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Zebras told to crackdown — once and for all
Zurich, Switzerland & New York, USA
Autumn 2005
As the National Hockey League was about to resume playing in the fall of 2005
following the lockout which wiped out the 2004-2005 season, the league decided
to return to the fans with a more stringent interpretation of the rules. Simply
speaking, a foul would be penalized regardless of when it was committed, by
whom, or to whatever lesser or greater degree of violation of the rules.
The reason was simple. As the NHL restarted, the league wanted to come back with
an improved game where players were allowed to use their skill to their
advantage without being hooked, held or interfered with. Led by referee
supervisor Stephen Walkom, all owners, managers, coaches and players from the 30
teams were on the same page, and the "new game" became an instant success. The
games were faster and more entertaining. Skill and speed became the decisive
qualities, not necessarily size and strength.
The IIHF monitored the development very closely. The world governing body had
for some years established new guidelines in the IIHF Rule Emphasis Bulletin
which called for exactly the same as the NHL had just implemented — a crackdown
on obstruction.
Seeing that the NHL's decision and execution of "calling the game by the rule
book" was immediately accepted, the IIHF realized that it needed to act quickly
to seize the opportunity of implementing the guidelines of its own Rule Emphasis
Bulletin.
At the beginning of November, IIHF President René Fasel released this statement:
"The revolutionary turnaround pertaining to rule enforcement in the National
Hockey League following the lockout has given the world of hockey a new momentum
to fully implement the crackdown on all restraining fouls.
"For the first time in hockey history we have the opportunity for the IIHF and
the NHL to be on the same page when enforcing the rules and calling restraining
fouls like hooking, holding and interference. In the time leading up to the 2006
Olympics in Turin and for the duration of the event it is our responsibility
towards the game and its fans to seize this opportunity and showcase hockey as a
sport of unique speed and skill to an projected TV audience of 2.3 billion
viewers.
"It is our goal to call the games in Turin 2006 according to 2005-2006 IIHF Rule
Emphasis Bulletin. The document calls for attention on strict rule enforcement,
focusing on hooking, holding and interference infractions. The basic objective
of the rule enforcement can be summoned with these lines: Players who use their
skill and/or anticipation and have gained a positional advantage on an opponent
shall not lose that advantage through illegal use of hands, arms or stick by the
defending player. If a player is deprived of that advantage through an illegal
act, the appropriate penalty shall be called.”
So why couldn't the IIHF execute its own crackdown on obstruction without having
the NHL accepting the new interpretations first? The reason was simple. At the
IIHF World Championship, around 100 players are from NHL. A unilateral
implementation of the "new rules" would probably have created chaos at the
annual flagship event as players coming from overseas suddenly were subjected to
an entirely new way of calling the game. This was a risk the IIHF was not
prepared to take.
But when the NHL took the first step, the IIHF quickly followed. The mutual
efforts by the two organisations proved to be a huge success. The Turin Olympics
in February 2006 was the first major championship that was under global scrutiny
and the tournament was officiated jointly by IIHF and NHL referees. The game,
the fans, and the skilled players were the biggest winners. Turin 2006 will be
remembered as one of the best international hockey tournaments ever played.
Today, the crackdown on restraining fouls has been globally accepted and
virtually every league in the world follows the guidelines of the IIHF Rule
Emphasis Bulletin. No one involved in hockey can imagine going back to the "dark
ages" when constant holding, hooking, and endless interference nearly ruined the
game and made it almost unwatchable (and unplayable). Very rarely did a league
and federation decision have a bigger impact on the future of the game than this
one.
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Before hockey's crackdown on obstruction in autumn of 2005, this hooking was
probably not called. Today, a player won't get away with it.
PHOTO: City-Press/Berlin
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Sundin’s marvellous goal ends Soviet Union’s hockey era
Turku, Finland
May 4, 1991
Mats Sundin, only 20 at that time, scored what many consider as the “best goal
in the history of the IIHF World Championship” when he single-handedly gave
Sweden gold in 1991 in Turku. But it isn’t only the exceptional end-to-end rush
that counts into the overall verdict. The performance capped a season which
began with Sundin escaping his country as villain – in what also was the last
hockey game ever to be played by the Soviet Union national team.
