The Czechoslovak national men's ice hockey team was one of the world's premiere teams during the Soviet dominated international hockey era, often fighting Sweden for second place but sometimes beating the Soviets. Due to the split of the country Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, after 1992 the team was disbanded and replaced with the Czech and the Slovak national men's hockey teams. IIHF recognized Czech national men's hockey team as a successor of Czechoslovakia national ice hockey team and kept it in top Group, and Slovak national men's hockey team was demoted to Pool C.