The 1974 Ice Hockey World Championships were the 41st

Ice Hockey World Championships The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), first officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics. The IIHF was created in 1908 while the I ...

and the 52nd

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

. The tournament took place in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

from 5 to 20 April and the games were played in the

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

. Six teams took part in the main tournament, all playing each other twice. The

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

won the world championships for the 13th time, and also won their 16th European title. The event was the second Ice Hockey World Championships hosted by Finland, and was organized by

Harry Lindblad Harry Gustaf Lindblad (30 July 1912 – 2 February 1984) was a Finnish ice hockey administrator, coach and player. He served as the Finnish Ice Hockey Association president for 18 years, after five years as its vice-president. During this time, ...

, president of the

Finnish Ice Hockey Association The Finnish Ice Hockey Association (, ) is the sport governing body, governing body of ice hockey in Finland. Since the late 1980s, Finland has enjoyed a period of success on the international stage and, , the Finland men's national ice hockey t ...

. For the first time in ice hockey World Championship history, two players were suspended for doping. They were the Swede Ulf Nilsson and the Finn Stig Wetzell who failed a drug test for the forbidden substance

ephedrine Ephedrine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant and sympathomimetic agent that is often used to prevent hypotension, low blood pressure during anesthesia. It has also been used for asthma, narcolepsy, and obesity but is not the preferred ...

. Both players were suspended for the rest of the tournament. Nilsson failed the test after Sweden's game against Poland, which Sweden won 4–1. The game was awarded to Poland as a 5–0 forfeit. The Finn, Wetzell, failed the test after Finland's match against Czechoslovakia, which Finland won 5–2, which was also awarded to Czechoslovakia as a 5–0 forfeit. The Finns were able to defeat Czechoslovakia again on the last day, which would have earned the Finns their first medal in history, if not for the points lost in the forfeited win.

World Championship Group A (Finland)

''East Germany were very unlucky to be relegated to Group B, as Poland's only win was the awarded default for a doping violation against Sweden.''

World Championship Group B (Yugoslavia)

Played in Hala Tivoli,

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

SR Slovenia The Socialist Republic of Slovenia (, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Slovenija, Социјалистичка Република Словенија), commonly referred to as Socialist Slovenia or simply Slovenia, was one ...

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

21–30 March. ''The USA was promoted to Group A, and both Norway and Austria were relegated to Group C.''

World Championship Group C (France)

Played in

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

, Gap and

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

, 8–17 March. This was

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

's first World Championship. ''Switzerland and Italy were promoted to Group B.''

Ranking and statistics

Tournament Awards

*Best players selected by the directorate: **Best

Goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...

Vladislav Tretiak Vladislav Aleksandrovich Tretiak State Duma, MP ( rus, links=no, Владислав Александрович Третьяк, p=trʲɪˈtʲjak; born 25 April 1952) is a Russian former goaltender for the Soviet Union national ice hockey team. ...

**Best

Defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the l ...

: Lars-Erik Sjöberg **Best Forward:

Václav Nedomanský Václav Nedomanský (born 14 March 1944) is a Czech former ice hockey forward. Nedomanský is best known as the first Czechoslovak hockey player to defect to North America to play. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019. He is als ...

*Media All-Star Team: **Goaltender: Curt Larsson **Defence: Lars-Erik Sjöberg, Valeri Vasiliev **Forwards:

Vladimír Martinec Vladimír Martinec (born 22 December 1949) is a Czech former ice hockey player. He played as a Winger (ice hockey), right winger during the 1970s and early 1980s, and won the Golden Hockey Stick award as top player in Czechoslovakia four times, ...

, Václav Nedomanský, Alexander Yakushev

Final standings

The final standings of the tournament according to

IIHF The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; ; ) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries. The IIHF maintains the IIHF World Ranking based on international ice hockey tourn ...

European championships final standings

The final standings of the

European championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

according to

References

Complete results
* * {{IIHF Ice Hockey European Championships IIHF Men's World Ice Hockey Championships

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

International sports competitions in Helsinki

1970s in Helsinki

International ice hockey competitions hosted by Yugoslavia International ice hockey competitions hosted by France Sports competitions in Ljubljana 1970s in Ljubljana Sports competitions in Grenoble 20th century in Grenoble Sports competitions in Lyon 20th century in Lyon 1973–74 in French ice hockey 1973–74 in Yugoslav ice hockey 1974 in Slovenia