The Sovereign Sovjets and so on...
Tämä sivu on saatavilla myös suomeksi. This page is also available in Finnish.
The 1970’s
This decade meant, that the Sovjet Union took over the Olympic and World Championship hockey. The North-Americans only showed their sportmanship in these games now and then. Team Finland was trying to find its style of play and a long-run development. The mental side might have needed some developing too... But even the Swedes had little means to block the eastern block. By the end of this decade the World Championship North-European teams had to think about the NHL and also the flopped WHA...
1970 Stockholm
The Maple Leaf country was supposed to start the World Championships of this decade. The locations planned for the tournament were Winnipeg and Montreal. But then... Avery Brundage from the IOC threatened again to block ice hockey from the Olympic tournament for using the pros. The International Ice Hockey Federation had already given a permit for using nine professional players in the tournament. Some people might find the thinking of Avery Brundage interesting: the twenty-year-old lieutenant-colonels, doing nothig else but practising hockey ever day, were true amateurs... So, the permission for using pros was postponed. For pretty obvious reasons Canada gave up the IIHF and Olympic tournaments for eight years.
And then: for the second time in a row, a stand-in city was the host, by co-incidence again Stockholm! Inspired again by a home-crowd the Swedish team naturally took the silver-medal. But Team Finland made history in Stockholm too, winning Sweden for the first time on the IIHF tournament level, by 3-1. The Swedish coach, Arne Strömberg, has been told to have called the Finnish team being a collection of strange individuals: Matti Keinonen as a whirlpool, Jorma Vehmanen hunting the puck at the blue line. And Veli-Pekka Ketola being the “tower of Pisa”. The Sovjet coach Tarasov’s comment about them was: “How come such a fine collection of individuals can be such a poor team?” Later, Veli-Pekka Ketola from this team Finland become the first Finnish to play pro in Canada...
The crown jewel came, when Finland beat Czechoslovakia too in the same tournament . Despite this triumph, Team Finland had to face a six-year streak of placing-fourths. The only exception being the fifth place in Sapporo 1972. One reason in this tournament for the fourth place was a lost to East-Germany by 3-4.
USSR: Viktor Konovalenko, Vladislav Tretjak; Vitali Davidov, Anatoli Firsov, Valeri Harlamov, Aleksander Jakusev, Vladimir Lutshenko, Aleksander Maltsev(15+6), Boris Mihailov, Jevgeni Misakov, Valeri Nikitin, Vladimir Petrov, Jevgeni Polagjev, Viktor Polupanov, Aleksander Ragulin, Igor Romisevski, Vladimir Sadrin, Vjatseslav Starsinov, Valeri Vasiljev, Vladimir Vikulov. ( 10 9 0 1 68-11)
2. Sweden: Leif Holmqvist, Gunnar Bäckman; Tommy Abrahamsson, Arne Carlsson, Anders Hagström, Anders Hedberg, Leif Henriksson, Nils Johansson, Stig-Göran Johansson, Stefan Karlsson(6+5), Tord Lundström, Kjell-Rune Milton, Lars-Göran Nilsson, Anders Nordin, Roger Olsson, Björn Palmqvist, Lars-Erik Sjöberg, Ulf Sterner, Lennart Svedberg, Håkan Wickberg. (10 7 1 2 45-21)
3. Czechoslovakia: Vlado Dzurilla, Miroslav Lacky; Vladimir Bednar, Josef Cerny, Richard Farda, Julius Haas, Ivan Hlinka, Jaroslav Holik, Josef Horesovsky, Jan Hrbaty, Jiri Kochta, Oldrich Mahac, Vladimir Martinec, Vaclav Nedomansky(10+7), Frantisek Pospisil, Stanislav Pryl, Frantisek Sevcik, Jan Suchy, Lubomir Ujvary. (10 5 1 4 47-30).
4. Finland: Urpo Ylönen, Jorma Valtonen; Juha Rantasila, Ilpo Koskela, Pekka Marjamäki, Seppo Lindström, Heikki Riihiranta, Lalli Partinen; Pekka Leimu(5+3), Matti Keinonen, Veli-Pekka Ketola, Matti Murto, Jorma Peltonen, Lauri Mononen, Lasse Oksanen, Juhani Tamminen, Jorma Vehmanen, Harri Linnomaa, Esa Peltonen, Väinö Kolkka. (10 5 0 5 31-40).
