1971 Ice Hockey World Championships

1971 Ice Hockey World Championships

Tournament details
Host country	Switzerland
Dates	19 March – 3 April
Teams	6
Final positions
Champions	Soviet Union (11th title)
Runner-up	Czechoslovakia
Third place	Sweden
Fourth place	Finland
Tournament statistics
Games played	30
Goals scored	234 (7.8 per game)
Attendance	190,251 (6,342 per game)
Scoring leader(s)	Anatoli Firsov 19 points
← 1970 1972 →

The 1971 Ice Hockey World Championships was the 38th edition of the Ice Hockey World Championships, which also doubled as the 49th European ice hockey championships. The Pool A, Pool B and Pool C tournaments were hosted by the following nations:

Pool A in Switzerland (Bern and Geneva), 19 March – 3 April 1971

Pool B in Switzerland (Bern, Geneva, La Chaux-de-Fonds and Lyss), 5–14 March 1971

Pool C in the Netherlands, 26 February – 7 March 1971

A record 22 nations^[1] participated in the tournaments. The Pool A tournament featured the top six nations, playing a double round-robin tournament for the World Championship. Teams #7-#14 participated in the Pool B tournament with the winner qualifying for the 1972 Pool A championship while the two last-place teams were demoted to the 1972 Pool C tournament. The bottom eight teams participated in the Pool C tournament with the top two teams qualifying for the 1972 Pool B tournament.

The Soviet Union won its ninth consecutive (a record which has not been broken), and 11th overall, title.

This was the last international tournament in which goaltenders did not have to wear face masks.^[2]