Ice hockey at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Team Canada

For the first time since ice hockey was introduced at the

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.^[citation needed]

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Vladimir Petrov Vladimir Shadrin Yevgeni Zimin	Timothy Sheehy Keith Christiansen Mark Howe Tim Regan Bruce McIntosh	Czechoslovakia Vladimír Dzurilla Jiří Holeček Vladimír Bednář Rudolf Tajcnár Oldřich Machač František Pospíšil Josef Horešovský Karel Vohralík Václav Nedomanský Jiří Holík Jaroslav Holík Jiří Kochta Eduard Novák Richard Farda Josef Černý Vladimír Martinec Ivan Hlinka Bohuslav Šťastný

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.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	D	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Soviet Union	5	4	0	1	33	13	+20	9
2	United States	5	3	2	0	18	15	+3	6
3	Czechoslovakia	5	3	2	0	26	13	+13	6
4	Sweden	5	2	2	1	17	13	+4	5
5	Finland	5	2	3	0	14	24	−10	4
6	Poland	5	0	5	0	9	39	−30	0

• 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.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	D	GF	GA	GD	Pts
7	West Germany	4	3	1	0	22	10	+12	6
8	Norway	4	3	1	0	16	14	+2	6
9	Japan	4	2	1	1	17	16	+1	5
10	Switzerland	4	0	2	2	9	16	−7	2
11	Yugoslavia	4	0	3	1	9	17	−8	1

• 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.^[4]

Leading scorers

Player	GP	G	A	Pts
Valeri Kharlamov	5	9	7	16
Václav Nedomanský	6	8	3	11
Craig Sarner	6	4	6	10
Kevin Ahearn	6	6	3	9
Vladimir Vikulov	5	5	3	8
Aleksandr Maltsev	5	4	3	7
Jiří Kochta	6	4	3	7
Anatoli Firsov	5	2	5	7
Yuri Blinov	5	3	3	6
Richard Farda	6	1	5	6

Final ranking

1.  Soviet Union
2.  United States
3.  Czechoslovakia
4.  Sweden
5.  Finland
6.  Poland
7.  
   West Germany
8.  Norway
9.  Japan
10.   Switzerland
11.  Yugoslavia

References

External links

• Jeux Olympiques 1972