1971 Berne, Geneva
The northern kingdom finally gave the tournament forward to the former kingdom of European hockey: Switzerland. After two years absence, there was a North-American team in pool A. The US Team won Czechoslovakia 5-1, Keith Christiansen shared the position as the most penalized player with a West-German called Alois Schloder (the total minutes being 18). Despite its traditions, the USA had to face pool B in the next tournament...
The Czechs and the Slovaks played a tied score with the Sovjet Union and won them once. Then came the Swedes.... winning by 6-5. So, in a way one can say, that An Eastern National Club Team had replaced the traditional Canadian National Club Teams. Just like the Canadians had done before: the Sovjets were presented by ZSKA Moscow players, with some additions from the other clubs. And just like in the good old Canadian times, this team USSR’s players took five first spots in the scoring statistics. The goalie of the team, Viktor Konovalenko, was highly regarded in this tournament. Earlier, it was thought many times, that his maverick style of play caused as much gray hair to his defencemen as to the forwards of the opposing teams.
With Finland… again the keyword being if. Probably it is only natural, that the “if” was Sweden. In a two-round series Finland was leading the first game 1-0. Then the things happened in Swedish style: the puck moved to the goal by a Finnish skate. In the second round game the scores were 1-1 too. Then Lauri Mononen faced a five-minute penalty... and the final score was 1-2 for Sweden. Curiously the Finnish team missed the first-ever medal by just one point. The defenceman Ilpo Koskela being the best scorer might tell something about the games of Finland.
USSR: Viktor Konovalenko, Vladislav Tretjak; Gennadi Tsigankov, Vitali Davidov, Anatoli Firsov(10+9), Valeri Harlamov, Viktor Kuskin, Juri Ljapkin, Vladimir Lutshenko, Aleksander Maltsev, Aleksander Martinjuk, Boris Mihailov, Jevgeni Misakov, Vladimir Petrov, Aleksander Ragulin, Igor Romisevski, Vladimir Sadrin, Vjatseslav Starsinov, Vladimir Vikulov, Jevgeni Simin. (10 8 1 1 77-24).
2. Czechoslovakia; Jiri Holecek, Marcel Sakac; Bedrich Brunclik, Jiri Bubla, Josef Cerny Richard Farda(4+5), Jan Havel, Ivan Hlinka, Jiri Holik, Josef Horesovsky, Jiri Kochta, Oldrtich Machac, Vladimir Martinec, Vaclav Nedomansky, Eduard Novak, Frantisek Panchartek, Frantisek Pospisil, Bohuslav Statsny, Jan Suchy, Jaroslav Tajcnar. (10 7 1 2 44-20).
3. Sweden: William Löfqvist, Christer Abrahamsson; Tommy Abrahamsson, Gunnar Andersson, Tommy Bergman, Arne Carlsson, Inge Hammarström, Stig-Göran Johansson, Stefan Karlsson, Hans Lindberg, Tord Lundström(5+4), Kjell-Rune Milton, Lars-Göran Nilsson, Bert-Ola Nordlander, Håkan Nygren, Björn Palmqvist, Håkan Pettersson, Ulf Sterner, Lennart Svedberg, Håkan Wickberg. (10 5 1 4 29-33).
4. Finland: Jorma Valtonen, Urpo Ylönen; Ilpo Koskela(6+1), Pekka Marjamäki, Seppo Lindström, Hannu Luojola, Jouko Öystilä; Veli-Pekka Ketola, Lasse Oksanen, Esa Isaksson, Erkki Mononen, Lauri Mononen, Matti Murto, Jorma Vehmanen, Harri Linnomaa, Esa Peltonen, Seppo Repo, Heikki Järn, Juhani Tamminen, Tommi Salmelainen. (10 4 1 2 31-42).
