Winter Olympic Games Beijing 2022 Countdown Thread

[hckošice 15,085]

40

 

[hckošice 15,085]

30 Days to the XD Curling competition olympic start

 

[hckošice 15,085]

30 Days To Go

HOCKEY SPECIAL RECAP #1 (1924-1948)

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Chamonix 1924

 

The Toronto Granites tournament winners representing Canada

 

More on the story

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The Hockey Tournament of the 1924 Winter Olympics took place from 28 January to 3 February at the Olympic Stadium in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France, it was the 2nd Ice Hockey tournament played under the five rings, first in the winter olympics edition, it was at that time also counted as the second Ice Hockey World Championship. Eight teams participated at The tournament, which were divided into two groups. The first two teams from both groups moved to the final group. The Olympic title and world championship title was awarded to the Toronto Granites, who played here as the Canadian ice hockey team.

 

For The first time the games was played for 3x20 minutes.

 

At the time of the tournament, no one knew that it was the first Winter Olympics because it was as only part of the Winter Sports Week. However, no one questioned it, because after four years, both overseas teams came to Europe again.

The Canadians and Americans were seeded in different groups and in fact as expected absolutely dominated them perfectly. They did not received any goals and defeated their opponents by two-digit differences.

The Czechoslovak national ice hockey team did not come in the strongest team due to the internal problems in the domestic Ice Hockey federation. In the beginning, the team suffered the toughest defeat in all Czechoslovak history when the team did received twice the number of goals from Canada compared to the tournament four years ago. The Czechoslovak players were already too old for such tournament and they did not find any decent tactic against the Canadians resulting in a 0:30 slaughter. However, the team failed also in the next match with the Swedes and the final win over the Swiss could not save the team from the early elimination. The Czechoslovak team for the first time left the international championship without finishing among the first three.

In the second group, the French failed to make the qualification for the final round, so it was the British team who altogether with the United States moved into the final group.

 

The British hockey players won the bronze medal winning the final match against Sweden after the closest result of the tournament  4-3. At that time, the gold for the Canadians was already decided, in the previous match they were able to cope with the very hard play of the Americans and defeating them 6-1.

 

No match of the tournament ended with a draw.

 

 

Final Ranking:

1. Canada  (Represented by Toronto Granites)

2. United States

3. Great Britain

4. Sweden

5. Czechoslovakia

6. France

7. Belgium

8. Switzerland

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Sankt Moritz 1928

 

The Canadian team, 1928 Olympic champions

 

More on the Story

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The Ice Hockey Tournament of the 1928 Winter Olympics took place from 11th to 19th February in the Badrutts Park in Sankt Moritz, Switzerland, the tournament was counted as the 3rd World Championships and the 13th Ice Hockey European Championship as well.

 

The tournament was attended by eleven teams, and the Canadians who were directly seeded to the final group took the Gold medals without conceding any single goal again. The title of the European Champions was won by the silver medalists Swedes.

 

This time from the overseas came Only a Canadian team, this time from the Toronto Varsity Grads, which had enough time to rest as they were automatically seeded in the final group. The remaining ten teams were divided into three preliminary groups, of which only the winners got into the final medal pool. All the groups presented very interesting games and big dramas until the end, only the Hungarians went home without any single point and the Germans did not score any single goal but reached 1 point thanks a 0-0 draw with Austria.

 

The most unpredictable situation was in Group A, in which the first three teams defeated each other and the British topped the group only by the best overall score which was the first tiebreak to determine the tied teams. The toughest and closest results were achieved in Group C, which was won by the Swiss hockey players, a result which obviously made the home fans really happy and eagerly excited for the later parts of the tournament.

 

The Czechoslovak national ice hockey team arrived to Sankt Moritz in a strangely created squad, which was in fact build under complicated conditions, as the oldest generation of players knew that it was their last chance to go on such a tournament. But Still, the young players prevailed in it, for example the legendary scorer Jirkovský was not even called for this tourney. The most important and decisive match for this team came immediately at the start of the games against Sweden. The Czechoslovak players unfortunately did not scored any goal in this match and their hopes to qualify for the medal round were destroyed already the first day with the lose 0-3, in their next and last match of the tournament they defeated the Poles by a tight win 3-2.

 

The final group was entirely under the direction of the Canadian hockey players who defeated everyone there by double-digit results. The Swedes were the first to compete against them, and then they could at least calmly concentrate and focusing on next matxhes and winning the silver medals and the title of European Champions. The Home hockey players after beating the British team 4-0 won the Bronze medals for the enjoyment of the home fans.

 

Picture from the action in the Match between Canada and Switzerland in the final round

 

 

Final Ranking:

1. Canada  (Represented by Toronto Varsity Grads)

2. Sweden

3. Switzerland

4. Great Britain

5. France

6. Austria

7. Czechoslovakia

8. Belgium

9. Poland

10. Germany

11. Hungary

 

 

Entry of the Poland´s Ice Hockey team during the Opening Ceremony Parade of Nations

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Lake Placid 1932

 

The Winnipeg Hockey Club representing Canada at Lake Placid 1932

 

More on the story

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The Ice Hockey Tournament of the 1932 Winter Olympics took place from 4th to 13th February in Lake Placid the New York´s iconic winter sports resort in the United States. The tournament was counted as the 6th Ice Hockey World Championships as well.

 

The tournament was played by only four teams that played a double round-robin tournament, every team played 2 games against each opponent. Matches took place in two places (the James B. Sheffield Olympic Skating Rink and the Jack Shea Arena), each one of them hosted six games.

 

The Gold Olympic Medals (4th consecutive - counting also the Ice Hockey tournament of the 1920 Summer Olympics) and World Champions (6th consecutive) title was again won more or less easily by the Canadians. Even if this time the Winnipeg Hockey Club which got the honor to represent the birthplace of Hockey in Lake Placid lost 1 point after a 2-2 draw in the very last match of the tournament against the USA.

 

The ongoing huge world economical crisis strongly affected the whole Olympic Games in 1932, for example only 2 European teams traveled to the USA to attend the ice hockey tournament - Germany and Poland.

 

Both did not have any chance against the two North American representatives and their respective matches had to decide only about the bronze medals. The Germans won both games 2-1 and 4-1 and took their first of their two all-times ice hockey Olympic medals.

 

In the battle for gold and silver The Canadians played against the Host team 2 exciting and dramatic matches. Both games was extremely close and both games had to move to the Overtimes, in the first which later appeared to be the decisive one Canada won 2-1. the second and last one of them even finished without winner 2-2.

 

Image from one of the two Canada vs USA Lake Placid 1932 clashes

 

 

Final Ranking:

1. Canada  (Represented by Winnipeg Hockey Club)

2. United States

3. Germany

4. Poland

 

Canada - Poland 10-0 was the highest and at that time - uncommonly - the only one double-digit result of the tournament

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936

 

The 1936 Olympic Champions, Great Britain Ice Hockey team composed of one player born in Canada, In overall nine players grew up in Canada, and eleven of the thirteen had played previously in Canada

 

More on the Story

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The 1936 Winter Olympics ice hockey tournament was held from 6th to 16th February 1936 at the Olympic Stadium and at the Lake Riessersee in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The tournament was also counted as the 10th World Championship and the 21st European Ice Hockey Championship.

 

The tournament was attended by fifteen teams, and finished by a huge upset. The Olympic, World and European titles unexpectedly went to Great Britain, who as the very first European team in history managed to win in a competition with both overseas teams competing.

 

The tournament was contested on two ice rinks. Part of the tournament was played in a artificial ice of the newly build Olympic Stadium for 10 000 spectators and remaining matches on the frozen Lake Riessersee. The tournament was played in different format of three rounds, In the first one all teams were divided into four preliminary groups from which only the first two teams of each pool advanced to the second round the Semifinals groups. In this stage there were 2 Semifinals groups of four teams each one, and again the first two from both pools advanced to the final group.

 

It was the British team who had been slightly advantaged in the first round in fact, since they were altogether with the Swedes the only teams playing in a only 3 teams group, after the withdraw of Yugoslavia they both had just to beat the Japanese to advance for the second stage. All other groups were composed by four teams. The most balanced group was the group C, where the Host Team of Germany and the United States team advanced both with equal amount of 4 points from 2 wins and 1 lose. But the USA team could call themselves really lucky because it was the Swiss who saved them from the absolute disaster and epic shame, The Swiss defeated Italy in the last day of the first round, but the Italians were too much tired in that game since only few hours before they played another huge match ending after the overtime with a sensational and historic win over the Americans 2-1. For the Swiss, however, this win against Italy 1-0 was the only one in the whole tournament, it was a big surprise to see the reigning European champions eliminated so early. In other hand The qualification for the semifinal round for the Canadians was much more easier, The top favorite won all 3 matches conceding only 3 goals and scoring 24.

Only one team advanced from the preliminary round without conceding a single goal, it was the Czechoslovak team, which managed to win all 3 matches of the preliminary pool with a total score 10-0 beating Belgium 5-0, Hungary 3-0 and France 2-0. The team arrived to Germany with a quite older roster and after played only 1 preparation international match. The team leader Zadák a important figure in the structures of Sparta Prague, had to face a huge pressure especially from the players of the LTC Prague. The Medias again after eight years wrote that the team is composed only by the same faces and same old names, which refuse to let their places to new young talents. The complaints were especially about the Goaltender Peka, who finished in this tournament his incredible 23 years National Team career. The complaints increased, especially after the first defeat in the tournament suffered in the semifinal round with the USA 0-2, The team, however, won the next 2 games 4-1 over Sweden and 2-1 against Austria and advanced to the final-four. In this round, unfortunately the team did not scored a single goal losing 0-5 to Great Britain and 0-7 to Canada, the 0-2 result with the Americans was counted from the semifinal group, and finished last fourth.

 

If the semifinal group B had a relatively clear outcome resulting in the easy qualification of the USA and ex-Czechoslovakia, the Semifinal group A was more tense and already in their first match the world hockey experienced a huge upset, Canada lost to Great Britain 1-2, in the next game the host Germany managed to draw with the GB team 1-1, a unexpected and new situation for the Canadians who was in a real danger to not qualify for the medal round, they had to win their last game against the hosts and they succeeded winning 6-2.

 

Thus along with Czechoslovakia only the teams composed of players which gained experiences and raised in Canada advanced to the final round, CAN, USA and GBR. The format advantaged the Americans and Brits since the results from the semifinals round meets between GB and CAN and match between TCH and USA were counted and used in the medal round, so only a 0-0 draw between USA and Great Britain was enough for both teams to secure medals and for the Great Britain´s team to win the title, Canada winning both remaining matches against USA and Czechoslovakia, also assured at least the silver medals.