Sundin became the first European to be picked first overall in the NHL Draft
when the Quebec Nordiques secured his rights in 1989. When Sundin joined the
NHL-club one year later, he did it amid controversy which divided the Swedish
sports community. After allegedly leaving his club Djurgarden Stockholm while
still under contract, the Swedish Ice Hockey Association declared him as
“persona non grata”. The association’s president Rickard Fagerlund vowed that
Sundin would never dress up in a Tre Kronor jersey.
But things change fast in sport. Less than 10 months after the threat, Sundin
was named to the Swedish team for the 1991 event in Finland. Despite his young
age, the big and incredibly gifted centre, who had 59 points in 80 games in his
rookie season with Quebec, immediately became his team’s best offensive threat.
He led Team Sweden with six goals and five assists in nine games prior to the
final.
As the medal round began, Sweden was part of a four-team medal race which also
included the Soviet Union, Canada and USA, in the last World Championship that
was not decided with a winner-takes-all gold medal game.
Prior to the final game between Sweden and the Soviets, these were the
preconditions: Whoever won the game would claim first place. A tie would send
the gold medals to Canada.
With then minutes left of the final game between Sweden and the Soviets, the
Canadians were world champions in civvies. The 1-1 score had both Canada and
Sweden on top with four points but the Canadians had a one-goal advantage in the
goals differential tie-breaker. If anyone scored a winner with time running out
in Turku’s Elysee Areena, that team would win gold.
With the Canadian players in the stands counting down every second, Mats Sundin
decided to take the things into his own hands. The clock showed ten minutes left
when Sundin took the puck behind his own net and started to charge towards the
Soviet end on the right side. He weaved off two Soviet players in the neutral
zone and he was not aware that the last red clad player waiting for him inside
the blue line was Vyacheslav Fetisov, arguably the best defencemen in
international hockey ever.
At 20, one isn’t impressed with nobility and Sundin put on an amazing
outside-and-in move that left the Soviet veteran flatfooted. Alone with
goaltender Andrei Trefilov, Sundin released a low shot from seven meters and the
puck hit the back of the net. Led by legendary coach Viktor Tikhonov, the CCCP
squad couldn’t find any power to strike back.
Tikhonov didn’t attempt the common practice to pull the goalie for an extra
attacker with slightly more than one minute to go. His team needed two goals for
gold. Had they merely tied the game, Canada would become world champion. Helping
historic rival Canada to a gold medal, was not a Soviet priority. It was a
peculiar ending to a game which did not in any way take away anything from the
incredible performance by the youngest player on the ice.
Mats Sundin, who started the season as a “traitor”, ended it as a national hero.
And the very last medal that the Soviet national team won was a bronze. The next
season the team was known as Russia.
Mats Sundin
scores the 1991 World Championship winner before he disappears from the
frame.
PHOTO: Rolle Rygin
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The 20-year old star with the gold medal.
PHOTO: Rolle Rygin
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Women’s hockey enters Olympics – USA hands Canada first loss
Nagano, Japan
February 8-17, 1998
The 1998 Olympics was historic for two reasons. For the men, it was the first
time full NHL participation occurred. For the women, it was the first time they
were playing Olympic hockey at all. The excitement of the women’s event was all
the more palatable because it was virtually certain that Canada and USA were
headed towards a gold medal showdown.
These had been the two best countries since 1990, when the IIHF started the
women’s world championship, and both countries had been preparing for years for
this inaugural competition. The six teams entered played a simple round robin,
the top two advancing to a gold-medal game, and the third and fourth teams
playing for the bronze medal.
As expected, Canada and USA played for the gold, but the result came, if not as
a shock, then certainly as a surprise. The first period was scoreless, but early
in the second the Americans took the lead thanks to Gretchen Ulion. Midway
through the third, they extended the lead to 2-0 on a Shelley Looney goal, but
Danielle Goyette finally beat Sarah Teuting to make it 2-1 with 4:01 left in
regulation.
The Canadians poured on the pressure in the dying minutes, but the only puck to
cross the goal line was fired by American Sandra Whyte into the vacant Canadian
net at 19:52. The Americans won gold, and the teary-eyed favourites from Canada
had to settle for silver after having won all four World Championship gold
medals. But for the Americans, they didn’t win the game on this day so much as
three days earlier in the final game of the round robin.
In that game, Canada had built an impressive and comfortable 4-1-lead early in
the third period only to see the Americans score six unanswered goals and win
7-3. Canada has never before or since given up as many goals in a period or
game, but the incredible onslaught by USA gave the players confidence that they
could beat Canada when the gold medal was on the line. And that’s just what they
did.