The Olympics
1972
Sapporo
For the first time the Winter Olympics took place in Asia. And for the first time the IIHF arranged its own tournament in the Olympic year. One could easily name these tournaments as the additional-tournaments. The Second World War –time emperor Hirohito had now become a regular representative monarch, wondering about the violent nature of hockey. His countryman, Teiji Honma, had presented a samurai-ninja –style mask in the international hockey already in 1936. But in this tournament a plastic, cage-like goalie’s mask made its break-through. Another break-through was made by the most North-American –style playing European goalie, his first name being Vladislav... The Sovjets had lost a December before by 1-4 against Finland in Moscow and it was time for the grand-old man Konovalenko to step aside. Also Anatoli Firsov had to step aside after this tournament. There has been talks about a possible effort by him to defect... There has been talks about that too, that this Sovjet team played in an exceptionally “Canadian” style.
USA won its qualification game against Switzerland by 5-3. But after that “God blessed America” in the most spectacular manner. The team reaching the silver-medal being basically the same team facing pool B in the previous year’s World Championship tournament. Finland won Norway in its own qualification game by 13-1, so the game series as a whole they had more goals for than against. In the final series the team was fifth with less goals for than against. Maybe getting to know the Japanese culture inspired the whole Finnish team to have its moment in this tournament: Finland won Sweden for the first time in the Olympic level by 4-3. A Swedish player’s comment being: “I don’t mind, they can sometimes even beat the Sovjets”. Because of this game, Sweden remained fourth.
Canada was absent from this tournament and from the next Olympic tournament too. They were more interested about certain games against the Sovjets this year. Also during the next few years, the World Championships remained to the Red Machine... or to the eastern block anyway.
USSR: Vladislav Tretjak, Aleksander Pashkov; Vitali Davidov, Viktor Kuzkin, Aleksander Ragulin, Anatoli Firsov, Igor Romishevski, Jevgeni Mishakov, Jevgeni Zimin, Gennadi Tsigankov, Vladimir Lutshenko, Aleksander Jakushev, Vladimir Shadrin, Valeri Vasiljev, Aleksander Maltsev, Valeri Harlamov(9+6), Boris Mihailov, Vladimir Petrov, Vladimir Vikulov, Juri Blinov. (5 4 1 0 33-13).
2. USA: Mike Curran, Peter Sears; Walter Olds, Thomas Mellor, Frank Sanders, James McElmury, Charles Brown, Richard McGlynn, Ronald Naslund, Robert Ftorek, Stuart Irving, Kevin Ahearn, Henry Boucha, Craig Sarner(4+6), Timothy Sheehy, Keith Christiansen, Mark Howe. (6 4 0 2 23-18).
3. Czechoslovakia: Jiri Holecek, Vlado Dzurilla; Josef Cerny, Jiri Holik, Josef Horesovsky, Vaclav Nedomansky(8+3), Jiri Kochta, Oldrich Machac, Frantisek Pospisil, Eduard Novak, Ivan Hlinka, Bhuslav Statsny, Vladimir Martinec, Vladimir Bednar, Rudolf Tajcnar, Karel Vohralik, Jaroslav Holik, Richard Farda. (6 4 0 2 34-15).
5. Finland: Jorma Valtonen, Stig Wetzell; Juha Rantasila, Seppo Lindström, Heikki Järn, Heikki Riihiranta, Ilpo Koskela, Pekka Marjamäki; Lauri Mononen(7+0), Timo Turunen, Juhani Tamminen, Veli-Pekka Ketola, Lasse Oksanen, Esa Peltonen, Matti Keinonen, Harri Linnonmaa, Matti Murto, Jorma Peltonen, Jorma Vehmanen, Seppo Repo. (6 3 0 3 27-25).
The World Championships
1972
Prague
In the first tournament ever arranged in the Olympic year the Sovjet Union finally lost its streak of Champions’ titles. The socialistic realism had taken its tow, and the creator of the Grand Sovjet hockey had been replace by a coaching team of Vselodov Bobrov-Nikolai Putshkov. A statement by Firsov was: “Bobrov is a perfect nobody”. So, there might have been some frictions within the team for this change. Czechoslovakia made its domestic tournament a jubilee, after getting the Championship title for the first time for 23 years. Even the Holik brothers, known to be very different personalities, were their best friends now. Switzerland, unfortunately, returned to the pool A one year after they had arranged a pool A tournament. The most noticed person in this tournament was Gaston Furrer, bein the most penalized player in the tournament with 28 minutes. But they had one good game too, winning Finland 3-2...