 

1936 Image after the match of Germany defeating Hungary, four years later the war puts the Olympic games and ideas on it´s knees... thankfully not for long time
 

 

Rudi Ball of Germany was the only jew allowed by Hitler to play in the host team

 

 

Final Ranking:

1. Great Britain 

2. Canada 

3. United States 

4. Czechoslovakia

---------------------------------------------------------------

5. Germany  - Eliminated in the Semifinal Round

5. Sweden  - Eliminated in the Semifinal Round

7. Austria  - Eliminated in the Semifinal Round

7. Hungary  - Eliminated in the Semifinal Round

-------------------------------------------------------------

9. Italy  - Eliminated in the Preliminary Round

9. France  - Eliminated in the Preliminary Round

9. Japan  - Eliminated in the Preliminary Round

9. Poland  - Eliminated in the Preliminary Round

13. Belgium  - Eliminated in the Preliminary Round

13. Latvia  - Eliminated in the Preliminary Round

13. Switzerland  - Eliminated in the Preliminary Round

 

Ex-Czechoslovakian 1936 Ice Hockey team before their first match against Belgium at lake Riessersee

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Sankt Moritz 1948

 

The Canadian team (RAFC Flyers), 1948 Olympic champions

 

More on the Story

  Reveal hidden contents

 

After the horrors of the war , finally came peace and the Olympic Games and ideas revived, 20 years after hosting the 2nd winter games, Sankt Moritz was selected to host also them again in 1948 only 3 years after the end of the World War 2.

The Ice Hockey tournament of the 1948 Winter Olympics took place from 30th January to 10th February 1948 in Sankt Moritz, Switzerland, It was also counted as the 15th Ice Hockey World Championship and the 26th Ice Hockey European Championship as well.

 

The tournament was attended by 9 teams which played a simple Round-Robin tournament, Everyone played one match against each opponent. However, The results of the USA, which was Disqualified, were counted only for the World Championships ranking, meaning only 8 teams were classified in the Olympic tournament. The first two team had exactly the same final amount of points, exactly the same record of 7 wins and 1 draw, so for the first time the Olympic champions were decided by total Goal average tie-break formula. The Canadians had a total Goal advantage of 69:5 and Czechoslovakia 80:18,

so only by 2 goals the Canadians (represented by the Ottawa RAFC Flyers) won their 5th Olympic Gold and 21st World title, Czechoslovakia took silver medals and the European title.

 

There was a huge problem and massive controversy before the start of the tournament, USA arrived with 2 teams !!!! They both wanted to participate at the tournament, this nearly caused the cancellation of the whole tournament. USA in fact sent two different teams. One send by the AHA (American Hockey Association) registered in the LIHG (predecessor of IIHF) and compossed only by professional players and one send by the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) sponsored by the US Olympic Committee and strictly composed by amateur players.

 

No resolutions was reached before the Games and both teams arrived at St. Moritz ready to play. This created a tense showdown between the USOC's president, the LIHG, the Swiss organizing committee and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The IOC was responsible for the overall running of the Games. The IOC initially ruled that neither team could compete. This incensed the LIHG, led by its new president Fritz Kraatz, who refused (since this tournament was also counted as a Ice Hockey World Championships) to allow in the tournament a team which was not a member of the federation, and openly threatened to boycott the Olympics. and organizing immediately a separately different tourney in Davos, 

The Swiss organizing committee, fearing this eventuality, ignored the IOC's ruling and allowed the AHA team to play in the tournament and the AAU team to at least march in the opening ceremony.

Eventually the parties also agreed to allow the AHA team to play but they would receive no official ranking in the Olympic tournament, and they would not be eligible to win a medal. their ranking (4.) will be counted only for the world championships.

 

Team USA competed in the tournament with a team of professionals, but their results were counted only for the world championship ranking, their Olympic results were annulled 

 

The ice hockey tournament was held on three different stadiums, but only on natural ice. Due to an altitude of about 2,000 meters above sea level, the organizers did not expected the problems that occurred.

Suddenly the snow started to fell because sudden higher temperatures. in fact the Ice hockey was not considered as the main part of the Olympics, which was manifested in several directions. The IOC showed it already before the start of the Olympics in the controversy affair around the USA teams. then during the games, in the evening sessions, Only the figure skating events was preferred to be contested on the only stadium with artificial lighting in St. Moritz. Some matches of the ice hockey tournament even have been played in front of a very bad visits of some tens of peoples as their was played only in some private ice rinks at the Palace Hotel and Suvretta hotel. An exception to this unfortunate state was the moment when the domestic hockey player Torriani lighted the Olympic cauldron and performed the Olympic oath for all athletes.

 

In difference of the World Championships in Prague held past year, this tournament had no many unexpected results and surprises. the tournament was in fact of a very good level with the traditionally really strong Canadians competing, plus the reigning Olympic champions from 1936 the Brits arrived too.

The Italians unfortunately this time send a very weak team and it was clear they are going for the last place since the first match, in which they lost with the Czechoslovak team  22-3. More than half of the matches in the tournament ended with a double digit result, and this was one of them. The biggest difference in the score was in the match USA - Italy 31-1.

A significant drop in the first post-war world championship was recorded by the Austrian team. The Bronze medals have been too far this time due to a single win throughout the tournament. The Scandinavian team was also very far away from the silver medals that they took from Prague. The British pre-war Olympic triumph did not even come close because they ended up behind the only representative from northern Europe. Instead, Poland retained its position after one year and again achieved two wins.

Domestic ice was good for the Swiss. The top moments of their view included a high win against the Swedes, which was set by six goals from the Trepp and the Polter brothers line. Three days before the end of the tournament, the home team was still undefeated. but then lose to the best two teams of the tournament and took the Bronze medals.

 

The Czechoslovak hockey team arrived to St. Moritz as a reigning and defending World Champion title from last year. Coach "Mike" Buckna this time could nominate seventeen players, two more than in the previous year.  Since the start of the tournament, Czechoslovakia has been trying to overcome its opponents mainly with the offensive game, which was reflected in the individual match scores. In the first game Czechoslovakia defeated Italy 22-3, then came the match against the Swedes, One of the team's goals in the tournament was to revenge the one year's old defeat from Sweden, and it happened by winning 6-3. In the following match Czechoslovakia won over Poland 13-1, in next matches 11-4 over Great Britain (in this match the goalie Modrý was excluded and according the this times rules, one of the defenders had to go to protect the net) and 17-3 over Austria.

Also the Canadian team passed the tournament Without any losing point, Its members were mainly RCAF mens who arrived at the from various military crews stationed in Europe. The Canadians came out to gain points mainly from a careful and excellent defense game. they conceded only 5 goals througouth the tournament.

Although the match between Czechoslovakia and Canada players was due to take place a few days before the end of the tournament, it was clear that the new Olympic winner would be very likely decided in this match. Canada, receiving the minimum of goals so far, has entered the match in a more mentally favorable position. The Canadian native coach of the Czechoslovak team Buckna has decided to adapt the absolutely similar tactics for this key match to the opponent. The result of the two-sided hard defensive game was a logical 0-0 draw, more suited to the Canadians. For Czechoslovakia, it was also a significant success because they did not lost to Canda for the first time in history at the Ice Hockey World Championship.

The Czechoslovak team still waited another important duel with the host nation team, the winner knew that will be awarded by the title of European Champion. The Swiss players had hopes even after the first period, but Czechoslovakia managed to decide the outcome of the match in the later parts and won 7-1 and the silver medals, the last win against USA 4-3 was not counted for the Olympic ranking.

 

The Canadians by defeating the home team in the very last game of the tournament 3-0 officially confirmed their gold. They knew that they were +2 goals ahead of the Czechoslovakian team so in fact every win guaranteed them the triumph. For Czechoslovakia it was a bit painful knowing they just needed to score 2 more goals against one of the weakest opponents to win the historic title.

 

The Olympic Medalists in the Ice Hockey Tournament of the Sankt Moritz 1948 WOG, Czechoslovakia, Canada and Switzerland

 

 

Final Ranking:

1. Canada  (Represented by Ottawa RAFC Flyers)

2. Czechoslovakia

3. Switzerland

4. Sweden

5. Great Britain

6. Poland

7. Austria

8. Italy

- United States DSQ

 

 

[hckošice 15,085]

30 Days to the Opening Ceremony (28 days to Go)

 

 

 

 

[hckošice 15,085]

25 Days To Go !

 

[hckošice 15,085]

25 Days To Go

HOCKEY SPECIAL RECAP #2 (1952-1968)

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Oslo 1952

 

Team Canada represented by the Edmonton Mercurys the 1952 Olympic Champion - for the next 50 years, they were the last Canadian Olympic Ice Hockey champions

 

More on the Story

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Finally the Winter Olympic Games were held in a Nordic Country.

 

The 7th Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament was played in Oslo Daelenenga stadium, Lillestrom, Sandvika, Drammen but mainly in the newly built Jordal Amfi in Oslo, Norway. At the request of the International Ice Hockey Federation, the organizers had to built a indoor rink for hockey, it was the first time in history that the Olympic tournament was played in a indoor arena.

 

Anyway, only few missed, and the Hockey was not played at all, Mainly because of the controversies around the USA teams in 1948, the IOC even dropped Ice Hockey from the Olympic program in 1951, However after huge lobbying from the sports powerhouses the same year during the IOC congress the sport was reinstated.

 

But then started another case, Due to significant performance differences in the last Winter Olympic Games and World Championships tournaments, the Netherlands, Belgium and France jointly submitted a proposal to the IOC for a new re-organization of the competition, it consisted of splitting teams in two different level groups, however the IOC did not found comprehension for that and refused it because it was opposed to one of the main Olympic principles - prevent any differentiation between strong and weaks and allowing all participants to fight for the same trophies. This resulted in a renunciation of all 3 countries to participate, later their "boycott" was jointed also by Austria and Italy. Anyway all these non-participating countries played this kind of lower category championship later this year in Liege, Belgium, it was the very first nowadays so-called lower division word championship tournament.

 

In the additional decisive bout for the bronze medals the Swedes led by one of the biggest stars of the world hockey history the legendary Sven "Tumba" Johansson defeated the non-prepared Czechoslovakian team 5-3

 

The Oslo 1952 tournament was also counted as the 19th World Championship and the 30th European Championships, It was contested by 9 Teams playing a simple Round-Robin tournament, Every team played once each opponent, with the best three nations at the end awarded by medals.

 

Canada, this time represented by the Edmonton Mercurys won the Gold, it was the 6th Olympic Ice Hockey title for Canada and the 15th World Championship title - who thought that it will be for a very very long period, exactly 50 years !!! their last Olympic Gold until the 2002 tournament in Salt Lake City and once again a gold ahead of the United States.