But regardless of the final outcome – women’s hockey was the winner. As of 1998,
it was not only endorsed by the IIHF. Women’s hockey was now accepted by sport’s
most prestigious movement.
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The American team celebrates the historic, first women's Olympic gold in
Nagano in 1998.
PHOTO: IOC Archives
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For Stacy
Wilson, Therese Brisson and Danielle Goyette Olympic silver was simply not
good enough.
PHOTO: IOC Archives
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The Piestany fiasco – Soviet Union and Canada disqualified
Piestany, Czechoslovakia
January 4, 1987
The Canada-Soviet Union junior game on the night of January 4, 1987, in Piestany,
Czechoslovakia, was supposed to decide the gold medal for the 1987 World Junior
(U20) Championships. Unfortunately, the final night of the tournament lacked
direct drama for both teams because only Canada could win gold.
The Soviets had a rare off year in ’87, and as they prepared to face the
Canadians, their 2W-1T-3L record wasn’t good enough to get them any colour medal
regardless of the outcome. Canada, though, was in serious contention. If it
defeated the Soviets by five goals or more, it would win gold. A win of less
than five goals would have assured the team silver to Finland’s gold.
The game started perfectly for Canada. Theo Fleury scored first, and although
the Soviets tied the score just eleven seconds later, two goals before the horn
gave Canada a solid 3-1 lead after 20 minutes. The teams exchanged goals midway
through the second, but with the score 4-2 the game turned ugly. Soviet forward
Pavel Kostichkin slashed Theo Fleury, and as the two pushed and shoved. After
that both teams’ benches emptied and hell broke loose. In his book “When the
lights went out”, written on the occasion of the 20-year anniversary of the
infamous brawl in Piestany, Canadian journalist Gare Joyce can not definitely
conclude who started it.
Evgeni Davydov was first off the ice, but soon all Soviet and Canadian players
were on the ice fighting. Norwegian referee Hans Ronning, out of his element,
left the ice and ordered arena staff to turn the lights on and off, but it was
still many minutes before order could be restored. Of course, fighting in
international hockey results in an automatic game misconduct, so the IIHF
discipline committee could think of no other resolution to the brawl than to
cancel the rest of the game and disqualify the teams since a game misconduct to
every player would have left both benches empty.
All players were suspended from international hockey for 18 months, although
later the suspensions were rescinded. It was one of the darkest moments in IIHF
history and many parties had to assume responsibility. The IIHF and the
championship directorate for assigning a referee who was not capable to control
a game at this level and the respective teams who were led by coaches who lacked
in discipline and who were not able, or even not willing, to restrain their
players.
The game had suffered its most ignominious moment, forgettable, regrettable,
never to happen again.
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The scandal that won't fade away: Canadian reporter Gare Jayce's book
appeared 20 years after the Piestany fiasco.
PHOTO: IIHF
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Mayhem!
PHOTO: IIHF
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Swedish "Mirakel" as USA bumped from Olympic gold-medal game
Turin, Italy
February 17, 2006
There was no reason to suspect that anything would be different in 2006. Since
1990, when women’s hockey became an official IIHF event, every finals had been a
Canada-USA affair. This was the rivalry that kept women’s hockey alive and
exciting, but in some ways it was also one that was taking interest away from
the sport.
On the one hand, the two countries always demonstrated the very pinnacle of
skill; on the other, some fans were getting bored by the sameness and
predictability of each gold-medal game. Coming into the 2006 Olympics, another
Canada-USA gold-medal game seemed inevitable; no country, notably Sweden or
Finland, had shown an ability to beat either nation prior to the Turin Games.
And, indeed, the preliminary round went as usual, Canada and the USA winning all
their games.
There was, however, a noticeable difference. Canada beat its opponents badly
(16-0, 12-0, 8-1) while the Americans won with a bit more difficulty. Finland,
for instance, led USA 2-1 and 3-2 after the first and second periods,
respectively, before bowing, 7-3. Still, the semi-finals pitted Canada versus
Finland and USA versus Sweden, and everything looked status quo. Canada crushed
Finland 6-0, but the Americans did nothing of the sort to the Damkronor.