So Finland remained fourth, again. By winning Sweden 5-4 they dropped their neighbour to the third place, which might have brought some kind of comfort. Lauri Mononen was acting like a super-hero. He was the first Finnish player ever to be in the top ten in scoring statistics, being even better than the best Swede. Another great moment for this Team Finland was also a victory by 13-3 over West-Germany. But maybe the fourth place somehow depended on the absence of the North-Americans these years...
This tournament was a bulls-eye by the IIHF. But in the future these Olympic year’s World Championships may have had some kind of in-between spirit... of course the economical reasons haven’t effected the IIHF in this matter!
Czechoslovakia: Jiri Holecek, Vlado Dzurilla; Vladimir Bednar, Jiri Bubla, Josef Horesovsky, Milan Kuzela, Oldrich Machac, Frantisek Pospisil, Rudolf Tajcnar; Richard Farda, Julius Haas, Ivan Hlinka, Jaroslav Holik, Jiri Holik, Jan Klapac, Jiri Kochta, Vladimir Martinec, Vaclac Nedomansky(9+6), Josef Palecek, Bohuslav Statsny. (10 9 1 0 72-16).
2. USSR; Vladislav Tretjak, Vjatsheslav Soloduchin; Vjatseslav Anissin, Gennadi Tsigankov, Aleksander Gusev, Valeri Harlamov, Aleksander Jakusev, Viktor Kuskin, Vladimir Lutshenko, Aleksander Maltsev(10+12), Boris Mihailov, Jevgeni Misakov, Vladimir Petrov, Aleksander Ragulin, Igor Romisevski, Vladimir Sadrin, Vladimir Sepovalov, Valeri Vasiljev, Vladimir Vikulov, Juri Blinov. (10 7 2 1 78-17).
3. Sweden: Leif Holmqvist, Christer Abrahamsson; Tommy Abrahamsson, Tommy Bergman, Inge Hammarström, Anders Hedberg, Björn Johansson, Stig-Göran Johansson, Stefan Karlsson(6+7), Stig Larsson, Mats Lindh, Tord Lundström, Lars-Göran Nilsson, Stig Östling, Björn Palmqvist, Håkan Pettersson, Börje Salming, Lars-Erik Sjöberg, Karl-Johan Sundqvist, Håkan Wickberg. (10 5 1 4 49-33).
4. Finland: Jorma Valtonen, Stig Wetzell; Juha Rantasila, Jouko Öystilä, Pekka Marjamäki, Timo Nummelin, Heikki Riihiranta, Pekka Rautakallio, Pertti Valkeapää; Lauri Mononen(9+6), Juhani Tamminen, Lasse Oksanen, Timo Turunen, Seppo Repo, Veli-Pekka Ketola, Esa Peltonen, Matti Murto, Seppo Ahokainen, Harri Linnonmaa, Matti Keinonen. (10 4 0 6 47-48).
1973
Moscow
The Luzhniki arena enlightened the fierce come-back of the Red Machine. Their best-ever score being 100-18 in a ten-game series. The “troika” formed by Harlamov-Mihailov-Petrov scoring 43 goals altogether. So, the times they had been a-changing from 1924, when Harry “Moose” Watson had scored 37 goals in 5 games alone. But Sweden was this time a team not easily giving up, losing only 3-4! But the Sovjets had Tretjak, presenting the most North-European saves style as a goalie again. Ragulin made history by being a World Champion for the tenth time! The Sovjet team got only six first spots in the scoring-statistics.
Again the North-American teams were absent. The Americans playing still on pool B level, despite their previous Olympic success. When The Team Canada was playing exhibition games for the games against the Sovjets, Ulf Sterner from Sweden played in an un-Swedish style, by hurting a Canadian player’s tongue. But in the NHL he hadn’t made it in the 1960’s, where WHA had by now become the first challenger for the NHL for years. This new rival might have saved the level of North-American hockey. WHA opened doors seriously for the European top players and paid proper salaries too. Competing with the NHL, they may have needed a certain amount of top players...
