Winter Olympic Games 2018 Official Countdown Thread

[OlympicIRL 5,532]

 17 weeks to go ! 

 

 

 

 

Key:
a1	6 months to go
a2	3 months to go
a3	1 month to go
b1	150 days to go
b2	100 days to go
b3	75 days to go
c1	Four Hills Tournament begins
c2	Hahnenkamm Race begins
c3	Winter X Games begin
d1	tickets go on sale
d2	2018 Olympic year arrives (Jan 1st)
d3	2018 Olympic Prediction Contests Open on Totallympics
e1	lighting of Olympic flame in Olympia, Greece
e2	Olympic flame arrives in Incheon
e3	Olympic flame arrives in Gangwon province
x	Olympic cauldron is lit

 

 

 

 

 

e1

30

e2

c1

30

b2

e3

c2

30

b3

x

c3

30

a3

d3

a2

d2

12

30

30

16

11

15

10

14

9

13

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

 

PyeongChang 2018

------------------50--------------------------------------25--------------------------------------02----- --------49-----------------48------------------27-----------------24-------------------04----------------01- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --47----------------------------46-------29-----------------------------22-------06----------------------------03 --------------------------------------36--------------------------------------16------------------------------- --45-----------------------38--43-------30--33-------------------16--21-------08--13------------------------05 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------44-----------40---41------------------28--31-------20--23-------------------10--11-----------07--- ------------------42--------------------------------------26--------------------------------------09------------- ----------------------39-----------------------------32-------19----------------------------12----------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------37-----------------34-------------------17----------------14------------- --------------------------------------35--------------------------------------15---------------

[OlympicIRL 5,532]

 16 weeks to go ! 

 

 

 

 

Key:
a1	6 months to go
a2	3 months to go
a3	1 month to go
b1	150 days to go
b2	100 days to go
b3	75 days to go
c1	Four Hills Tournament begins
c2	Hahnenkamm Race begins
c3	Winter X Games begin
d1	tickets go on sale
d2	2018 Olympic year arrives (Jan 1st)
d3	2018 Olympic Prediction Contests Open on Totallympics
e1	lighting of Olympic flame in Olympia, Greece
e2	Olympic flame arrives in Incheon
e3	Olympic flame arrives in Gangwon province
x	Olympic cauldron is lit

 

 

 

 

 

e1

30

e2

c1

30

b2

e3

c2

30

b3

x

c3

30

a3

d3

a2

d2

12

30

30

11

15

10

14

9

13

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

 

PyeongChang 2018

------------------50--------------------------------------25--------------------------------------02----- --------49-----------------48------------------27-----------------24-------------------04----------------01- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --47----------------------------46-------29-----------------------------22-------06----------------------------03 --------------------------------------36--------------------------------------16------------------------------- --45-----------------------38--43-------30--33-------------------16--21-------08--13------------------------05 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------44-----------40---41------------------28--31-------20--23-------------------10--11-----------07--- ------------------42--------------------------------------26--------------------------------------09------------- ----------------------39-----------------------------32-------19----------------------------12----------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------37-----------------34-------------------17----------------14------------- --------------------------------------35--------------------------------------15---------------

[hckošice 14,836]

Ice Hockey Tournament at Squaw Valley 1960

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

 

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.

 

Czechoslovakia started to rebuild the team with some new rejuvenated faces and interesting young prospects around future stars like Jozef Golonka, Ján Starší, Václav Pantuček or Jaroslav Jiřík and mixed them with extremely experienced players like Karel Gut or Vlastimil Bubník. The team started the tournament against the Host USA ad was leading 4-3 after 2nd period but totally collapsed in the 3rd frame conceding 4 goals in the last part of the game resulting in a opening lost to the United States 5-7, In the existential next match without any trouble Czechoslovak team outclassed the Australian newby team 18-1 and did qualified for the medal round.

In the final-six the team started very badly losing to USSR 5-8 (again a disastrous last period costed too much) and to Canada 0-4 (this time it was a terrible opening period that decided about the outcome of the match) 2 wins against Sweden 3-1 and the unified German Team 9-1 put back some very slim chance for medal, but only in case of a very high win over the still unbeaten host team in the last game round and some help in the Canada-USSR match, it wasn´t necessary since the team again didn´t stand the pressure and drastically failed in the last period (losing it 0-6 despite being 4-3 in the lead after 2nd period !!!) to the USA and losing 4-9.

 

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

 

 

[hckošice 14,836]

Ice Hockey Tournament at Innsbruck 1964

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

 

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.