The game started out on form as Kristin King scored on the power play to give
the U.S. a 1-0 lead after the first period, and Kelly Stephens added another
goal with the man advantage early in the second to make it 2-0. But Sweden’s
Maria Rooth rose to the occasion. She scored once to make it a 2-1 game, and
then midway through the period she scored a short-handed goal to tie the score.
A stunned USA team headed to the dressing room in a 2-2 tie after 40 minutes,
and it was the Swedes who came out in the third with a confidence no one could
have predicted. The third, and a 10-minute overtime period that followed, could
not produce another goal, so the teams went to a shootout.
The nervous Americans were stoned on all of their chances by goalie Kim Martin,
and Rooth and Pernilla Winberg both scored to give Sweden an unbelievable
victory. Sports Illustrated, where not even men’s professional hockey gets much
space, devoted two pages to this historic win and the headline was the Swedish
word “Mirakel”.
The Swedes were going to the gold-medal game, and the Americans had to play for
bronze less than 24 hours later. Canada beat Sweden, 4-1 to win gold again, and
the Americans won bronze with a 4-0 win over the Finns. But, the story of the
tournament was Maria Rooth, Kim Martin, and their Swedish teammates who made
women’s hockey history by taking their country to a silver medal.
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Swedish players mob Maria Rooth after her winning goal during the semi-final
shootout against the USA in Turin 2006.
PHOTO: Europhoto/Jani Rajamaki
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Soviets embarrass NHL All Stars 6-0 to win Challenge Cup
New York, USA
February 11, 1979
North Americans just seemed slow to learn — or perhaps they were just stubborn.
Canadians dismissed World Championships results from the 1950s and ‘60s leading
up to the 1972 Summit Series — and were given a rude awakening. And the NHL
didn’t seem to learn anything from the results of that historic, eight-game
showdown in 1972, either.
Why else would the league organise a best-of-three series during the NHL season
between a collection of the league’s best players who had never played a game
together against a team from the Soviet Union which had played and practised as
a unit eleven months of the year for several years? The Challenge Cup replaced
the 1979 All-Star Game, and these three games at Madison Square Garden were
meant to showcase the league at the expense of the Soviets.
Coached by Montreal’s Scotty Bowman and featuring a hand-picked group of
international players from the NHL, how could they not win? In truth, the roster
included 19 Canadians and three Swedes — Borje Salming, Ulf Nilsson, and Anders
Hedberg. Indeed, game one was won fairly and impressively by the NHL, 4-2,
thanks to goals from Guy Lafleur, Mike Bossy, Bob Gainey, and Clark Gillies.
Game two was close and tense, a 4-4 game after 40 minutes being decided only by
a goal early in the third period from Vladimir Golikov.
That set the stage for a dramatic final game — what more could the NHL have
asked for? Shockingly, the Soviets were so confident in victory that they even
gave their number-one goalie a rest and started their back-up! That is,
Vladislav Tretiak watched the final game from the bench and Vladimir Myshkin
played the full 60 minutes for CCCP. Myshkin didn’t have much to do. The NHL
players fired 24 shots at him, and not one got past him.
At the other end, the Soviets pulled away. After a goalless first, they scored
twice in the second and added four more in the third, the 6-0 victory emphatic
and embarrassing for the NHL and putting an end to such a challenge series.
Although not admitting that officially, coach Viktor Tikhonov and the Soviet
hockey authorities valued this slap in the face at the hands of the NHL as much
as any World Championship or Olympic victory. Not only did the Soviets put down
the best NHL had to offer, they did in mid-season when the NHLers where at their
best, and the win was accomplished in the “capitalist capital of the World”
The next time the NHL replaced the All-Star Game was eight years later. The
event was called Rendez-vous ’87, and the format was the same save for one major
difference — it was a best-of-two, not best-of-three series.
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Soviet captain Boris Mikhailov holds the Challenge Cup after the devastating
6-0-win over the NHL All Stars in New York in 1980. NHL president John
Ziegler (left) and NHLPA executive director Alan Eagleson look bewildered.
PHOTO: Mecca/HHoF
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Given no options, goaltending icon Tretiak retires at 32
Karlstad, Sweden
April 12, 1984
Vladislav Tretiak was the best goaltender that Soviet hockey has ever produced.
He was, perhaps, the best goalie of all time. On October 3, 1989, he became the
first Soviet player to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
Tretiak became the first European player inductee who had never played in the
NHL. His inclusion was a monumental break from the Hall’s tradition.