Finland played its most maverick tournament ever, by being penalized for 129 minutes as a team. But the long-time defenceman Lalli Partinen played his best tournament here. The legendary Finnish whirpool, Matti Keinonen, finished his international career here, stretching his arms to the audience, while leaving the ice for being penalized. Despite this meant an extra-penalty for him, this also meant a No-More-Brazilian-soccer-like playing in Team Finland...
USSR: Vladislav Tretjak, Aleksander Sidelnikov; Valeri Vasiljev, Aleksander Gusev, Jevgeni Polagjev, Juri Ljapkin, Gennadi Tsigankov, Vladimir Lutschenko, Aleksander Ragulin, Boris Mihailov, Vladimir Petrov(18+16), Valeri Harlamov, Aleksander Martinjuk, Vladimir Shadrin, Aleksander Jakushev, Juri Lebedev, Aleksander Maltsev, Aleksander Bodunov, Vjatseslav Anisin, Aleksander Volkov. (10 10 0 0 100-18).
2. Sweden; Christer Abrahamsson, William Löfqvist; Tommy Abrahamsson, Mats Åhlberg, Roland Bond, Arne Carlsson, Inge Hammarström, Anders Hedberg, Björn Johansson, Stefan Karlsson, Tord Lundström, Ulf Nilsson, Börje Salming, Lars-Erik Sjöberg, Dan Söderström(7+6), Ulf Sterner, Karl-Johan Sundqvist, Håkan Wickberg, Kjell-Arne Wikström, Dick Yderström. (10 7 1 2 53-23).
3. Czechoslovakia: Jiri Holecek, Jiri Chra; Peter Adamik, Jiri Bubla, Richard Farda, Ivan Hlinka, Jaroslav Holik, Jiri Holik(5+10), Josef Horesovsky, Jan Klapac, Jiri Kochta, Milan Kuzela, Oldrich Machac, Vladimir Martinec, Vaclav Nedomansky, Jiri Novak, Josef Palecek, Frantisek Pospisil, Bohuslav Statsny, Karel Vohralik. (6 1 3 48-20).
4. Finland; Antti Leppänen, Jorma Valtonen; Pekka Kuusisto, Heikki Riihiranta, Seppo Lindström, Ilpo Koskela, Jouko Öystilä, Pekka Rautakallio, Lalli Partinen; Henry Leppä (3+5), Timo Sutinen, Esa Peltonen, Timo Turunen, Veli-Pekka Ketola, Juhani Tamminen, Matti Keinonen, Seppo Ahokainen, Lauri Mononen, Seppo Repo. (10 3 1 6 24-39).
1974
Helsinki
This tournament finally meant Helsinki to become a Finnish hockey-city. The arena called “Helsingin jäähalli” had been there for eight years and the facilities had been repaired to a proper condition. The city hosting a year later an important European cold-wartime conference had arranged a box for the honored guests too.
The Sovjet team was in a class of its own again. Though in the first round the European arch-rivals, Czechoslovakia, won them by 7-2. Later this year the two players of this Czech team, Vaclav Nedomansky and Richard Farda, moved to North-America in the own right. Though their government might not have said: “Right!”... Finland had its team of the decade. But its luck changed, when the goalie Antti Leppänen his hurt leg against Sweden, the game ending 3-3. After that game Finland won Czechoslovakia by 5-2, but after the game the goalie Stig Wetzell was caught for ephedrine in a doping-test. So, officially the Czechs won by 0-5. The sensational thing with this doping was, that the sample B was negative. Some have had their doubts about the leading doctor of the tournament, that was fired from his position as a Team Finland doctor before the games... though a Swede called Ulf Nilsson was caught for ephedrine too. Him playing regularly in North-America later. So, Finland had to use their third goalie, a stand-by goalie being Seppo Repo, a goalie in his junior-team times. The most memorable moment later was Finland’s Veli-Pekka Ketola’s diving into the goal, thus scoring the winning 5-4 goal against Czechoslovakia. If there hadn’t been doping, Sweden would have been second and Finland third. Czechoslovakia remaining fourth.
After this team Finland started gradually to lose its touch by the end of the decade. One reason being probably the change of national hockey-professionalism. In the previous decade the old-timers of the national team used to play pro in countries like Austria. Now, the direction was North-America for the players in their prime...