 

USA thanks the 3-3 tie in the last match against Canada took silver with 13 points,

and Sweden bronze (The Swedes as the highest ranked European team took also the Continental title ahead of Czechoslovakia and Switzerland). In fact there was a huge controversy about the Bronze medals. Sweden and Czechoslovakia both finishe tied in the Round-Robin with the exactly same record of 12 points for 6 wins and 2 loses, and plus they had both exactly the same Goal difference +29. Czechoslovakia even defeated Sweden in their head to head confrontation 4-0, Czechoslovakian players already started to celebrate the Bronze.........

But then the organizers decided that both teams should play in the last day one additional tie-breaker match - and Sweden won a couple of minutes before the Closing ceremony at the Jordal Amfi arena by 5-3 and won the Bronze.

 

Image from the match between Canada and Czechoslovakia 4-1

 

Final Ranking:

1. Canada  (Represented by Edmonton Mercurys)

2. United States

3. Sweden

4. Czechoslovakia

5. Switzerland

6. Poland

7. Finland

8. Germany

9. Norway

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Cortina d´Ampezzo 1956

 

The ex-Soviet Union Olympic debut ended in a absolute dominance of the tournament, the first ever USSR Olympic team won the whole tournament winning all matches.

 

More on the Story

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The Men´s Ice Hockey Tournament at the 1956 Winter Olympic Games was played at the Olympic Stadium and at the Appollonio Stadium in Cortina d´Ampezzo, Italy from 26th January to 4th February 1956. It was the 8th Ice Hockey Olympic Tournament and was also counted as the 23rd World Championships and 34th European Ice Hockey Championships.

 

The world started to notice a new Hockey powerhouse and a new super dominance in this sport started to raise. The Soviet Union made it´s Olympic debut in 1956, The Athletes from the former Soviet Union won more medals than any other nation, and in the Ice Hockey they absolutely dominated the competition as well. Really interesting fact, since the nation started to compete internationally in this sport only since 1954.

 

The tournament had a 2 rounds format. All 10 participating Nations were divided into 3 preliminary Round pools, the first 2 teams from each group advanced to the final stage played in a Round-Robin format (Each team faced every opponent) the remaining 4 non-qualified teams played a Consolation round-robin for 7th-10th places.

 

There was also some noteworthy moments that happened already before the start of the games. Especially around the Germans teams, Both East and West German teams wanted to participate, but the IOC announced they will allow only one team to compete under a unified German flag, a situation that was unfortunately not going to be solved so easy, since both teams couldn´t come to a agreement how the team will be formed, so they decided to play a Qualification game before the games to got the right to represent Germany, and it´s the West Germany who won the match and represented the so-called Unified German team in Cortina. The East Germans at least hosted the same year the often called "B" category world Championships in Berlin for the non participating countries.

 

The USSR won all their games and won their first historic Olympic gold in their debut under the five rings, it was their second World Championships title and 3rd European title in their 3rd International competition. The United States took silver and Canada won their 8th Olympic medal in their 8th Olympic participation, however, this time it was the first Bronze. Canada was represented this time by the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmens.

 

Image from the match USSR - Canada  2-0

 

In the preliminary round there wasn´t any big surprises to mention about, All favorites advanced to the final round without noticeable problems. Canada and the Unified German team advanced from Group A, Czechoslovakia and USA from Group B and USSR and Sweden from the Group C. Canada, Czechoslovakia and USSR as unbeaten teams.

 

The Final round started with a very important match between the United States and Canada and USA defeated their neighbors for the very first time in Olympic History 4-1, since Canada lost also in their last game to the ex-USSR 0-2, but defeated all their remaining rivals in the final-six they took the bronze. The Soviet Union won all matches to claim gold, including the crucial match over the USA 4-0.

 

The Consolation round was won by the Host Italy winning all 3 matches.

 

Picture from the game between the gold and silver medalists USSR and United States in the first day of the Final Round

 

 

Final Ranking:

1. Soviet Union

2. United States

3. Canada (Represented by Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmens)

4. Sweden

5. Czechoslovakia

6. Germany Unified Team (Composed only by West Germany players)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. Italy  -  Consolation Round

8. Poland  - Consolation Round

9. Switzerland  - Consolation Round

10. Austria  - Consolation Round

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Squaw Valley 1960

 

Team USA after winning all their 7 matches and crowned 1960 Olympic Champions, one of the most surprising and unexpected winners in all Olympic Ice Hockey history

 

More on the Story

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The Men´s Ice Hockey Tournament at the 1960 Winter Olympic Games took place from 19th to 28th February 1960 in Squaw Valley, California, USA.

 

9 National Teams attended the 9th Olympic Ice Hockey tournament, The games were played at Blythe Arena and at the Squaw Valley Olympic Skating Rink. The results of the tournament was also counted as the official results of the 27th World Championships and 38th European Championships as well.

 

The format of the tournament was similar to the one used for the previous 1956 tourney. All 9 participating countries were divided into 3 preliminary round pools, the top 2 teams from each group advanced to the Final-Six, where they played a Round-robin to determine the top 6 places, the last team of each group played a double Round-robin tournament in a so-called Consolation Round for the 7th place.

 

Once again already before the start of the Games, some controversies and politically sided problems occurred, Exactly like before 1956 the IOC allowed only one German team to participate to the games as a Unified German Team, and once again both German Ice Hockey federations couldn´t find a agreement about the composition of this "Mixed" team and decided to play a home-away qualification game to determine the nation which will represent Germany in Squaw Valley. West Germany again won this play-off winning 10-5 in Aggregate and got the honor of playing at the Olympics.

 

Another one and much more bigger controversy started because of the Amateur status. Certain teams especially the Canadian openly accused countries of the Eastern Bloc - mainly the ex-USSR to use some Professional Amateurs players, giving them phantom jobs in the Military club and by this allowing them to play at the Olympics. A issue which started during these games and lasted for the next decades culminating in a boycott of Canada in major hockey events in the 70s.

 

One of the crucial moments in the Gold road was the winning goal of the USA Canada 2-1 match

 

Despite being the top favorites of the tournament the Soviet Union team surprisingly didn´t maintained their Olympic title from Cortina. In Fact USSR finished "only" third behind both North American representatives. A huge upset. But the even bigger upset was the Host team winning first ever Ice Hockey Olympic Gold for the United States, Silver was won by Canada once again represented by the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen. USSR as the highest placed European nation won once again the Continental title ahead of Czechoslovakia (4th Overall) and Sweden (5th Overall).

 

The tournament started by preliminary round, All favorites started well their campaigns, Canada and Sweden advanced from Group A, Soviet Union and Unified German team from Group B and host USA and Czechoslovakia from Group C. Canada, USSR and USA as unbeaten teams.

 

In the medal round the United States surprisingly continued their winning streak and completed a improbable and totally unexpected Gold triumph winning all matches of the tournament, including the 2-1 wins against Canada and 3-2 over the USSR. Canada defeating the Soviets in the last match 8-5 secured the silver in front of their rivals, 4th finished Czechoslovakia, 5th Sweden and 6th Germany losing all their 5 medal round games.

 

Finland winning the Consolation round finished 7th ahead of Japan and Australia.

 

If the better known USA Olympic triumph in 1980 is commonly called as the Miracle on ice, this one is called as the Forgotten miracle. Image from the winning game against ex-USSR 3-2

 

 

Final Ranking:

1. United States

2. Canada (Represented by Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen)

3. USSR

4. Czechoslovakia

5. Sweden

6. Germany Unified Team (Composed only by West Germany players)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. Finland  -  Consolation Round

8. Japan  - Consolation Round

9. Australia  - Consolation Round

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Innsbruck 1964

 

1964 Olympic Champions, USSR regained their title back after 8 years

 

More on the Story

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The Men´s Ice Hockey Tournament at the 1964 Winter Olympic Games took place from 29th January to 9th February 1964 in Innsbruck, Austria. All Games were held at the Olympiahalle Indoor Rink.

 

The tournament was attended by 16 National Teams and served as the 31st Ice Hockey World Championship and 42nd European Ice Hockey Championships. After 8 years the title returned to the USSR, The Soviets won their 2nd Olympic title, 4th World Champions title and 8th Continental title. Silver medals went to Sweden and bronze after huge controversies to Czechoslovakia. Canada playing for the very first time with a purpose built National team finished 4th and for the first ever time failed to win medals in this sport at the Olympics. The reigning champion from USA finished fifth.

 

Prior to the Olympic Games Both German federations had again to decide how their Olympic so-called Unified German Team will be formed, but once again both federations couldn´t find a agreement and decided to play again the Qualification match to decide which of them will represent the German Unified Team. And just as it was in the 3 previous WOG it was again the West German team which won the play-off but this time with the closest outcome 8-7 in Aggregate. The other qualification match was played between Japan and Australia, The Japanese outclassed their rivals in the Intercontinental Qualification to qualify for the Innsbruck Olympics.

 

The 16 Countries participating countries Played the Olympic tournament in a new format, According to their Ranking seeding they were paired in a direct elimination game, the 8 winners advanced to the medal round-robin and 8 losing teams to the 9th-16th places Consolation round-robin.

 

In the first round (Direct Elimination) all favorites won their games more or less easily, only the German team had to fought until the end to beat Poland 2-1. The highest win was marked by the top favorite USSR winning over Hungary by 19-1. Other notable favorites also delivered a one sided win Canada over Yugoslavia 14-1, Sweden against Italy 12-2 or Czechoslovakia beating Japan 17-2.

 

The 8 winners entered the medal Round-Robin - Every team played once against each opponent. And the tournament was slowly going to a unique and highly dramatic finish, in the last playing day 4 countries were still playing for medals. The Soviet Union defeated Canada 3-2 and assured Gold. Canada was also on the right medal way, they just waited for the final result of the last match between Sweden and Czechoslovakia. but then started a unprecedented controversy. The Swedes unexpectedly highly outscored the Czechoslovaks 8-3. A result which still normally would meant bronze for Canada but they didn´t knew that during the last period of the very last match of the tournament IOC decided to change the rules, especially the tie-breaking procedure, By the rules that were originally used counting the goal difference between the top four teams, Canada would still took bronze behind USSR and Sweden, but just before the medal ceremony this was changed, and Czechoslovakia won bronze by the new rules (goal difference in all games of the Olympics).

 

Canada finished out of the Olympic Ice Hockey podium for the first time in history, Picture from the match against the Soviet Union 2-3

 

In 2005, the International Ice Hockey Federation attempted to alter the results of World Championship, awarding Canadians a bronze medal, but then it changed its mind, and in September 2005 the IIHF finally rejected Canada's appeal to be awarded 3rd place.