 

The Czechoslovak team which featured for the first time under the five rings the legendary Vladimír Dzurilla in the net started the tourney with a easy win over Japan 17-2, already at the 26th minute of the match the score was 9-0 Miroslav Vlach and Jaroslav Walter both managed to score 4 goals in this game.

 

In the medal round Czechoslovakia started again very well, beating Germany 11-1, but in the next match the team lost to USSR in a marvelous and memorable epic hockey battle 5-7, just few hours later the team returned in the winning mood defeating this time Finland 4-0. After 2 rest days Czechoslovakia won over Switzerland 5-1 and the next day over the reigning champion United States 7-1 thank a great last period with 5 goals scored in the last minutes.

In the next crucial game Czechoslovakia faced Canada in a very important match for both teams. Canada was leading 9 minutes before the end 0-1 but Czechoslovakia managed to score 3 times in the dying minutes put the team to the strong medal contention.

In the last and controversial match Czechoslovakia lost to Sweden too much easily 3-8, during the match it looked like the team will throw away the medal and finish 4th, when the score was 6-1 after 2 periods started a strange lobby behind the backstage, resulting in a sudden change of rules which meant that Czechoslovakia stayed on the medal board, Sweden thanks this high win jumped to the medal podium and surprisingly dropped Canada from the top 3 for the very first time in the history.

 

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

 

[OlympicIRL 5,532]

 15 weeks to go ! 

 

15 is the number of sports that will feature at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Games, and 15 is the number of weeks until the big event arrives!

Also updated with another piece of the logo to reflect the lighting of the Olympic flame in Olympia and the beginning of the torch relay

 

 

Key:
a1	6 months to go
a2	3 months to go
a3	1 month to go
b1	150 days to go
b2	100 days to go
b3	75 days to go
c1	Four Hills Tournament begins
c2	Hahnenkamm Race begins
c3	Winter X Games begin
d1	tickets go on sale
d2	2018 Olympic year arrives (Jan 1st)
d3	2018 Olympic Prediction Contests Open on Totallympics
e1	lighting of Olympic flame in Olympia, Greece
e2	Olympic flame arrives in Incheon
e3	Olympic flame arrives in Gangwon province
x	Olympic cauldron is lit

 

 

 

 

 

30

30

e2

c1

30

b2

e3

c2

30

b3

x

c3

30

a3

d3

a2

d2

12

30

30

11

10

14

9

13

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

 

PyeongChang 2018

------------------50--------------------------------------25--------------------------------------02----- --------49-----------------48------------------27-----------------24-------------------04----------------01- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --47----------------------------46-------29-----------------------------22-------06----------------------------03 --------------------------------------36--------------------------------------16------------------------------- --45-----------------------38--43-------30--33-------------------16--21-------08--13------------------------05 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------44-----------40---41------------------28--31-------20--23-------------------10--11-----------07--- ------------------42--------------------------------------26--------------------------------------09------------- ----------------------39-----------------------------32-------19----------------------------12----------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------37-----------------34-------------------17----------------14------------- --------------------------------------35--------------------------------------15---------------

Edited October 27, 2017 by OlympicIRL

[OlympicIRL 5,532]

 100 days to go ! 

 

We have already passed by the 100 days to go milestone, the Olympics really are just around the corner now

 

 

 

Key:
a1	6 months to go
a2	3 months to go
a3	1 month to go
b1	150 days to go
b2	100 days to go
b3	75 days to go
c1	Four Hills Tournament begins
c2	Hahnenkamm Race begins
c3	Winter X Games begin
d1	tickets go on sale
d2	2018 Olympic year arrives (Jan 1st)
d3	2018 Olympic Prediction Contests Open on Totallympics
e1	lighting of Olympic flame in Olympia, Greece
e2	Olympic flame arrives in Incheon
e3	Olympic flame arrives in Gangwon province
x	Olympic cauldron is lit

 

 

 

 

 

30

30

e2

c1

30

30

e3

c2

30

b3

x

c3

30

a3

d3

a2

d2

12

30

30

11

10

14

9

13

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

 

PyeongChang 2018

------------------50--------------------------------------25--------------------------------------02----- --------49-----------------48------------------27-----------------24-------------------04----------------01- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --47----------------------------46-------29-----------------------------22-------06----------------------------03 --------------------------------------36--------------------------------------16------------------------------- --45-----------------------38--43-------30--33-------------------16--21-------08--13------------------------05 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------44-----------40---41------------------28--31-------20--23-------------------10--11-----------07--- ------------------42--------------------------------------26--------------------------------------09------------- ----------------------39-----------------------------32-------19----------------------------12----------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------37-----------------34-------------------17----------------14------------- --------------------------------------35--------------------------------------15---------

[EselTheDonkey 824]

And the Olympic flame has also arrived in Incheon. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-2018-flame/south-korea-welcomes-olympic-flame-ahead-of-2018-games-idUSKBN1D13CC

[hckošice 14,836]

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

 

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.