USSR: Vladislav Tretjak, Aleksander Sidelnikov; Aleksander Gusev, Valeri Vasiljev, Vladimir Lutshenko, Gennadi Tsigankov, Juri Ljapkin, Kusnetsov, Satalov, Boris Mihailov(9+6), Aleksander Petrov, Valeri Harlamov, Aleksander Maltsev, Vladimir Shadrin, Aleksander Jakushev, Sergei Kapustin, Vjatseslav Anissin, Aleksander Bodunov, Juri Lebedev, Vladimir Repnev. (10 9 0 1 64-18).
2. Czechoslovakia: Jiri Holecek, Jiri Chra; Jan Suchy, Oldrich Machac, Frantisek Pospisil, Jiri Bubla, Milan Kuzela, Miroslav Dvorak, Vaclav Nedomansky, Jiri Holik, Richard Farda, Vladimir Martinec(10+5), Ivan Hlinka, Bohuslav Statsny, Jiri Kochta, Josef Palecek, Jan Klapac, Vladimir Veith, Bohuslav Eberman, Josef Augusta. (10 7 0 3 57-20).
3. Sweden: Christer Abrahamsson, Curt Larsson; Tommy Abrahamsson, Gunnar Andersson, Arne Carlsson, Björn Johansson, Kjell-Rune Milton, Lars-Erik Sjöberg, Karl-Johan Sundqvist, Mats Åhlberg, Per Olof Brasar, Anders Hedberg, Stig-Göran Johansson, Stefan Karlsson, Tord Lundström, Willy Lindström(7+5), Dan Labraaten, Ulf Nilsson, Lars-Göran Nilsson, Håkan Pettersson, Dan Söderström, Håkan Wickberg. (10 5 1 4 38-24).
4. Finland: Antti Leppänen, Stig Wetzell, Jorma Valtonen; Seppo Lindström, Pekka Marjamäki, Juha Rantasila, Heikki Riihiranta, Timo Saari, Seppo Suoraniemi, Jouko Öystilä; Veli-Pekka Ketola(7+3), Seppo Ahokainen, Juhani Tamminen, Esa Peltonen, Timo Sutinen, Henry Leppä, Jorma Peltonen, Lasse Oksanen, Harri Linnonmaa, Seppo Repo, Matti Murto. (10 4 2 2 34-39).
1975
Munich, Düsseldorf
This tournament took place in the most dualistic manner: the first week being played in an arena with a very high temperature in Munich. Then the second one in a very cold arena in Düsseldorf. The rink was surrounded only by nets, so Willy Lindström from Sweden was once hanging from them like a fish.
North-America returned after a while to the pool A level, though still only by the USA. Some of the Finnish public were wondering, if the talks about ephedrine in bubble-gum were true, thinking about the American consumption... The most memorable North-American performance was the one by Mike Polich, being the most penalized player with 34 minutes. But still the American audience, coming from West-German military bases, strongly supported their team. Though that didn’t help this time, the first country playing hockey outside Canada remained the last in the final standings. Poland beame fifth with a routine performance.
The only surprise in this tournament was the routine: The Sovjet Union was a definite number one, Czechoslovakia a definite number two, Sweden a definite number three. In addition, Finland followed its routines by being fourth. As usual, Finland had won Sweden 2-1 in the first round, losing by 1-2 in the second round. Against Czechoslovakia Finland won shots on the cage, but the other team won the game by result. One thing causing friction in this team was obviously the previous-year coach Kalevi Numminen, favouring a Russian-like hockey, being replaced by Seppo Liitsola. He was favouring an old-fashioned, more Canadian-like style of play... Pekka Marjamäki became an All-Stars player from this Finnish team, the best scorer too. And the most penalized player of the team. The Finnish goalie, Antti Leppänen, caused som trouble in this tournament too, but now it was only his skates, not injury. Very probably the Finnish coaching team felt relieved after the opening game against USA...
USSR: Vladislav Tretjak, Viktor Krivolapov; Valeri Vasiljev, Vladimir Lutshenko, Gennadi Tsigankov, Juri Ljapkin, Juri Fedorov, Aleksander Filipov, Juri Tjurin, Boris Mihailov, Vladimir Petrov, Valeri Harlamov, Aleksander Jakushev, Vladimir Shadrin, Vladimir Vikulov, Viktor Shalimov(11+8), Aleksander Maltsev, Vjatseslav Anissin, Juri Lebedev, Sergei Kapustin. (10 10 0 0 90-23).
