ZURICH, SUI -- The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) announced on Monday that Canada is still the top ranked country in the IIHF World Women Ranking, despite the 1-0 Game Winning Shot (“Penalty shootout”) loss to the USA in the gold medal game of the 2005 IIHF World Women Championship on Saturday.  Canada is currently also the top ranked country in the IIHF World Men’s hockey ranking.

The IIHF World Ranking serves to reflect the long-term quality of the countries’ national team programs. The 2005 IIHF World Women Ranking is based on the performance in the last three World Championships (2005, 20) and also in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.

The U.S. earned the maximum 1200 points for their win over Canada in Linkoping, Sweden on Saturday, while silver medalist Canada received 1160 points. Canada still leads the women’s world ranking with a total of 2960 points, but USA is close behind with 2940.

Finland’s women’s team retained their position as the number three in the world, but the 5-2 Swedish victory in the bronze medal game put Sweden’s women’s team, now with 2760 points, only five points behind Finland’s 2765.

Germany is the new number-five women’s country with 2625, the same total as Russia, but the Germans get the higher position due to their fifth-place finish in Sweden. Russia finished eighth and was relegated to division I. The IIHF World Women Ranking will next be recalculated following the women’s Olympic ice hockey tournament in Turin, February 11 – 20, 2006.