 

Poland won the Consolation round-robin to earn the 9th place just ahead of Norway and Japan.

 

USSR won also as the highest European ranked nation the Continental title ahead of Sweden and Czechoslovakia. For the first time the Olympic and European Championships medal podium was exactly the same.

 

The Soviets led by the epic coach Arkady Chernyshev celebrating the second olympic title

 

 

Final Ranking:

1. USSR

2. Sweden

3. Czechoslovakia

4. Canada

5. United States

6. Finland

7. Germany Unified Team (Composed only by West Germany players)

8. Switzerland

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9. Poland  -  Consolation Round

10. Norway  - Consolation Round

11. Japan  - Consolation Round

12. Romania  - Consolation Round

13. Austria  - Consolation Round

14. Yugoslavia  - Consolation Round

15. Italy  - Consolation Round

16. Hungary  - Consolation Round

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Grenoble 1968

 

1968 Olympic Champions, USSR after defeating Canada in the last match 5-0 won the whole tournament one point ahead of Czechoslovakia

 

More on the Story

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The Men´s Ice Hockey Tournament at the 1968 Winter Olympic Games took place from 6th to 17th February 1968 in Grenoble, France. The tournament served also as the 35th Ice Hockey World Championships and as the 46th Ice Hockey European Championships as well. This was the last Olympic Tournament to include the World and European Championships.

 

The games were played in 2 places, the main stadium was the Palais des Glaces and remaining matches were contested at the Patinoire Municipale both in Grenoble.

 

The USSR maintained their title from Innsbruck and won 3rd Olympic Title, also their 8th World title and 12th Continental European crown. Czechoslovakia took silver again and after 8 years finally defeated the Soviets in one of the most memorable games of the Ice Hockey history, they were even in the way for gold but because of the draw in the last game with Sweden lost the Olympic title by only 1 point and Canada completed the podiums top three winning the bronze medals. Sweden finished fourth and won the European bronze.

 

For the first and only time not all participating countries were allowed to fight for medals, the lowest seeded teams Japan, Austria and host France were directly placed into the so-called consolation round aka "B" Category World Championships. Because of this such countries as Poland and Italy decided to boycott the tournament and declined their participation.

 

14 Countries attended the tournament, 5 top seeded USSR, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Canada and USA got a automatical bye into the Medal round, next 6 nations had to play in the first round a direct play-off qualification match, the three winning teams advanced to the medal round and 3 losing teams to the consolation round were they joined Japan, Austria and France directly placed in the bottom tier of the tournament. Both second rounds was disputed in a traditional round-robin format (Every team played once against each opponent, the team with highest amount of points in the end won), the top 8 in the medal round the remaining 6 in the consolation round.

 

For the first time both German teams participated to the tournament and both won their first round games. Debuting East Germany defeated Norway 3-1 and West Germany outclassed Romania 7-0 in the last qualification match Finland send Yugoslavia to the consolation group after a 11-2 win.

 

Finland was also one of the biggest sensations of these games. In the medal round they managed to beat for the first time in history Canada 5-2. At these times an incredible result for the players led by the Czechoslovak coach Gustav Bubník. Finland has already beat one of the top 4 countries in the previous year at the 1967 World championships they shocked Czechoslovakia beating them 3-1, these results just showed that the hockey quality in Finland started to grow extremely rapidly and prepared everyone that in the future Finland will be definitely a rising threat.

 

USSR - Czechoslovakia 1968, from allies to enemies, a simple match that moved the history

 

 

The Medal round introduced this time a fantastic tournament, full of great hockey and big dramas with a unprecedented thrilling finish. In the penultimate game day, in one of the best history ice hockey matches Czechoslovakia defeated USSR 5-4 in a game full of political backstage and extremely rivalry coming in the sadly famous year of 1968 around the Prague spring attempt and finished by the Warsaw pact armies occupation of Czechoslovakia later in August this year. The lose also broke a great 39 straight world championship winning match record of the ex-USSR team. The win however came after the lose from Canada 3-2 and returned the Czechoslovakian team in the advantage in the tie-break formula ahead of the Soviets, since both teams had 10 points for 5 games and 1 lose, the same was also about Canada. So a incredibly thrilling last day was to came. USSR yet faced Canada and Czechoslovakia had to play Sweden. Unfortunately Czechoslovakia threw the gold chance away after a tie with the "tre kronors" and USSR immediately took the opportunity to take gold, the team led by the iconic coach Arkady Chernyshev defeated Canada in the last game that day 5-0 and won their 3rd Olympic title and second in a row ahead of the Czechoslovaks and Canadians.

 

Behind the top-three finished Sweden 1 point outside the podium, historic 5th place earned Finland ahead of the United States and both German teams, 7th West Germany won in the derby against 8th East Germany 4-2.

 

Yugoslavia topped the consolation round to grab the 9th place winning all 5 matches of the "B" group ahead of Japan and Norway, The host France finished last 14th pointless in the whole tournament.

 

 

Hockey and politics.

Czechoslovakia beat USSR 5-4 a game which entered to the history as the first part of the so-called Czechoslovak hockey riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovak_Hockey_Riots.

 

 

Final Ranking:

1. USSR

2. Czechoslovakia

3. Canada

4. Sweden

5. Finland

6. United States

7. West Germany

8. East Germany

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9. Yugoslavia  -  Consolation Round

10. Japan  - Consolation Round

11. Norway  - Consolation Round

12. Romania  - Consolation Round

13. Austria  - Consolation Round

14. France  - Consolation Round

 

 

 

[hckošice 15,085]

20 Days To Go

 

[hckošice 15,085]

20 Days To Go

HOCKEY SPECIAL RECAP #3 (1972-1988)

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Sapporo 1972

 

1972 Olympic Champions,

USSR team including such world super stars as one of the best ever hockey lines

Valery Kharlamov, Vladimir Petrov, Boris Mikhailov

or the Goaltender Vladislav Tretiak won the tournament with redoutable superiority

 

More on the Story

  Reveal hidden contents

The Men´s Ice Hockey Tournament at the Winter Olympic Games 1972, took place for the first time in Asia, in Sapporo, Japan. The matches were held in 2 rinks at the Makomanai Ice Arena and at the Tsukisamu Indoor Ice Rink from 3rd to 13th February 1972.

 

Losing only 1 single point after a draw with Sweden, the team of USSR absolutely dominated the tournament and won their 4th Olympic Title (3rd in a row), United States won a extremely surprising Silver and Czechoslovakia took the Bronze.

 

Canada for the first time in history did not participated to a Olympic Ice Hockey tournament. In consequences to the general frustration about not allowing to play their best players from the NHL, Canada decided to not take part to any International competition (Canada also did not participated to the World Championships events) this boycott lasted until 1977 World Championships and under the 5 rings until the 1980 Olympics when IIHF adapted new eligibility rules which allowed professional players to compete. Canada was still arguing about the unfair situation in comparison to the former Communist Hockey powerhouses Soviet Union and former Czechoslovakia, which both always played with their "Amateur Professional" players "hidden employees" in the military organizations of their countries, seeing that things not were not improving, Canadian officials announced their withdrawals from all IIHF international events.

 

The tournament was attended by 11 teams, After Canada´s withdrawal there were 14 teams expected to participate, but East Germany, France and Romania all decided to withdrew from the tournament just a couple of weeks before the start of the Olympics, mainly due to financial reasons. The 11 remaining Nations were seeded according to their placements in the IIHF Ranking, the highest ranked USSR got a automatical bye for the Medal Round-Robin. All other 10 teams played qualification matches (once again according the IIHF ranking) the five winners advanced to the medal robin, the 5 losing teams to the Consolation Round-Robin for 7th place. The round-robin were played with the traditional format every team affronted once each opponent.

 

In the Qualification round, almost all expected favorites won their first game and did qualified for the medal round, Finland with the higher margin defeated Norway 13-1, Sweden beat Yugoslavia 8-1, Czechoslovakia defeated the host Japan 8-2 and USA send to the consolation Round the newly returning Switzerland 5-3, The only biggest upset was created by Poland who shocked the seeded West Germany by a result 4-0 and won their ticket for the medal round.

 

USSR dominated strongly the tournament, they won the medal round with absolute superiority, Collecting 9 of the 10 possible points, they lost only 1 after the draw with Sweden 3-3. But they still had to beat Czechoslovakia in the tournaments last day to secure gold, and they did it in fact easily beating their rivals 5-2. Clearly the biggest surprise of the tournament was the USA team, no one expected such Miracle as happen in Squaw Valley 1960, even any medal would be really surprising, the experts expected them to finish even behind Finland at 5th place, Even the start in the medal round wasn´t promising at all USA lost severly to Sweden 1-5, but since then United States experienced a great tournament, losing only one remaining game to the USSR 2-7 but wins over Czechoslovakia 5-1 and Finland 4-1 bring them a completely shocking silver with 6 points. Czechoslovakia took the bronze also with 6 points (worse head to head confrontation with the USA 1-5) but must be thankful especially to Finland, since it´s the "Suomis" who brought them the medal after a surprising and historic triumph over their neighbors from Sweden in the last day 4-3 which costed to the "tre kronor" the medal. Sweden finished then highly disappointed 4th with 5 points just in front of Finland with 4 points, Poland finished 6th last in the medal round pointless, but already a top 6 was a very pleasant surprise for Poland ice hockey and showed that hockey was slowly returning to the better futures in this country.

 

If the team of 1980 is called as the miracle in ice and the team of 1960 the forgotten miracle,

then the USA team of 1972 could be called the completely overlooked miracle. USA won a totally unexpected silver.

Picture from the match against USSR won 7-2 by the Soviets.

 

Another strongly disappointed team West Germany topped the consolation round to finish 7th ahead of 8th Norway, and 9th host Japan.

 

 

Final Ranking:

1. USSR

2. United States

3. Czechoslovakia

4. Sweden

5. Finland

6. Poland

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. West Germany  -  Consolation Round

8. Norway  - Consolation Round

9. Japan  - Consolation Round

10. Switzerland  - Consolation Round

11. Yugoslavia  - Consolation Round

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Innsbruck 1976

 

Soviet Union, 1976 Olympic Champions, 5th Olympic title (4th in a row)

 

More on the Story

  Reveal hidden contents

The Men´s Ice Hockey Tournament at the Winter Olympic Games 1976, took place at the Olympiahalle, Innsbruck, Austria. The same venue which hosted the Olympic tournament 12 years ago. The Consolation round matches were contested at the smaller Messehalle also in Innsbruck. The tournament was attended by 12 teams and was played from 2nd to 14th February 1976.

