The 2009 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship was the 13th IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship, an international inline hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation. The World Championship runs alongside the 2009 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship Division I tournament and took place between 6 and 13 June 2009 in Ingolstadt, Germany and the Saturn Arena. The tournament was won by Sweden, earning their third straight World Championship title and fifth overall. The United States finished in second place and Germany in third after defeating Finland in the bronze medal match. Slovakia, after losing the seventh/eighth game against Canada was relegated to Division I for 2010.
Seven of the eight teams automatically qualified for the 2009 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship while the eighth spot was awarded to the winner of the 2008 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship Division I tournament. Six nations from Europe, and two nations from North America were represented. The 2008 Division I tournament was won by Canada who defeated Great Britain to earn promotion to the World Championship.[1]
The seeding in the preliminary round was based on the final standings at the 2008 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship and 2008 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship Division I tournaments.[3] The World Championship groups are named Group A and Group B while the 2009 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship Division I tournament uses Group C and Group D, as both tournaments were held in Ingolstadt, Germany.[3] The teams were grouped accordingly by seeding at the previous year's tournament (in parentheses is the corresponding seeding):[3]
Eight participating teams were placed in the following two groups. After playing a round-robin, the top three teams in each group advance to the playoff round. The last team in each group compete in the qualifying round where they face-off against the top ranked teams of Group C and Group D from the Division I tournament for a chance to participate in the Top Division playoffs.[3]
Canada and Slovakia advanced to the qualifying round after finishing last in Group A and Group B respectively.[4] Canada faced off against Austria, who finished first in Group C of the Division I tournament, and Slovakia was drawn against Brazil, who finished first in Group D of the Division I tournament, for a chance to participate in the Top Division playoffs.[5][6] Both Canada and Slovakia won their matches and advanced to the Top Division playoffs, while Austria and Brazil advanced to the Division I playoffs.[6]
Canada and Slovakia advanced to the playoff round after winning their qualifying round matches. They were seeded alongside the six other teams of the tournament based on their results in the preliminary round. The four winning quarterfinalists advanced to the semifinals while the losing teams moved on to the placement round.[7] Slovakia was relegated to Division I after losing the seventh/8th game against Canada, while Slovenia finished fifth after defeating the Czech Republic in the fifth/6th game.[7][8] In the semifinals the United States defeated Finland and Sweden beat Germany, both advancing to the gold medal game.[7] After losing the semifinals Finland and Germany played off for the bronze medal with Germany winning 9–5.[7] Sweden defeated the United States 7–6 in the gold medal game, earning their third straight World Championship title and fifth overall.[7][9]