 

Czechoslovakia - USSR  5-4

 

1968 Medalists

 

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.

 

Czechoslovakia arrived to Grenoble with one of it´s best and most talented team in all history, including such huge names as the biggest slovak ice hockey history stars with Vladimír Dzurilla in the net or Jozef Golonka and Václav Nedomanský in the field. The team was immediately seeded into the medal round robin. And started excellently winning both first games 5-1 against USA and West Germany, first troubles came in the next game with Finland and only thanks a better 2nd period for their side they took the win 4-3 over the "Suomis". Meanwhile thanks a highly offensive and attractive play the team started to be one of the most popular teams among the local fans, the attractive system was shown also in the next winning match over East Germany 10-3. Unfortunately the winning streak came to end in the next game a disastrous second period costed the lose against Canada 2-3, If the team wanted to win gold they had to beat the USSR and they did it in the epic game finished by a 5-4 Czechoslovak win. In the last game the team needed to beat Sweden to take the title but under the pressure failed and reached only a tie 2-2 resulting in silver medals.

 

 

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

 

Last seconds of the Czechoslovakia - USSR memorable match

 

 

 

[OlympicIRL 5,532]

 14 weeks to go - Olympic Flame Arrives in Incheon ! 

 

 

 

Just 14 weeks to go now and the Olympic flame reached Incheon on Wednesday.... that's another two pieces of the logo in place

 

 

 

Key:
a1	6 months to go
a2	3 months to go
a3	1 month to go
b1	150 days to go
b2	100 days to go
b3	75 days to go
c1	Four Hills Tournament begins
c2	Hahnenkamm Race begins
c3	Winter X Games begin
d1	tickets go on sale
d2	2018 Olympic year arrives (Jan 1st)
d3	2018 Olympic Prediction Contests Open on Totallympics
e1	lighting of Olympic flame in Olympia, Greece
e2	Olympic flame arrives in Incheon
e3	Olympic flame arrives in Gangwon province
x	Olympic cauldron is lit

 

 

 

 

 

30

30

30

c1

30

30

e3

c2

30

b3

x

c3

30

a3

d3

a2

d2

12

30

30

11

10

9

13

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

 

PyeongChang 2018

------------------50--------------------------------------25--------------------------------------02----- --------49-----------------48------------------27-----------------24-------------------04----------------01- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --47----------------------------46-------29-----------------------------22-------06----------------------------03 --------------------------------------36--------------------------------------16------------------------------- --45-----------------------38--43-------30--33-------------------16--21-------08--13------------------------05 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------44-----------40---41------------------28--31-------20--23-------------------10--11-----------07--- ------------------42--------------------------------------26--------------------------------------09------------- ----------------------39-----------------------------32-------19----------------------------12----------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------37-----------------34-------------------17----------------14------------- --------------------------------------35--------------------------------------15---------

 

[hckošice 14,836]

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 redoubtable superiority

 

 

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.

 

Czechoslovakia ranked as the 2nd best team in the world according to IIHF ranking, send a very similar team to the one from Grenoble 1968 and was dreaming about the first historic Olympic gold, but this time it wasn´t so close to the absolute success at all. The start was good, the opening match of the Games finished with a expected and easy win over Japan 8-2, but the players showed also a alarming lack of scoring efficiency, missing a lot of goal occasions, it revealed later in the tournament unfortunately as the most important problem. The team debuted the medal round with a match against Poland, the surprising final round participant, Czechoslovakia won over a already satisfied and not really in this match battling opponent highly 14-1, peoples started to see this team again very high, but ...then came the fall a unexpected failure 1-5 with the United States was a shocking moment and fully showed the offensive problems of this team. the dream of gold was probably over said the critics in the medias. The players responded immediately with a great effort and finally a entertaining performance resulting in 2 very important wins 7-1 over Finland and especially a hardly fought win 2-1 against Sweden. Still before the last day the team knew that if they lose to USSR they will not have the eventual podium place in their own hands. the team lost to the Soviets 2-5, but a unexpected and very welcome help came from Finland that defeated surprisingly the Swedes 4-3 and brought to our team the Bronze medal.

 

 

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