 

USSR won their 5th Olympic title (4th in a row) ahead of 2nd Czechoslovakia and 3rd West Germany. Just like 4 years ago in Sapporo, Canada once again decided to not participate. The Canadians continued their boycott, protesting against the "Amateur rules" which strongly advantaged the former Communist hockey powerhouses using their eligible "hidden employees" best players. But this time also Sweden having already at that time several players in the NHL, decided to join to the boycott and announced their withdrawal from the tournament. Other two additional qualified countries East Germany and Norway also did not participated to the tournament, confirming then only 12 participating nations.

 

All 12 countries were paired according to their placements in last previous Ice Hockey World Championships in 1975 into 6 qualification matches. The winners advanced to the Medal round and 6 losing teams went to the Consolation round (Group of 7th-12th places), both were played in a traditional Round-Robin format (every team playing once each opponent).

 

The qualification matches ended without any big surprise, all 6 top seeded countries won their games and did qualified for the medal round. USSR outclassed the Host Austria 16-3, United States defeated Yugoslavia 8-4, Finland won over Japan 11-2, West Germany against Switzerland 5-1 and Poland over Romania 7-4. Another big favorite of the tournament Czechoslovakia defeated the debuting Bulgaria 14-1.

 

Czechoslovakia was considered to be the main rival of the Soviets. The current Czechoslovakian team was at that time one of the strongest and most talented teams in the history, which was later proved by two back-to-back world champion titles in Katowice and Vienna 76 and 77. Unfortunately the team suffered several hard experiences in Innsbruck, everything started with a contagious Flu epidemic inside the team resulting in the game against Poland, when the team played with only 12 players on the bench. Czechoslovakia still managed to defeat the Poles easily 7-1 but one of the players using antibiotics ordered by the doctor was caught after the game for doping violation, the result was then recorded in favor of Poland 1-0, Poland did not receive any point though. But The sudden and unexpected loss of points from this match stopped considerably the hope for gold.

But still before the final day they were still in the battle for the overall triumph in case of win against USSR. The match started well for the Czechoslovaks, leading 2-0 and 3-2 during the match, but the Soviets managed to score two late goals (the winner scored by the legendary Kharlamov in the 56th minute) and win the game 4-3 to winning gold with 10 points.

 

As expected the USSR - Czechoslovakia clash scheduled for the last day, was the real finale and "direct" match for gold

 

The other big surprise of the tournament was definitely the West German team. winning bronze, which is still valuated as one of the biggest result in the history of German ice Hockey. After the withdrawal of Canada and Sweden, it was Finland (which finished 4th in the last six world championships in a row !!!) who was considered as the main favorite for bronze ahead of USA. But it was the West Germans who took the bronze topping the mini table of 3 teams finishing the medal round with 4 points behind USSR and Czechoslovakia. West Germany lost to Finland 3-5 in the final round second game, but After the surprising win of the Americans over Finland 5-4, The win 4-1 in the very last match against the United States was enough for the team around Erich Kuhnhackel to finish third ahead of 4th Finland and 5th USA. Poland just like 4 years ago finished again last 6th in the medal round pointless.

 

The biggest surprise of the tournament was definitely the West German team, picture from the winning last match over the United States (4-1) which brought them the unexpected Bronze

 

 

Romania with 8 points topped the consolation round to grab a valuable 7th place just in front of 8th Austria and 9th Japan.

 

Czechoslovakia with a team that won the world title a couple of months later and maintained it also the next year too started the tournament very well recording a easy win over the debuting Bulgaria in the qualification game 14-1,

but then started troubles.

At first a serious influenza inside the team, with many players resting in the Olympic village because of illness a decimated team entered the medal round. In the first matches it was enough, but they fought hard to beat Finland 2-1, scoring two unanswered goals in the second part of the game and turning the outcome of the match. In the second game the team defeated USA 5-0 with only 14 players fielded in the line up. In the next match it was only 12 players assigned in the 7-1 win over Poland. Unfortunately one of them was tested positive after the match and the team consequently lost the match 0-1 and lost the points from the match.

The really Angry team then defeated the West Germans 7-4 to definitely assure at least the medal. there was finally still a chance for the gold in case of win over the Soviets in the last match, but the stronger Soviet players won this game 4-3 and took the gold. Until now this tournament is still considered as our another missed huge chance for the Olympic glory.

 

1976 Olympic medalists, from left Czechoslovakia, USSR, West Germany

 

 

Final Ranking:

1. USSR

2. Czechoslovakia

3. West Germany

4. Finland

5. United States

6. Poland

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. Romania  -  Consolation Round

8. Austria  - Consolation Round

9. Japan  - Consolation Round

10. Yugoslavia  - Consolation Round

11. Switzerland  - Consolation Round

12. Bulgaria - Consolation Round

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Lake Placid 1980

 

United States,

1980 Olympic Champions,

the 22nd February 1980 a team of Collegiate players defeated the top favorite USSR team to reach one of the biggest upsets of the world Sports history,

called by the US press as the "Miracle on Ice"

 

More on the Story

  Reveal hidden contents

The Men´s Ice Hockey Tournament at the Winter Olympic Games 1980 took place from 12th to 24th February 1980 in Lake Placid, USA. For the second time in history after 42 years this New York´s resort hosted the Winter Olympic Games. The matches were played at the Olympic Arena and at the Olympic Fieldhouse.

 

The tournament wasn´t by far the most famous hockey event of history in term of field quality or by the level of the play itself. But, the 1980 Winter Olympic Ice Hockey tournament is Certainly the most famous and world-widely known ice hockey event thanks it´s epic outcome. One of the most underestimated hockey teams in history of this sport won a improbable and totally unexpected gold. The United States team formed from collegiate players shocked the world winning the Gold medals. Especially the win in the match over the top favorite USSR 4-3, became known as the so-called "Miracle on Ice". The win was in the USA considered as a great success and reason for pride of the western part of the world during a time of Cold War tensions, even though it was the next day win against Finland that secured the gold medal.

 

12 Nations entered the tournament. One of the highlights of the championship was the long time awaited return of Canada, which missed the last two tournaments and also Sweden after missing the last event in Innsbruck.

 

All teams were divided into 2 preliminary groups (particularly called the Red and Blue Divisions) Only the top 2 nations from both pools advanced to the final-four (A 4 nations round-robin deciding the medals, Teams from same groups carried their respective results from the preliminary round) the 3rd ranked Nations payed a direct 5th place match, called Consolation Round. Remaining 4 nations finished the tournament ranked by their positioning in the preliminary groups.

 

Three days before the Olympics USA composed by unknown players from US College teams led by the legendary coach Herb Brooks played a exhibition game in the Madison Square Garden against the USSR - 4 times Olympic Champions in a row - and submitted heavily 3-10 to the USSR´s Red Machine. In fact no one expected from the USA to finish among the top 2 teams from the group and this last test match was another prove about.

 

But the Americans experienced a crazy memorable tournament winning 6 of it´s seven games resulting in the second historic Olympic title (Just like in 1960 they won it at home) ahead of USSR winning 7th consecutive Olympic medal (1st silver) and Sweden returning to the medal podium after 12 years.

 

In the preliminary round pools, Sweden and the United States advanced to the final-four from the Blue Division, Czechoslovakia disappointedly  finished only third and qualified for "only" the 5th place match. Romania, West Germany and Norway failed to advance from the group. In the Group B called Red Division it was as expected the USSR which dominated the field and topped the group without losing a single point. But the biggest upset of the preliminary round was the win of Finland over Canada 4-3 causing a unexpected final round qualification for the Finns. Canada finished just as Czechoslovakia in the other group only third in the group and in their Olympic return had to play only for 5th place.  Poland, debuting the Netherlands and Japan invited to replace the withdrawing East German team only few weeks before the games finished the tourney already in the first round.

 

USA and Sweden carried their 2-2 tie from the preliminary round into the final round, USSR advanced to the final-four with the best position of 2 points win over Finland 4-2. But already in the opening game of the last round surprisingly failed to the USA 3-4 in a match that entered the history as a synonym of one of the biggest sports surprise, the Miracle on Ice. The victory became one of the most iconic moments of the Games and in U.S. sports. Equally well-known was the television call of the final seconds of the game by Al Michaels, in which he famously declared in the final seconds,

 

" 11 seconds, you've got 10 seconds, the countdown going on right now! Morrow, up to Silk. Five seconds left in the game.

Do you believe in miracles?

YES !"

In 1999, Sports Illustrated named the "Miracle on Ice" the top sports moment of the 20th century.As part of its centennial celebration in 2008, the IIHF named the "Miracle on Ice" as the best international ice hockey story of the past 100 years.

 

After the 3-3 tie among the Nordic rivals Sweden and Finland, the Way for gold was suddenly and surprisingely open for the host team and the United States did it winning 4-2 against Finland to celebrating the second country´s olympic gold. USSR defeated the Swedes in the last match to earn silver. Sweden thanks to the point carried out from the preliminary round from the match with the USA got the Bronze one single point in front of Finland finishing Once again fourth !

 

If the win over USSR is the most known, the last step which brought the gold to the host team was the win in the last game against Finland 4-2

 

Czechoslovakia extremely disappointed by the outcome of the tournament at least wrote to it´s history the highest Olympic triumph over Canada in the consolation game to earn the 5th place ahead of the North Americans by 6-1.

 

1980 Olympic Medalists,

Gold USA, Silver USSR, Bronze Sweden

 

 

Final Ranking:

1. United States

2. USSR

3. Sweden

4. Finland

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Czechoslovakia -  Consolation Round

6. Canada -  Consolation Round

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. Poland  -  Preliminary Round

8. Romania  -  Preliminary Round

9. Netherlands  -  Preliminary Round

10. West Germany  -  Preliminary Round

11. Norway  -  Preliminary Round

12. Japan  -  Preliminary Round

 

In 2002 it was the members of the 1980 olympic winning team that had the honor to light the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics opening ceremony cauldron

 

Expand  

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Sarajevo 1984

 

USSR,

1984 Olympic Champions,

Team with legendary players such Makarov, Larionv, Krutov, Fetisov and led by one of the most successful Hockey coach of history Viktor Tikhonov finished the tournament unbeaten

 

More on the Story

  Reveal hidden contents

The Men´s Ice Hockey Tournament at the Winter Olympic Games 1984 took place from 7th to 19th February 1984 in Sarajevo, former Yugoslavia, nowadays Capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The matches were played at the Skenderija Olympic Hall and at the Olympic Hall Zetra (Including the final matches).