After winning yet another gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo (former
Yugoslavia), Tretiak had won absolutely everything a player could dream of, many
times over. Counting from his international debut at the age of 18 at the 1970
World Championship in Stockholm, Sweden, Tretiak had won ten World Championship
gold medals and three Olympic titles. He rose to prominence during the 1972
Summit Series between the Soviet and Canada, and he achieved iconic status after
leading the CCCP team to a remarkable 8-1-win against the heavily favoured
Canadians in the 1981 Canada Cup final in Montreal.
Tretiak had won so many national and European titles with CSKA Moscow that he
didn’t bother to count anymore. There is a telling team photo of the CSKA Red
Army squad in the spring of 1984 after it had won yet another Soviet
championship. It showed a victorious team, but very few of the players looked
genuinely happy. Tretiak seemed bored — he didn’t even look into the camera. No
wonder. CSKA had just gone through the Soviet championship, winning 43 out of 44
regular season games.
In those days, there was no World Championship in an Olympic year and the 1984
international season ended with a pretty insignificant tournament called the
Sweden Cup, played in Gothenburg and Karlstad, Sweden. One day before the
Soviets’ first game against Finland, a reporter from the Goteborgs-Posten daily
asked the Russian team management for permission to interview Vladislav Tretiak
at the team’s hotel in Gothenburg.
After the reporter waited for four hours, Tretiak finally showed up sporting a
sweater with a Philadelphia Flyers logo. During the interview, conducted in the
hotel lobby and supervised by a Soviet team official, Tretiak deftly deflected
all questions about him wanting to pursue a career in the NHL with the Montreal
Canadiens.
In the spring of 1983, Tretiak was selected by the Canadiens in the seventh
round of the NHL draft and the club’s manager, Serge Savard, tried to negotiate
the goaltender’s release during the Sarajevo Olympics. But Tretiak was a poster
boy for the communist youth organisation Komsomol and the answers given during
the interview reflected as much.
“My athletic career belongs to the Soviet people,” Tretiak said while the team
official beside him listened closely. “I have no ambitions to play in NHL. I am
committed to CSKA and the Soviet national team.”
Tretiak, of course, said the things he had to say. The reporter got his
interview, but the politically driven answers did not produce the “big story”
the writer was hoping for. But when he said farewell to Tretiak after 45
minutes, the reporter didn’t know that this was the last interview that the star
goaltender would give to a Western journalist while still an active hockey
player.
The Soviets won easy victories against Finland and Sweden before being
shellacked 7-2 by the Czechoslovaks in Karlstad, in the last game of the Sweden
Cup. That game, on April 12, 1984, would be the last occasion when Vladislav
Tretiak suited up in the famous CCCP outfit.
During the following summer it became clear that the Soviet sports authorities
would not give Tretiak permission to play in the NHL. And despite what he said
in the interview a couple of months earlier in Gothenburg, this was exactly what
he wanted, the only challenge that would make him continue playing hockey.
Tretiak had only one way of replying – retirement. He could not force the
authorities to release him, but on the other hand the authorities could not
force him to play.
In a candid interview in the sports daily Sovietskiy Sport later in the summer
of 1984, Tretiak explained to his fans that he’d grown tired of the lifestyle of
a Soviet hockey player. He said that he had done everything he could do for his
country and that he now wanted to devote more time to his wife, Tatiana, instead
of spending eleven months a year at the CSKA or national team training camp.
He stopped short of saying that he was very disappointed in the sports
authorities’ decision and that his choice to retire at the tender age of 32 was
a means of protesting not being released to play in the NHL. In 1984, there was
still only so much a Soviet athlete could say, even if his name was Tretiak.
The IIHF interviewed Tretiak in December 2001, previewing the 2002 Olympics in
Salt Lake City, where he would be the goaltending coach for Team Russia.
“In 1984, I had at least five to seven good years left in me,” he said looking
back his premature retirement. “I was still very fit and in excellent shape.
Canadiens’ GM Serge Savard tried to negotiate my release, but it was useless.
They wouldn’t let me go.”
Tretiak’s voice was filled with resentment as he remembered the sentiments he
felt then: “I did everything possible for my country,” he said. “I played every
tournament and in fifteen years I missed one practice when the coach told me to
go home because I was so sick. I was a hundred percent disciplined. I never
smoked or drank but when I asked them in 1984 to let me join Montreal who had
drafted me, they said no, and the reason was that I was a soldier in the Red
Army.”
