The men's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

tournament at the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 ( ja, 札幌1972), was a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside Euro ...

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous cit ...

, Japan, was the 12th Olympic Championship. Games were held at the

Makomanai Ice Arena Makomanai Sekisui Heim Ice Arena (真駒内セキスイハイムアイスアリーナ) is an indoor ice skating arena in Minami-ku, Sapporo, Japan. It was built in December, 1970, holds 11,500 people (10,024 seats, fixed plus temporary, and 1,476 ...

and at the Tsukisamu Indoor Skating Rink. The

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

won its fourth gold medal. The

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

won the silver, while

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

won the bronze.

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

did not send a team to the event for the first time since ice hockey was first competed at the Olympics in 1920, instead competing with and defeating the Soviets in a competition later that year known as the Summit Series. Canada would not send a men's hockey team to the Olympics until 1980.

Teams

Team Canada

For the first time since ice hockey was introduced at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

in 1920,

did not send a team to the 1972 Olympics after Canadian Minister of Health and Welfare John Munro announced the withdrawal of the team from all international competitions in response to the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 ...

opposition to allowing professional players at international competitions. Canadian officials were frustrated that their best players, competing in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

, were prevented from playing while Soviet players, who were "employees" of the industrial or military organizations that fielded "amateur" teams, were allowed to compete. At that point, the Canadian men's ice hockey team was the most successful team in the world, having won six of the eleven tournaments previously competed, with medals in ten of the eleven tournaments (and a controversial post-tournament rule change denying them a perfect eleven medals). Canada would not compete internationally in hockey until 1977, when the IIHF adopted eligibility rules that allowed for professional players to compete. Instead of competing internationally at the Olympics, Canadian officials helped organize a series of games against the

in 1972 known as the Summit Series.

Team USA

While the 1980 team had the celebrated " Miracle on Ice" and the 1960 US team had the " Forgotten Miracle", the 1972 team could be called the "completely overlooked miracle." The U.S. team was expected to finish 5th behind the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, and Finland. The Soviet and Czech teams were especially powerful as there was no distinction between amateurs and pros in communist countries; these teams were made up of seasoned professionals and were ranked 1 & 2 in the world.

Valeri Kharlamov The French name Valery () is a male given name or surname of Germanic origin ''Walaric'' (see Walric of Leuconay), that has often been confused in modern times with the Latin name ''Valerius''—that explains the variant spelling Valéry (). The S ...

of the Soviet Union was considered one of the world's best players and experts agree he would have been a star in the NHL. The same can be said for Soviet goaltender

Vladislav Tretiak Vladislav Aleksandrovich Tretiak, MSM ( 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. Considere ...

. In fact, this was basically the same Soviet Team that played a Canadian team composed of NHL All Stars in the

1972 Summit Series The Summit Series, Super Series 72, Canada–USSR Series (russian: Суперсерия СССР — Канада, Superseriya SSSR — Kanada), or Series of the Century (french: Série du siècle, Séries of the Century), was an eight-game ic ...

that Canada narrowly won, 4–3–1. After qualifying for Group A by beating Switzerland 5–3, the U.S. lost as expected to Sweden, 5–1. Then they pulled off the upset of the tournament when they beat Czechoslovakia, 5–1. This surprising result was nearly as astonishing as the wins over the Soviets in 1960 and 1980. After losing as expected to the Soviet Union, the young Americans upset Finland. In the final games of the competition, the U.S. beat Poland while Finland beat Sweden and the Soviets beat the Czechs (in the game that decided the gold medal); those results boosted the U.S. from 4th to 2nd for an unexpected silver medal.

Medalists

First round

Fourteen nations qualified, but East Germany, Romania and France all chose not to travel for primarily financial reasons. The remaining eleven nations were seeded according to their placement in the 1971 World Championships with first place (USSR) and the five winners to play in Group A to for 1st–6th places. The five losers played in Group B for 7th–11th places. 1971 ranking appears in parentheses. *3 February **Japan (11th) 2–8 Czechoslovakia (2nd) **Sweden (3rd) 8–1 Yugoslavia (12th) *4 February **USA (6th) 5–3 Switzerland (7th) **Poland (8th) 4–0 West Germany (5th) **Finland (4th) 13–1 Norway (10th)

Final round

First place team wins gold, second silver and third bronze. *5 February **Sweden 5–1 USA **Czechoslovakia 14–1 Poland **USSR 9–3 Finland *7 February **USSR 3–3 Sweden **USA 5–1 Czechoslovakia **Finland 5–1 Poland *8 February **Czechoslovakia 7–1 Finland *9 February **Sweden 5–3 Poland **USSR 7–2 USA *10 February **USSR 9–3 Poland **Czechoslovakia 2–1 Sweden **USA 4–1 Finland *12 February **USA 6–1 Poland *13 February **Finland 4–3 Sweden **USSR 5–2 Czechoslovakia

Consolation Round

Teams, which lost their games in the qualification round, played in this group. *6 February **Norway 5–2 Yugoslavia **West Germany 5–0 Switzerland *7 February **Japan 3–3 Switzerland **West Germany 6–2 Yugoslavia *9 February **Japan 3–2 Yugoslavia **West Germany 5–1 Norway *10 February **Japan 4–5 Norway **Switzerland 3–3 Yugoslavia *12 February **Japan 7–6 West Germany **Norway 5–3 Switzerland

Statistics

Average age

Gold medalists team USSR was the oldest team in the tournament, averaging 26 years and 4 months. Team USA was the youngest team in the tournament, averaging 23 years and 3 months. Tournament average was 25 years and 3 months.

Leading scorers

Final ranking

# # # # # # # # # # #

References

External links

Jeux Olympiques 1972
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ice Hockey At The 1972 Winter Olympics 1972 Winter Olympics 1972 Winter Olympics events

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

1971–72 in Japanese ice hockey