 

USSR returning back after 8 years to the Olympic Hockey throne won it´s sixth Ice Hockey Gold medal and tied the historical record of the Canadians. Czechoslovakia also returning to the Olympic Hockey podium after 8 years as well took the silver medals and Sweden grab the Bronze medals just in front of Canada still failing to medal in Ice Hockey since 1960´s Squaw Valley silver !!!

 

12 Countries attended the tournament, After East Germany declining their quota, the last spot was contested in a qualification play-off match between Norway and the Netherlands, both games disputed in West Germany and Norway winning the Olympic ticket by 14-6 in Aggregate.

 

The format remained the same as the one used in Lake Placid four years ago. The 12 teams were divided into 2 Preliminary pools, The top 2 ranked nations from both Groups advanced to the Final-Four medal round-Robin (Carrying the results achieved between the qualified teams from the preliminary round). the 3rd ranked nations of both groups played a 5th place match, the 4th ranked countries a 7th Place game, The all remaining 4 nations were ranked by their standings in the preliminary pool.

 

Only two teams from the last previous Olympic tournaments final-four advanced to the medal round this time too, and both from the Preliminary Group A. USSR and Sweden, The Soviets entered the final round with a advantage of 2 points and score 10-1 from the win over the Swedes. The other 2 finalists from Lake Placid Finland and reigning champions USA failed to qualify for the medal round this time. Czechoslovakia and Canada took the qualifying places for the final four with the Czechoslovaks in better position with 2 points win 4-0 over Canada.

 

Already after the first matches of the final-four both preliminary round winners were assured to medal. USSR won against Canada 4-0 and Czechoslovakia defeated Sweden 2-0. So everything was clear before the final day of the Games. USSR and Czechoslovakia faced each other for Gold and Silver, Canada and Sweden played a bronze medal bout.

 

USSR vs Czechoslovakia the very last scheduled match of the tournament was also the match for gold

 

Both Games finished 2-0 in favor of the Swedes (winning Bronze) and Soviets (winning their 6th Gold and 8th consecutive Olympic medal since 1952 and their debut under the five rings). Czechoslovakia had once again to handle with Silver, Still waiting for this "cursed" Gold, Canada finished again behind the podium, incredibly prolonging the no medal streak to 24 years now.

 

West Germany defeated Finland to finish in a very nice and valuable 5th place ahead of their opponents. A nice result achieved mainly thanks to one of the best German players of all times. Erich Kuhnhackl with 14 points was the top scorer of the tournament.

 

The biggest disappointment of the tournament was the reigning champion. United States finished only seventh, far behind the miracle they provided 4 years back at home, At least the won their last tournament´s match winning the 7th place battle against Poland.

 

Italy, Austria, the host Yugoslavia and Norway finished the tournament already in the preliminary groups and were ranked in this order from 9th to 12th place.

 

Game Over. The Soviets just scored and assured the sixth Olympic title of their history.

 

USSR won the tournament by winning all matches.

 

 

Final Ranking:

1. USSR

2. Czechoslovakia

3. Sweden

4. Canada

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. West Germany -  Consolation Round

6. Finland -  Consolation Round

7. United States - Consolation Round

8. Poland - Consolation Round

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9. Italy  -  Preliminary Round

10. Austria  -  Preliminary Round

11. Yugoslavia  -  Preliminary Round

12. Norway  -  Preliminary Round

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Calgary 1988

 

USSR,

1988 Olympic Champions,

One year before the fall of communism, the Soviet team won their 7th Historic Olympic title, becoming at that time the most successful Olympic Ice Hockey nation, surpassing the host country Canada with 6 titles back then

 

More on the Story

  Reveal hidden contents

The Men´s Ice Hockey Tournament at the Winter Olympic Games 1988, took place from the 13th to the 28th February 1988 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The games were played in the Olympic Saddledome (Including the decisive matches) but also at the Stampede Corral and at the Father David Bauer Olympic Arena. It was the first Olympic tournament held in the birth place of this sport, Untill now it´s also the only one tournament in North America not won by any of USA or Canada.

 

USSR retained their Olympic gold from Sarajevo 1984, this time they won their 7th Historic title, Overpassing Canada at this time in the historical medal tally. The biggest surprise of the tournament was Finland, After so many bad luck and disappointing 4th places, the "Suomis" finally won their first ever ice hockey Olympic medal - Silver, just ahead of their eternal rivals from Sweden retaining bronze from 1984. Canada prolonged the disastrous no-medal streak to another 4 years finishing 4th. The biggest failure was however the Czechoslovakian team which absolutely flopped in Calgary finishing far from the expected positions on 6th place even behind the West German team.

 

12 Countries attended the tournament, the 11 top ranked nations from the 1987 Word Championships were qualified directly, Japan and France played in West Germany a intercontinental play-off for the last spot. The French team won this quota beating the Japanese 8-6 in Aggregate.

 

The playing format slightly changed but was in general quite similar as for the last previous tournaments. the 12 teams were divided into 2 preliminary pools, but now it was the top 3 from both groups who earned their qualifications for the medal round (Final-Six) played in a traditional round-Robin (Every team played once each opponent - but only from the opposite group, since the results from the previous matches with teams from their own groups were carried and counted in the final round). Teams ranked 4th from both groups played a match for 7th place, Teams ranked 5th faced each other in a 9th place game and last teams from both pools played the 11th place game.

 

The all 3 favorites advanced as expected from the Group A, surprisingly it was Finland who topped the group and went to the final round with the best position of 3 carried points from the historical win 3-1 over the host Canada and the 3-3 tie with Sweden. The Finns started the tournament very bad losing their opening game to Switzerland, but since then Finland became unbeatable in the remaining games of the pool A. Sweden with 2 points from the ties with Finland and 2- 2 against Canada advanced from second position, the trio was completed by the host, Canada acceding to the final six with only 1 single point was even a bit worrying for the local fans.

To notice is also the small doping violation episode from this group, Poland won easily over France but because one of their player was found guilty for doping violation the match was recorded to the French but without winning points.

 

Also from Group B the main favorites qualified for the medal round, only West Germany surprised finishing second behind the unbeaten USSR and in front of Czechoslovakia. Mainly because the upset caused in the opening day by the win 2-1 over the Czechoslovaks, West Germany entered the final round with 2 points, Czechoslovakia losing also to USSR had huge and unexpected troubles to even qualify but winning against USA they at least avoided the absolute failure, meanwhile entering the medal round pointless wasn´t exactly the best position.

 

After USSR defeating Canada 5-0 and Sweden 7-1 was already the gold medalist one day before the end of the medal round. In the last day there was still a huge fight for the remaining medals Finland, Sweden and Canada were all in the battle.

After Canada won against Czechoslovakia 6-3 the host team jumped on the medal, but only until the very last match of the championship and the biggest upset of the tournament.

Finland shocked the hockey planet beating USSR 2-1. This was the only lose of points in the whole tourney the Soviets suffered in Calgary. The win meant a Great and historic moment for the Finland´s Ice Hockey, finishing second and winning the Silver medals. Sweden also secured the medal beating pleasantly surprising team of West Germany 3-2 in this last day.

 

Finland was the biggest surprise of the tournament winning finally their first medal, Silver

 

For the first time in history a Olympic Ice hockey match ended by shoot-out, in the 11th place Match the result was still not decided between France and Norway even after the Overtime, so the famous ice hockey "penalties sessions" had to be used for the fist time, ending in France´s favor 7-6.

 

1988 Olympic Medalists

from left Finland, USSR and Sweden

 

 

Final Ranking:

1. USSR

2. Finland

3. Sweden

4. Canada

5. West Germany

6. Czechoslovakia

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. United States

8. Switzerland

9. Austria

10. Poland 

11. France 

12. Norway 

 

 

[hckošice 15,085]

15 Days To Go

 

[hckošice 15,085]

15 Days To Go

HOCKEY SPECIAL RECAP #4 (1992-2002)

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Albertville 1992

 

1992 Olympic Champions,

Few weeks after the collapse of the Soviet Union a Unified team representing 6 newly formed countries from the former USSR won the gold in its only Olympic appearance.

Who would have ever guessed at that time, that this would be the last Olympic gold in Ice Hockey for any country from the former USSR until 2018

 

More on the Story

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The Men´s Ice Hockey Tournament at the Winter Olympic Games 1992 took place from 8th to 23rd February 1992 in Albertville, France. All matches were played at the Méribel Arena in Méribel, a city 40 km from the center of the games Albertville in the french Savoy Region.

 

The tournament was played for the first time in a new format. The direct elimination play-offs after the preliminary round phase introduced its hockey debut under the five rings.

 

Few weeks after the collapse of the Soviet Union, 6 newly formed countries from the former USSR participated to the games under the Olympic Flag and was named "Unified Team". Their Ice Hockey team won the gold as the successor of the Soviet Ice hockey domination of the past Olympics, it was not considered as a surprise at all. But who would have guessed at that time that it will be the last Ice Hockey Olympic gold for a team from the former Soviet bloc for the next 26 years.

 

Canada won silver, winning finally so needed medal for the birth country of this sport, Silver which stopped an unprecedented no-medal Olympic streak of long 24 years.

 

Another curious participation was the team of Czechoslovakia, living its last ever year as one country, The players meanwhile were able to win the bronze medal 10 months before the split up of the country in two new formed independent nations Czech Republic and Slovakia.

 

12 Countries attended the tournament. The top 11 from the IIHF 1991 Ranking + 1 team from the Qualification. Poland won the last quota beating Denmark in the qualifiers 15-9 in aggregate.

 

The participating teams were divided into 2 six teams composed preliminary pools A and B. The top 4 from each pool advanced to the first ever Olympic Ice Hockey knock-out phase (Quarter finals played in traditional cross-over format - Winner of Group A vs 4th of Group B, 2nd of Group A vs 3rd of Group B etc..., then semifinals and medal matches) the last two ranked nations from both pools played the 9th-12th placement games, the losing quarterfinalists played the 5th-8th placement games.

 

The preliminary Group A ended without particular surprises, all 4 favorites advanced to the play-offs. Maybe the biggest surprise was USA which topped the group with 9 points, losing only 1 point after a draw 3-3 with Sweden ranked second with 8 points, The reigning silver medalists Finland finished 3rd with 7 points and last qualified from this group was the newly unified Germany with 4 points thanks 2 important wins over 5th Italy (2 points) and last Poland (0 points).