That decision forever leaves one of the most intriguing “what-ifs” in hockey.
What if Tretiak had played in the NHL? Would he also have been the best goalie
in that league? Would he have led Montreal to more Stanley Cups than the single
one the club won in the 1980s? How many Vezina trophies would he have won? Would
he have been able to withstand the rigors of an 80-game schedule?
Due to the decision to retire in 1984, we will never know.
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Vladislav Tretiak's last interview as an active player in Gothenburg,
Sweden. Four days later, on April 12, 1984, he played his last game.
PHOTO: Bengt Kjellin
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USA wins inaugural World Cup of Hockey
Montreal, Canada
September 14, 1996
By 1996, the United States had replaced the Soviet Union/Russia as Canada’s
principle international rivalry. In part this was because the breakup of the
Soviet Union in 1991 had rendered the Russians more vulnerable and not as
dominant. In part, the rivalry had been as political as it was sporting, so
without the cloak of the Iron Curtain, the two countries weren’t nemeses any
more. And, in part, it was because of the emergence of the U.S. as a true hockey
power. Canada had defeated the Americans — not the Soviets — in the 1991 Canada
Cup, and the core American players from that team were now in their prime in the
1996 World Cup of Hockey.
Indeed, USA had a perfect 3-0-0 record in the round robin in 1996, one of those
wins at the expense of Canada (5-3). Both countries won their semi-finals
matchups, Canada beating Sweden 3-2 in a sensational overtime game, and the
Americans winning more easily over Russia, 5-2. (Strangely, four of the USA’s
seven games ended in victory by that 5-2 score.)
This set the stage for an all North American best-of-three finals. Canada won
the first game 4-3 at the new Core States Center in Philadelphia, a game that
ended dramatically. First, the Americans tied the game with just seven seconds
to go and goalie Mike Richter on the bench for the extra attacker, and then
Steve Yzerman scored the winner at 19:47 of the first overtime on a play that
was later shown to be offside by replay. Game two was all USA — 5-2 — and that
set the stage for a one-game showdown at the Molson Centre in Montreal.
Brett Hull, a Canadian by birth and American by hockey, scored the only goal of
the first period, and Eric Lindros tied the game for Canada in the second. But
in that middle period, Canada dominated in a way few teams at this level have
ever done, and the fact Canada didn’t score half a dozen goals or more can be
credited almost entirely to goalie Richter, who was in the very prime of his
career.
Canada seemed to do what it was famous for when Adam Foote scored at 12:50 of
the final period, another dramatic goal for Canada looking like the series
winner. But the Americans refused to give up, and Hull tied the game on a
deflection in front of the goal. The Canadians protested that it was a high
stick that made contact with the puck, but video review failed to convince
officials and the goal counted. Rattled, Canada allowed two more quick goals and
one more into the empty net.
The 5-2 win gave the Americans their most significant championship since the
Miracle of 1980, and the connection was not accidental. Many of the players on
that 1996 USA team admitted they started playing the game as kids mainly because
of Lake Placid, a turning point in the history of American hockey.
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Chris Chelios hoists the 1996 World Cup trophy after Canada was defeated 5-2
in Montreal – USA’s biggest international win since the 1980 Miracle on Ice.
PHOTO: HHoF/Doug MacLellan
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Poland scores biggest shocker in World Championship history
Katowice, Poland
April 8, 1976
On this remarkable spring day hockey fans around the world had to look twice,
three times and once again at the scoreline to believe what they saw: Poland –
Soviet Union 6-4.
Misprint? No. Only the biggest shocker in international hockey history up to
that point.
In order to understand the magnitude of this win, which happened on opening day
of the 1976 IIHF World Championship, in the Polish coal mining city of Katowice,
one must understand the background to the story.
At the time, the Soviet Union’s Big Red Machine was virtually unbeatable. Only
two months earlier, the Soviets had cruised through the 1976 Olympics en route
to their fourth straight Olympic gold hockey medal. In that tournament, the
Soviet Union crushed Poland, 16-1. Coming into the first World Championship
hosted by Poland in 46 years, the Soviets had won 12 out of the last 13 IIHF
World Championships.
The CCCP squad had a team with goaltending legend Vladislav Tretiak; defencemen
Valeri Vasiliev, Vladimir Lutchenko, and Gennadi Tsygankov; forwards Valeri
Kharlamov, Boris Mikhailov, Helmut Balderis, Alexander Yakushev, Alexander
Maltsev, Sergei Kapustin, Viktor Shalimov, and Viktor Zhluktov.
