The Czech Republic, after an early 2–3 upset loss to Norway in the preliminary round, ultimately claimed their sixth world championship title by defeating defending champions, two years running, Russia, 2–1 in the final.

Canada, which three months earlier, had won the 2010 Winter Olympics Men's Ice Hockey Gold on home-ice in Vancouver, after beating the Russians 7–3 in the Quarterfinals, had a disappointing tournament.

[4] This later triggered an international hockey dispute, when a column was posted on IIHF.com regarding these comments and about players' turning down invitations to attend.

[5] Sweden, the Czech Republic and Norway all moved on to the qualification round, while France was sent to the relegation after failing to win any matches.

[6] This group proved to be full of upsets; in the next match Denmark beat the fourth-seeded Finns, followed by the Danes defeating the Americans.

Finland came up with two wins to top the group and move on to the qualification round, along with Germany in second place and Denmark in third.

The final match between the U.S. and Finland determined the United States' last-place finish, and they were sent to the relegation round for the first time since 2003.

Slovakia finished a disappointing last, marking the third straight year in which they did not qualify for the quarter-finals in the lead up to their hosting of the 2011 IIHF World Championship.

[12] Latvia defeated Norway but later lost to the Czech Republic, which resulted in their last placement in the group and their failure to qualify.

Ilya Kovalchuk had a three-assist game and was a big boost for the Russians who won 5–2, following two late Canadian goals.

Midway through the second period Philip Gogulla scored on the power play to give Germany the lead, and this goal would turn out to be the game winner.

The Swiss outshot the Germans 41 to 27, and Dennis Endras is credited with keeping Germany in the game by preserving the one-goal lead.

[21] At the end of the match there was a brawl between the teams, which included German assistant coach Ernst Höfner getting into an altercation with Swiss defenceman Timo Helbling.

The remainder of the game was very close, and the tie was only broken with 1:50 minutes left, when Pavel Datsyuk scored the game-winning goal.

Early in the third period Jonas Andersson fired a shot from a very tight angle which managed to beat Dennis Endras on the five hole.

The score held until Andersson netted an empty-net goal to ensure Sweden's 3–1 victory, giving them their second straight bronze medal at the worlds.

The goal was seemingly the result of a defensive mistake which led to a Czech offensive possession with Russian defensemen out of position.

For the remainder of the period the Russians held almost complete possession of the puck, and veteran Sergei Fedorov hit the post after an odd man rush.

Very late in the period the Russians put the puck in the net on a power play, but it was determined to be after the clock had run out and was ruled as no goal.

This led to a 3-on-2 rush for the Czechs and Karel Rachůnek centered the puck while Tomáš Rolinek crashed the net.

[28] The third period began with more Russian pressure, including a close chance off the post by Evgeni Malkin, but at the midway point of the period Russian Alexei Emelin was given a five-minute major and thrown out of the game for clipping Jaromír Jágr, who did not return for the remainder of the game.

Those nations were: Slovakia and Sweden withdrew from bidding before voting began in order to apply for the 2011 World Championship.

[31] After one round of voting, the winning bid was announced by IIHF president René Fasel on 15 May 2005, from Zürich, Switzerland.

[35] The official motto of the tournament was unveiled on 2 September 2009, in Lanxess Arena and is "Germany on Ice" (German: Deutschland auf Eis).

[36] The World Championship Ambassadors for 2010 included; Canadian legend Wayne Gretzky, Soviet ice hockey goaltender and ten time World champion Vladislav Tretiak, and "Germany's ice hockey player of the century" Erich Kühnhackl.

[37] They were special members, alongside; Zdeno Chára, Peter Forsberg, Sergei Kostitsyn, Jari Kurri, Kim Martin, Mark Streit, Hayley Wickenheiser and Henrik Zetterberg, of a campaign called "The Green Puck campaign", which was an anti-doping initiative in association with the World Anti-Doping Agency.

[38] The opening game of the 74th IIHF World Championship took place at Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen on 7 May between Germany and the United States.

[39] This figure is higher than the past ice hockey attendance World Record held by Michigan State University, which was 74,554.

The noise inside the stadium was considerably loud, due to the German ice hockey chants, whistles and drums, which according to Ryan Carter of Team USA left the Americans frustrated at the inability to communicate.

The final standings of the tournament according to IIHF: List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals.