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
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.
Czechoslovakia after the failure in lake Placid and the "Emigration case" of the Šťastný brothers to Canada, decided to rebuild completely the team for the Sarajevo Games. and the coach Luděk Bukáč introduced to the world one of the best Czechoslovakian Ice Hockey squad of history around players as Lála, Vladimír Ružička, Hrdina, Pašek or the redoubted "Slovak line" Igor Liba, Dárius Rusnák, Vincent Lukáč.
In the preliminary round the team entered the tournament by a win 10-4 over Norway, followed by a "vendetta" win against the title holders from the United States 4-1. Especially this win brought to the team the biggest boost and so needed self-confidence. In the next match the team showed another higher level of play in the easy and spectacular win over Austria 13-0. Everything was ready for the last 2 games against Finland and Canada. And the team held the pressure in a fantastic way scoring two another easy wins 7-2 over the "Suomis" and especially the 4-0 triumph against Canada, which was even more important because thanks this result the team needed only one more win in the final four to assure the medal.
And they did it. Winning Sweden 2-0 thanks two goals in the last 15 minutes. The medal was assured and only one match remained. the fight for gold against USSR. Both unbeaten teams met in the very last game of the Olympics and Once agains as many many times before Czechoslovakia failed in this final step losing 0-2 to their eternal rivals. led by one of the best Ice Hockey lines of the history of this sport --- Makarov, Larionov, Krutov
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
Last 2 and half minutes of the final match USSR - Czechoslovakia