2. Czechoslovakia: Jiri Holecek, Jiri Chra; Oldrich Machac, Frantisek Pospisil, Jiri Bubla, Miroslav Dvorak, Milan Kajkl, Milan Chalupa, Jiri Holik, Eduard Novak, Vladimir Martinec, Ivan Hlinka, Bohuslav Stastny(5+7), Jiri Kochta, Jiri Novak, Bohuslav Ebermann, Josef Augusta, Milan Novy, Jaroslav Pouzar. (10 8 0 2 55-19).
3. Sweden: Leif Holmqvist, Göran Högosta; Björn Johansson, Stig Östling, Stig Salming, Karl-Johan Sundqvist, Jan-Olof Svensson, Mats Waltin, Ulf Weinstock, Mats Åhlberg(5+12), Per-Olof Brasar, Hans Jax, Tord Lundström, Finn Lundström, Bengt Lundholm, Mats Lindh, Dan Labraaten, Håkan Pettersson, Dan Söderström, Kjell-ArneVikström. (10 5 0 5 51-34).
4. Finland: Antti Leppänen, Jorma Valtonen; Pekka Marjamäki(6+2), Pekka Rautakallio, Seppo Lindström, Reijo Laksola, Timo Saari, Timo Nummelin, Jouko Öystilä; Lasse Oksanen, Lauri Mononen, Harri Linnonmaa, Henry Leppä, Seppo Repo, Juhani Tamminen, Matti Hagman, Matti Murto, Jorma Vehmanen, Jorma Peltonen. (10 5 0 5 36-34).
The Olympics
Innsbruck
These games got into a stand-in city! The Americans making clear in a referendum, that they did like the Winter Olympics for Denver 1976. But with no taxes. Getting something for free and not giving anything in return might sound a bit non-American... So the Austrians had their second domestic games after twelve years. After this tournament, it took them twenty years to compete on the pool A in a domestic tournament. Their neighbouring country, West-Germany, was playing this time on the pool A tournament, a year after their domestic tournament.
Sweden faced the same thing in this tournament as Canada six years before. Officially a reason for their absence was the flow of their players to the North-American pro-leagues. Canada sent this time some officials to follow the tournament... So, for the first time team Finland was seriously considered as a favourite for medals. Pospisil faced a doping test, which was positive. But Poland didn’t become positive for this, getting a victory, but no points.
The Sovjet Union took the gold medal, though this tournament had been the main aim of Czechoslovakia too. Novy scored 0-1 and Hlinka 0-2. Then the Sovjets took care of the rest, though Novak still scored the third Czech goal. The final result being 4-3 for the Sovjets. The Sovjet coach was thinking, that team Finland became a bit too arrogant after their game against Czechoslovakia. They lost the game by 1-2, but played a great game. Like in the previous year, the Finnish goals were more for than against this time too. Without the help of a qualifying game. Besides this, an exhibition game against the Sovjet Union before the Olympics had been won! This time the word was “if” again... the Austrian mathematics helped the West-German team to the bronze-medals with more goals against than for. In the game Finland-USA the Sovjet referee Dombrowski showed the real face of Finlandisation by not approving a goal, that would have meant a tied game. USA was leading 4-5. In a slow replay it seemed a goal to be approved, the tied goal would have meant a Finnish bronze... Now Finland, USA and Western-Germany had the same points in the final standings. By coincidence this time the crucial thing considered was the games between the teams instead of goals-for-and-against. Later, the Finns learned more about a former Czech-German, Erich Kühnhackl, of this team...
USSR: Vladislav Tretjak, Aleksander Sidelnikov; Vladimir Lutschenko, Gennadi Tsigankov, Aleksander Jakushev, Vladimir Shadrin(6+4), Valeri Vasiljev, Aleksander Maltsev, Vladimir Petrov, Valeri Harlamov, Boris Mihailov, Viktor Zluktov, Aleksander Gusev, Sergei Babinov, Juri Ljapkin, Sergei Kapustin, Viktor Shalimov, Boris Aleksandrov. (6 6 0 0 56-14).
