 Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in January 1993 . The IIHF recognized the Czech Republic 's team as the successor to Czechoslovakia and it retained its position in the top division . Slovakia 's team began in the lowest division ( Pool C ) in 1994 and was forced to work its way up . Following this , the next decade was dominated by the so @-@ called " Big Six " – Canada , the Czech Republic , Finland , Russia , Sweden and the United States . From 1992 to 1996 , five different teams won the World Championship . At the 1993 World Championships , Russia won its first title as an independent nation and the Czech Republic won its first medal ( bronze ) . In 1994 , the Canadian team finished the preliminary round undefeated and defeated Finland in the final to win their first World Championship since 1961 . The following year in Sweden , the Finnish team won its first ever World Championship . Led by their top line of Saku Koivu , Ville Peltonen and Jere Lehtinen , the Finns defeated rival Sweden in the gold medal game . At the 1995 Pool B championships , Slovakia , led by Peter Šťastný won Pool B and was promoted to the top division , where it has remained ever since . In 1996 , the Czech Republic won its first World Championship as a separate country . During this period , the United States was the only one of the " Big Six " not to win the World Championship , although they did win the 1996 World Cup of Hockey . In the mid @-@ 1990s , several new teams such as Latvia , Belarus , Kazakhstan and Ukraine were quickly improving and older nations such as Austria , Italy and Switzerland were at risk of being relegated to Pool B. The IIHF feared that it would lose advertising revenue if that happened , so the number of teams was increased to 16 starting in 1998 . 