This was a team that had lost only one competitive game since 1972 and had
compiled a goals for and against difference of 294-63 in the three last World
Championships (1973-75) and the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. In the last
seven official games between the Soviet Union and Poland prior to the April 8,
1976 encounter, the USSR team had compiled the following scores: 9-3, 20-0, 8-3,
17-0, 13-2, 15-1 and 16-1.
In other words, what the 10,000 Polish fans at Katowice’s Spodek arena were
expecting on this spring Thursday was another slaughter. The Polish objective
was simple: keep the score down. Any loss in single digits would be considered a
success. A score like 4-2 for the Soviets would have been a dream. Suggesting a
tie was not even funny.
Soviet head coach Boris Kulagin knew that his team would score at will and
decided to start seldom used backup goaltender Alexander Sidelnikov from the
Soviet Wings. But at 10:21 of the first period Miczyslaw Jaskierski gave Poland
the lead and four minutes later Ryszard Nowinski made it 2-0 after 20 minutes.
The Polish crowd went wild but was silenced only 31 seconds into the second
period when Boris Mikhailov put the Soviets on the scoreboard.
Now the Big Red Machine would surely come alive. They did. But on this day, the
Soviets were in their white road sweaters. The underdog Poles were in red and
they played like they believed that they were the world champions. Wieslaw
Jobczyk, a totally unknown 22-year-old forward who was about to play the game of
his life, made it 3-1 just two minutes after Mikhailov’s marker, and, 16 seconds
later, at the 3:00 mark of the second, Jaskierski struck again with his second
goal to make it 4-1 Poland. The arena was mayhem.
Coach Kulagin, who was fuming on the bench, decided to pull Sidelnikov at the
four-minute mark of the middle period and Tretiak came off the bench to stem the
tide. It was just the medicine the Soviets needed. Boosted by the presence of
their top goalie, Yakushev scored at 5:14 to make it 4-2.
But this night would belong to Jobczyk. Just as after Mikhailov’s first goal,
the Poles replied immediately and Jobczyk netted his second at 6:40 to make it
5-2 for Poland. Not even the great Tretiak could hold back the home team
tonight, which was playing like it had divine support.
The Soviets were trailing the whipping boys of international hockey 5-2 after
two periods and coaches Kulagin and Loktev didn’t even enter the dressing room
during intermission. The crowd was going absolutely mad. Fans were singing
without pause and the fact that Valeri Kharlamov scored to make 5-3 with seven
minutes left didn’t seem to affect them a bit. Goaltender Andrzej Tkacz made
save after save at the other end and he kept his team from waking up from this
beautiful dream.
With only 20 seconds remaining, with the Katowice arena a complete madhouse,
Jobczyk scored his third goal of the game. No one seemed to take notice when
Kharlamov made it 6-4 with five seconds left.
The Soviets where shocked, the Polish players where almost too tired to find the
words to sing their national anthem, but the crowd was overwhelmed. That night,
the fans’ singing raised the roof.
The result affected both teams significantly. The Soviet team could not recover.
They lost to the Czechoslovaks and the Swedes and finished second in the
tournament, a huge upset. The mentally drained Poles could not recover, either.
The next day they lost to Czechoslovakia 12-0. Poland, which tried to avoid
relegation to the B pool, actually had a pretty good tournament after that,
recording respectable scores. Going into the last game, the Poles needed only a
tie against West Germany to win the four-team relegation group with Finland and
East and West Germany.
The Poles held on to a 1-1 tie until Rainer Phillip scored with 21 seconds
remaining. Poland lost 2-1, finishing the tournament with the same number of
points as Finland and West Germany. Still, they were relegated on goal
difference. Some 32 years later, however, the final result of the 1976 World
Championship is all but forgotten. But the 6-4-score from April 8 remains an
indelible moment in the chronicles of international hockey history.
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Wieslaw Jobczyk (left) celebrates his team’s final goal during Poland’s
astonishing 6-4 victory over the Soviets (and goalie Vladislav Tretiak) in
the 1976 World Championship.