 

Clearly much more tense was the group B with the big trio (all later medalists) Canada, Unified Team and Czechoslovakia, their respective matches were absolute highlights of the whole Olympic games in 1992. Czechoslovakia beating first the Unified team 4-3 in one of the best ever Ice Hockey matches, but losing easily to Canada 1-5, and in the last game the former Soviets defeated Canada in another extraordinary hockey match 5-4. All 3 teams finished the preliminary phase with 8 points, so a mini-table was necessary to rank them, Canada finished with the best tie-break and topped the Group meaning they had to face Germany in the Quarterfinals, The Unified Team was ranked 2nd and faced Finland in the play-offs, Czechoslovakia entered the play-off from 3rd place and get the always redoubtable Sweden in their quarterfinal. The last qualified was for the absolute enjoyment of the local fans the host country, France reached the biggest success of it´s Ice Hockey with this qualification to the quarterfinal against USA thanks 4 points earned in the group. 5th Switzerland with 2 points and last Norway pointless had to play the placement games.

 

One of the biggest and most pleasant surprises of the Tournament was the Host country team. France reached the quarterfinals and amazed the local fans with their great play.

Picture from the match with Canada.

 

Canada was very near to the total flop in the quarterfinal against underestimated Germany, the match finished 3-3 and had to continue in a first ever play-offs shootout series, Canada was the luckiest team in this exercise and avoided the humiliating elimination. Germany however finished the tournament in a very valuable 6th place.

In the other quarterfinals the Unified Team defeated Finland 6-1, Czechoslovakia in another iconic and tense match won over Sweden 3-1. In the last quarterfinal The French Fairytale ended losing to the United States 1-4.

 

The Unified Team advanced to the final winning it´s semifinal against USA 5-2 and their opponent became Canada beating Czechoslovakia 4-2 in the second semifinal.

 

The last ever Czechoslovakian match in the Olympic history finished by a clear and easy win 6-1 over the United States in the Bronze medal match.

 

 

The 22nd February 1992 entered to the history, this day Czechoslovakia won in the Bronze medal match over the United States 6-1

and won in the last ever Czechoslovak Olympic Ice Hockey match the last ever Czechoslovak winter Olympic medal.

 

 

The last event of the games was the Ice Hockey final match between the Unified Team and Canada, in front of a full packed arena in Méribel both teams played another memorable and fantastic ice hockey game, All goals were scored in the last frame, The biggest star of the match was mainly Vyacheslav "Slava" Bykov the later longtime successful Russian Ice Hockey National team coach. who even scored the last goal of the match 2 minuets before the end closing the final score to 3-1.

 

Sweden topped the so-called consolation round to earn 5th place ahead of Germany, Finland and the host country of France. Norway finished 9th, Switzerland 10th, Poland 11th and Italy 12th.

 

Final Ranking:

1. Unified Team

2. Canada

3. Czechoslovakia

4. United States

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Sweden

6. Germany

7. Finland

8. France

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9. Norway

10. Switzerland

11. Poland 

12. Italy 

 

Players from the Unified Team celebrate their Gold Medal match triumph 3-1 over Canada

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ice Hockey Tournament at Lillehammer 1994

 

Sweden, 1994 Olympic Champions

In the first ever finals shootout won its first ever Olympic gold

 

More on the Story

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The Men´s Ice Hockey Tournament at the Winter Olympic Games 1994 took place from 12th to 27th February 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway. The matches were held at Lillehammer´s Hakon Hall and at Fjelhallen in Gjovik.

 

12 Nations participated in this tournament. Sweden won its first ever Ice Hockey Olympic Gold medal, becoming the sixth nation to reach the Olympic Ice Hockey glory. Canada retained the silver medals from Albertville 1992 and Finland won the Bronze medals.

 

The top 11 nations from the 1993 IIHF world championships qualified directly to the tournament. To determine the last 12th spot there was a International Qualification tournament played in Sheffield, GBR. Originally there were 4 nations supposed to take part in this qualification, Poland, Latvia, Japan and the host Great Britain. But few weeks before the start the International Ice Hockey federation added to this tournament also Slovakia. Since 1st January 1993 Czechoslovakia was dismissed and 2 new countries gained their respective independences, The Czech Republic and Slovakia. This became also a great problem in the IIHF program, since Czech Republic got the honors to become the successors country of Czechoslovakia in Ice Hockey structures, they were immediately put in the world championships top divisions programs and so also directly qualified for the Olympic tournament, but Slovakia had less reasons to enjoy, The country was send only to the lowest Ice Hockey world Championship division and so they also lost any chances to fight for the Olympics. This absolute injustice raised an unprecedented lobbying and represives not only in the country and in the IIHF but also in the UN, were the Slovaks were also lobbyin with their delegation led by the President of the country and many worldwidely well known hockey players. One month before the qualification the pressure reached the result, IIHF and IOC agreed to allow Slovakia to start in the Olympic qualification tournament, but the placement in the lowest World Championships program unfortunately remained as it was. Meanwhile the country succeeded to qualify for the top division in the shortest possible time. but this is another topic...

 

However The invited team won this Qualification tournament, proving that they belonged there, and Slovakia triumphed in its very first ever international event.

 

The 12 nations were divided into 2 preliminary groups A and B, the top 4 from both pools advanced to the quarterfinals, played in a cross-over system. The remaining nations played the Consolation round to determine 9th-12th places.

 

Finland played in Lillehammer in a great form and the team that won next year the first ever world championship title, dominated the group in a great way, winning all 5 games and qualifying to the knockout round from 1st place with the max amount of 10 points. Germany, Czech Republic and Russia (Successor of the former USSR in Ice Hockey program) accompanied them all earned 6 points, a mini-table tie break formula from their respective matches had to decide the ranking. The surprising victory of Germany over Russia 4-2 was the main point that Germany qualified from second place.

 

Finland experienced a great tournament, losing only 1 match in the semifinals, but managed to recover and grab the bronze beating Russia 4-0 in the 3rd place match

 

The Group B saw another incredible fairytale and the Slovak hockey uprising continued, the underestimated and undesired team shocked the whole hockey planet finishing unbeaten and winning the Group B. Especially the win 3-1 over Canada was considered as a huge achievement and the world finally started to take us seriously. Canada advanced from second place, Sweden from 3rd and the United States from 4th. Italy and France failed down to the consolation round.

 

In the Quarterfinals, Finland over USA and Sweden over Germany won easily, but the next two matches were real jewels of the Olympic history. Canada beat Czech Republic in a great match 3-2 and Russia ended the fairy tale of Slovakia in another epic match 4-3 after Over Time in the very last 10th minute of the added time by the unforgettable goal of Vinogradov.

 

Despite the huge disappointement in the team, Slovakia as a total newby left a great impression and became the favorit team of local fans, 3 of Slovakia players topped even the tournaments final scoring ranking. Žigmund Pálffy with 3+7 won the overal scoring table and Miroslav Šatan was the best goal scorer of the tourney, the young 19 year old prospect scored 9 goals, including two hattricks to Italy and France. The legendary Peter Šťastný who ended his career in tha national team of his native country, was the captain of the team (Flag bearer of Slovakia at the Opening Ceremony) and 3rd overall scorer of the tournament with a 5+4 record.

 

The still unbeaten Finland entered the semifinal against Canada as one of the real contenders for gold, their play and performances during the tournament were highly valuated, but even this was not enough for the Suomis to beat Canada, The Maple Leafs won 5-3 t reach again the Olympic final and secure second medal in a row. In the other semifinal Sweden defeated Russia 4-3 and qualified for the gold medal match.

 

Finland at least finished their fantastic tournament by the deserved medal, winning bronze after a clear 4-0 win over Russia.

 

2 Minutes before the end of the final, Canada was leading 2-1 and close to the so long time expected gold, but Sweden in the penultimate minute managed to tie the game and send the final to the over time. That finished scoreless. So for the first time in the Olympics, we needed the shootout lottery to determine the Olympic champions. and it was necessary to have 7 series to know the outcome, when Peter Forsberg beat Corey Hirsch by a memorable goal and than Paul Kariya seen his attempt stopped by Tommy Salo, Sweden became for the first time ever Olympic Ice Hockey champions.

 

The Historic goal of Peter Forsberg in the 7th Shootout serie against Corey Hirsch that brought the Olympic triumph to the "Tre Kronor"

 

 

The best surprise of the tournament were definitely the performances of Slovakia,

Peter Šťastný and Žigmund Pálffy in Lillehammer led a Team from World Championships "C" pool,

that started its hockey "uprising" against this injustice,

 

 

Final Ranking:

1. Sweden 

2. Canada 

3. Finland 

4. Russia

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Czech Republic

6. Slovakia

7. Germany

8. United States

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9. Italy

10. France

11. Norway 

12. Austria

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ice Hockey Tournaments at Nagano 1998

 

Czech Republic,

won the so-called "Tournament of Century" to became the

1998 Olympic Champions, winning its first ever Gold

 

The undefeated United States

first ever Women´s Ice Hockey Olympic champions

surprised Canada in the final to win 3-1.

 

More on the Stories

  Reveal hidden contents

 

From 7th to 22nd February 1998, Nagano in Japan hosted the Winter Olympic Games, and for the first time there were 2 sets of medals awarded, because altogether with the Men´s Ice Hockey tournament also the women´s ice hockey experienced its Olympic debut right during these games. The very first women´s Olympic champions became the United States, they finished undefeated throughout the whole tournament and defeated the tournament favorite Canada in the final match 3-1. The men´s title went for the first time to the Czech Republic, winning the so-called "tournament of Century" a name received because this tournament also entered to the history with the first ever participation of the NHL players.

 

All matches were played at the Big Hat and at the Aqua Wing Arena in Nagano, Japan.

 

Czech Republic won it´s first ever Gold medal, becomming the seventh country to win the Olympic Ice Hockey grail.

 

This tournament was also the first ever to be contested by NHL (National Hockey League) players. The NHL allowed their players to enter the Olympics, thanks a organized 17 days break in the most famous Ice Hockey league, but not all teams had the same privilege. In fact NHL allowed its players to play only from the second round, This totally unfair decision hardly hampered the campaigns of Germany and Slovakia, both of whom failed to qualify for the final group stage. Also the final group stage was criticized as being meaningless since all of the teams qualified for the quarter-finals. The format was eventually changed for the 2006 tournament in an effort to address these criticisms.

 

The format of the mens tournament was really strange. 14 teams entered the competition, but only the top 6 were directly seeded in the main tournament second phase, the remaining 8 teams had to play a sort of qualification first phase. These 8 countries not allowed to field NHLers were divided into 2 preliminary groups A and B and only the Group winners advanced to the main phase.

 

Kazakhstan and Belarus surprisingly topped the groups ahead of Slovakia and Germany in their respective pools and reached the main tournament.

