cammi Granato535809 Hayley Wickenheiser535885 Katie King543726
Goaltending leaders Player Mins GA SOG GAA SV% Sami Jo Small180:001560.3398.21 Kim St-Pierre120:001340.5097.06 Erin Whitten179:034721.3494.44 Tuula Puputti237:276891.5293.26 Laurie Beliveau120:002231.0091.30 Group A goaltending leaders
Final standings
Rk.TeamNotes 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Relegated to the 2000 World Championships Group B
World Championship Group B
In addition to the main World Championships, this year saw the first running of World Championship Group B, which replaced the European Championships. Eight further teams played in this competition, hosted by France in the town of Colmar. won the tournament defeating in the final 7-1 to win the competition and to ensure their Promotion to the main World Championship in 2000.
Directorate Awards Goalie: Sami Jo Small, (Canada) Defender: Kirsi Hanninen, (Finland) Forward: Jenny Schmidgall, (United States)Collins gem Hockey Facts and Stats 2009-10, p. 542, Andrew Podnieks, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd, Toronto, Canada,
References
External links Summary from the Women's Hockey Net Detailed summary from passionhockey.com