PHOTO: Kamerareportage, Sweden
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40 |
Finally, Canada to host the World Championship
Prague, Czech Republic
May 7, 2004
Imagine if the FIFA World Cup had never been hosted by Brazil, England or
Germany. What if Norway had never had the chance to organise a major skiing
championship? But in ice hockey, the IIHF’s flagship event, the men’s World
Championship, has never been played in the country where the sport is a religion
and where the game was invented!
By the 1960s, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association had decided it was time
this omission, and, indeed, Canada was appointed host for the 1970 World
Championship, to be organised jointly by Montreal and Winnipeg. But instead of
this becoming a defining moment in international hockey, it instead marked the
start of the darkest period in IIHF history. The 1969 IIHF congress in
Switzerland decided that Canada could use nine professional players for the 1970
tournament — long a sticking point to the CAHA - -but in January 1970, only five
months prior to the event, the decision was reversed and the IIHF again
prohibited the use of players who were officially professional.
The Canadians reacted by withdrawing from international hockey. They wouldn’t
return until 1977, missing the 1972 and ’76 Olympics and every World
Championship along the way. This, of course, strained relations between Canada
and the IIHF for many years to come, and a sense of peace did not truly
establish itself until the early 1990s. The IIHF allocated more and more World
Junior (U20) tournaments to Canada. The country’s governing body of hockey
(later re-named Hockey Canada) showed greater and greater commitment to sending
good teams to the World Championships which eventually resulted in Canada’s
success in 1994, the first gold medal in 33 years.
The inclusion of NHL players into the Olympics in 1998 contributed to Canada
feeling even more part of the international hockey community. For the first time
ever, Canada could enter the biggest sports show with its best players. When the
men’s Olympic gold in 2002 was followed up by another World title in 2003,
Hockey Canada finally made a bold decision – to apply to host the World
Championship in 2008, the year of the IIHF Centennial celebration.
Three days before Team Canada would win yet another gold medal in the 2004
tournament in the Czech Republic, the IIHF’s annual congress convened on May 6
in Prague to vote on the 2008 allocation. The day started in thrilling fashion –
and ended in anticlimax.
The first day of the congress is known as “Calendar Meeting”, when the agenda
for the congress is determined and no decisions made. But this was also the day
when the applying countries were to hold presentations of their bids and to
distribute promotional material to the congress delegates for the all-decisive
voting that would take place the next day, May 7. Canada’s bid was to be
challenged by applications from Germany and Sweden.
An IIHF official had mistakenly informed Hockey Canada representatives that the
entire 2008 bid process would start on the 7th and that they could relax on this
first day of meetings. So, coming to the Calendar Meeting, the misinformed
Canadian representatives had no material with them, while the German and Swedish
delegations were as well prepared as they could have been.
Bob Nicholson, the president of Hockey Canada and the main figure behind
Canada’s application, was still shaking with anger over the IIHF official’s
faux-pas when he was asked to address the congress to present Canada’s bid. He
had no video or flashy power-point presentations to show to the delegates and no
printed material. All that was left behind in his hotel room. All Nicholson
could do was to rely on his verbal skills—and he delivered the speech of his
life. The president of Hockey Canada was inspirational, well spoken, and
straight to the point.
Nicholson told the congress that there was no better place to celebrate 100
years of international hockey than in the country that gave the game to the
world. He informed delegates that the event would be hosted jointly by Quebec
City and Halifax, two of the most charming and beautiful old towns in Canada –
and two true hockey hotbeds. “We have been your guests at your events for almost
a century,” said Nicholson to the delegates. “Now it’s time for us, Canadians,
to be your hosts when the IIHF turns one hundred.”
The congress delegates were visibly impressed. After Nicholson’s speech, the
German delegate came up to the podium and said: “We believe that Canada has
earned the right to organise the 2008 World Championship. Germany withdraws its
bid for 2008.” Sweden, of course under pressure, also withdrew from contention
moments later.
Suddenly, after a morning of distress, Canada was the only candidate left. On
May 7, the day the congress was scheduled to vote on the 2008 event, there was
nothing to vote on. Canada was unanimously declared host of the 72nd IIHF World
Championship.
At the end it was easy, but there was lots of symbolism behind the decision.
Going to Canada with its premiere event, was for the IIHF the final gesture of
reconciliation with the motherland of hockey.
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Mission 2008 accomplished: IIHF president René Fasel (third from left) and
Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson (second from left) pose in this
historic photo after Canada was finally awarded the World Championship.
PHOTO: Europhoto/Jani Rajamaki
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