 

In the second round the NHL players finally entered the Olympics to the enjoyment of all Ice Hockey fans. Russia topped the Group 1 ahead f the Czech Republic, Finland and the qualifier Kazakhstan who finished pointless with the overall score 6-25 from the three encounters against the "NHLers" 2-9 with Russia, and 2-8 with the Czechs and Finns. Russia beating the Czechs 2-1 in the last match for the groups 1st place. Russia was satisfied with its result meaning in the quarter final they had to play the easiest opponent from the other group - Belarus. 

The Belarussians as expected finished last in this group, but after the group phase the organizers found that the Swede Ulf Samuelsson who played all 3 matches was not eligible to play since he already got the American citizenship and the rules didn´t allowed him to play for his former country. Immediately all Sweden´s result were annuled meaning Sweden was send to the last 4th place. This ofc wasn´t appreciated by the Russians as they had to face Sweden in the play-offs despite winning their group, Russia made an appeal and their protest was approved, the Swedens results were returned only Samuelsson was sent home from the Olympics. Sweden was reinstated to the 2nd place behind Canada, group winner and in front of USA 3rd and pointless qualifier Belarus.

 

Both Canada and the United States were heavily favoured; they had previously faced off in the final of the prestigious 1996 World Cup of Hockey. but both quite surprisingly failed in the play-offs to the underestimated Czechs, USA lost in quarterfinal 1-4 and The Canadian team, despite a strong start in the round robin, lost in the semifinal match 1-2 after penalty shoot-outs, Russia after eliminating Belarus 4-1, won in the semifinal over Finland in another great match of Hockey 7-4 to reach the final against the Czechs. Disappointed Canadians with such super stars around Gretzky, Yzerman, Lindros or Shannahan eventually lost also the Bronze medal game to Finland 3-4.

 

Canada was the absolute favorite for the gold in The first ever Olympic tournament with NHL players, but the team around the legendary Wayne Gretzky finished 4th

 

In the final match, the Czech Republic led by a fantastic goalie Dominik Hašek and legendary players like Jaromír Jágr shut-out Russia to win the first gold medal in its history.

 

Slovakia arrived to Nagano with different feelings, The NHL did not allowed them to play with their best NHL players in the first round, so the coach staff had a difficult times in selecting the final roster, with only local players entered the 1st round with the only goal qualify for the next phase, it started with a quite unexpected tie with Austria 2-2 in the opening game, but returned in the business by winning (even not as easily as it was expected) against Italy 4-3, the last match remaining against Kazakhstan no one have even expected any fail, peoples was already thinking which players will be replaced by the NHL players in the next round...but all these speculations were closed too early, Slovakia shockingly lost to Kazakhstan 3-4 and surprisingly failed to qualify to the main round, the poor NHL guys which travelled to Nagano could returned back to the airports and fly back to America, their Olympic campaign ended already before the start. Only Peter Bondra decided to stay and was allowed to play in the 9th place game against similarly disappointed Germany, we lost 2-4 and finished 10th.

 

One of the best Goalie of the Ice Hockey history Dominik Hašek led the Czechs to the title marking a giant shutout in the final against Russia

 

 

Final Ranking of the Men´s Tournament:

1. Czech Republic 

2. Russia 

3. Finland 

4. Canada

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Sweden  -  Main Tournament

6. United States -  Main Tournament

7. Belarus  -  Main Tournament

8. Kazakhstan -  Main Tournament

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9. Germany - First Phase

10. Slovakia - First Phase

11. France - First Phase

12. Italy - First Phase

13. Japan - First Phase

14. Austria - First Phase

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

The 1998 Olympic women's ice hockey tournament was the first year that featured women in ice hockey competition. 

 

6 Nations attended the tournament, they played a simple Round-Robin, the top 2 teams advanced for the Gold Medal match and 3rd and 4th ranked teams played for Bronze.

 

It was greatly anticipated that the women's gold medal match would feature Canada versus the United States. Canada was favored to come out on top as they had won all the competitions in previous years in women's hockey, with the United States perpetually finishing second, while no other national teams could match their level of play. However, the United States beat Canada in the final and became the first country to win gold in women's ice hockey at the Olympics. Like among the men´s, Finland took the bronze in the womens tourney as well beating in the 3rd place match China 4-1.

 

There were no qualification tournaments, the host Japan played alongside the top five nations at the previous season's world championships.

 

If the men´s Canadian team had Wayne Gretzky, also the women´s team had in this tournament a absolute legend of this sport, the young Hayley Wickenheiser started her great Olympic career

 

Final Ranking of the Women´s Tournament:

1. United States   

2. Canada   

3. Finland 

4. China

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Sweden

6. Japan

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Ice Hockey Tournaments at Salt Lake 2002

 

Canada,

2002 Olympic Champions,

after defeating the host USA 5-2 in the memorable Gold medal match ended the crazy 50 years long wait for the Olympic gold

 

4 Years after losing to the USA in Nagano Olympic final,

Canada took its revenge winning the final 3-2 to become for the first time the Womens Olympic champion

 

More on the Stories

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The Ice Hockey tournaments at the Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games 2002, were held from 9th to 24th February 2002 and took place at the E-Center in West Valley City and at the Peaks Arena in Provo, Utah, United States. Both tournaments were won by Canada, and in both occasions after the Gold Medal match win over the host country, the United States, Women´s defeating the reigning Olympic champions 3-2, in a Canadian successful  revenge from Nagano 1998, Sweden took the Bronze. Canada won also the men´s gold beating USA 5-2 in an epic final and finally ending a long 50 years period of waiting for the Olympic gold for the Ice Hockey birth country, Russia took the bronze medals after beating the biggest surprise of the tournament team Belarus 7-2.

 

This was the second historic Olympic tournament including the NHL players. as the National Hockey League agreed to organize a 12 days break during the Olympics, but Once again, they controversially did not allowed their players to play in the preliminary round !!! So once again this extremely affected especially Slovakia, the team had to play the preliminary round with only 13 players !!! waiting for their 10 top NHL players for the main round, but unfortunately this tactic didn´t worked at all, Slovakia experienced a disastrous tournament finishing last in the preliminary round, so paradoxically the team was allowed to use their stars only in the match for 13th place, and the team with all its stars defeated France 7-1. Thankfully this idiotic and absolutely unfair system was later changed and in Torino 4 years later all teams were equal and all allowed to profit of their NHL players from the start. This was done especially because of Slovakia´s complaints,

The funny thing is that few months later, Slovakia became World Champion.

 

14 Teams entered the tournament with the same illogical format as 4 years ago in Nagano, the top 6 Ice Hockey powerhouses Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic and USA were directly seeded in the main round, all other countries had to play a preliminary round. The 8 remaining teams were divided into 2 four teams preliminary groups, Germany and surprisingly Belarus won their respective groups and advanced to the main round.

 

In the main phase, Canada had a bad start in the group finishing only third, beating only the qualifier Germany  and losing to Sweden. The Swedes won the group unbeaten and suddenly became the biggest top favorites, Czech Republic the reigning champions finished second ahead of Canada and pointless Germany,

The Group B was surprisingly won by the home team, USA, which wasn´t really considered as a medal contender before the tourney. Finland finished second and Russia third, the biggest underdog Belarus finished as expected last losing all 3 games clearly.

 

So the quarterfinals were set. USA vs Germany, Finland vs Canada, Czech republic vs Russia and Sweden vs Belarus.

 

In a replay of the Nagano 1998 final, the Czechs again met the Russian, this time again the result was 1-0 but this time for the Russians, eliminating the reigning champions by a goal of Maxim Afinogenov. Canada vs Finland was another jewel of the Ice Hockey history, the Canadians managed to win this great battle thanks goals from Sakic and Yzermann 2-1. USA defeated Germany easily 5-0 to reach the semifinals and in the last match it was expected that Sweden will defeat Belarus easily too...but, in this game happened probably the biggest upset since the 1980 Miracle in Ice. Belarus shocked the world beating Sweden full of NHL top stars by a incredible goal 3 minutes to go by a certain Kopat scored from the Central zone against the great Salo.

 

The biggest surprise of the tournament was without any doubts, Team Belarus, one of the most memorable moment of the whole Olympic history came in the 57th minute of the Quarterfinal against Sweden full of NHL top stars and the crazy goal from the central zone that brought to the scorer Vladimir Kopat the eternal glory

 

It was also the end of this incredible fairy tale, Belarus in the semifinals logically had to submit to the Canadians 1-7. The second semifinal was another story a epic match between USA and Russia on American soil, exactly the same day after 22 years from the legendary Miracle on Ice. And this was a fantastic match, The host won 3-2 and did qualified for the final, proving they are just incredibly successful at home Olympics. 

 

For both nations, the gold-medal game came coincidentally on the anniversary of each nation's last gold medal in men's Olympic hockey. Canada last won 50 years previously at the Oslo 1952 WOG. The US won their last gold medal when they defeated Finland two days after "The Miracle on Ice" in 1980. Both games, coincidentally, were played on a Sunday.

 

The match was tied 2-2 after two periods, but in the last frame Canada scored 3 more goals by Joe Sakic and Jarome Iginla to beat the host 5-2 and won its 6th Olympic Gold, first after 50 years.

 

Don Cherry jokes just prior to touching the 'Lucky Loonie' to wish good luck to the men's and women's Olympic hockey teams before the 2010 Vancouver Olympics at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

The Lucky Loonie was buried surreptitiously by Canadian ice-maker Trent Evans at centre ice before the men's and women's 2002 Olympic Ice Hockey tournaments in Salt Lake City. After Team Canada's second hockey Gold Medal victory, the Lucky Loonie was dug up and presented to Team Canada General Manager Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky then donated the Lucky Loonie to the Hockey Hall of Fame

 

 

Final Ranking of the Men´s Tournament:

1. Canada 

2. United States 

3. Russia 

4. Belarus

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Sweden  -  Main Tournament

6. Finland -  Main Tournament

7. Czech Republic  -  Main Tournament

8. Germany -  Main Tournament

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9. Latvia - First Phase

10. Ukraine - First Phase

11. Switzerland - First Phase

12. Austria - First Phase

13. Slovakia - First Phase

14. France - First Phase

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The 2002 Olympic women's ice hockey tournament was played by 8 Nations, increasing the amount of participants by 2 teams.

 

The 8 Nations were divided into two preliminary groups, the top 2 from both groups advanced to the semifinals. All 4 favorites made the cut without any problem, Canada and Sweden from Group A and USA with Finland from Group B.

 

Canada and USA reached as expected the final winning easily also their semifinals against the Nordic duo. Sweden won then the derby against Finland 2-1 to grab the bronze medals. In the final Canada defeated USA 3-2 to win its first Olympic gold.

 

 

Final Ranking of the Women´s Tournament:

1. Canada   

2. United States   

3. Sweden 

4. Finland

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Russia

6. Germany

7. China

8. Kazakhstan