2. Czechoslovakia: Jiri Holecek, Jiri Chra; Jiri Holik, Oldrich Machac, Frantisek Pospisil, Bohuslav Stastny, Ivan Hlinka, Eduad Novak, Vladimir Martinec, Miroslav Dvorak, Jiri Bubla, Milan Novy(5+0), Jiri Novak, Jaroslav Pouzar, Bohuslav Ebermann, Milan Chalupa, Milan Kajkl, Josef Augusta. (6 4 0 2 31-11).
3. West-Germany: Erich Weisshaupt, Anton Kehle; Ernst Köpf, Rudolf Thanner, Josef Völk, Lorenz Funk, Alois Shcloder, Rainer Philipp, Erich Künhacl(5+5), Martin Hinterstocker, Klaus Auhuber, Ignaz Berndaner, Franz Reindl, Udo Kiessling, Stefan Metz, Wolfgang Boos, Ferenc Vozar, Walter Köberle. (6 3 0 3 26-25).
4. Finland: Antti Leppänen, Urpo Ylönen; Pekka Marjamäki, Reijo Laksola, Timo Nummelin, Hannu Haapalainen, Seppo Lindström, Timo Saari; Matti Rautiainen(6+1), Jorma Vehmanen, Matti Murto, Henry Leppä, Seppo Ahokainen, Pertti Koivulahti, Esa Peltonen, Matti Hagman, Hannu Kapanen, Tapio Koskinen. ( 3 0 3 30-21).
The World Championships
Katowice
And this World Championship tournament was the second additional one. Though the Czechoslovakians were naturally delighted for their title. Now there were even talks about this tournament being their main aim of their season... Meanwhile in Team Finland there was a revolt against the head coach Seppo Liitsola, lead by Pekka Marjamäki. So, for example, an old-timer goalie Jorma Valtonen entered this team from Val Gardena, Italy. Later in the fall, while preparing for the first Canada Cup ever, Antti Heikkilä was named as the new head coach for Finland. At very first, he was considering having Seppo Liitsola as a trainer. In the spring of Poland, Team Finland was assembled from the promising players of the future, though this time they hardly reached the fifth position in the final standings. This time the skillfull playing Swedes had Stig Salming as a star, having penalties for 37 minutes.
The very first star of the tournament was the hosting Team Poland, though. Having lost to the Sovjet Union by tens of goals for years, now they had a sensational victory by 6-4. But this didn’t stop Poland to end up to the last spot in the final standings and end their position as a pool A team. For some reason they didn’t quite fulfil their promise as a top country in the 1930’s. In the 1970’s the reason was Erich Kühnhackl, a German star in the “pool A” game of this tournament. Later he also caused shivers to the spine of Finnish players sometimes, by just being on the ice.
In general this tournament was overshadowed by the tournament of the fall. For this tournament, to be called The Canada Cup later, Canada and USA assembled their best professionals to play against the Sovjets, Czechoslovakia and Finland. Naturally only Finland and Sweden had official professional players in their teams, on this stage mostly from the WHA. The most penalized player of Katowice 1976, Stig Salming came from an NHL club, Toronto Maple Leafs. Today the tournament has a humble name called The World Cup.
Czechoslovakia: Jiri Holecek, Vlado Dzurilla; Oldrich Machac, Frantisek Pospisil, Jiri Bubla, Milan Kajkl, Milan Chalupa, Miroslav Dvorak, Frantisek Kaberle, Vladimir Martinec(9+11), Jiri Novak, Bohuslav Stastny, Marian Stastny, Ivan Hlinka, Jiri Holik, Eduard Novak, Milan Novy, Jaroslav Pouzar, Frantisek Cernik, Peter Stastny. (10 9 1 0 67-14).
2. USSR: Aleksander Sidelnikov, Viktor Krivolapov; Valeri Vasiljev, Juri Ljapkin, Gennadi Tsigankov, Vladimir Lutshenko, Juri Tjurin, Juri Fedorov, Aleksander Filippov, Boris Mihailov, Vladimir Petrov, Valeri Harlamov(4+10), Aleksander Maltsev, Vladimir Shadrin, Aleksander Jakushev, Vjatseslav Anissin, Juri Lebedev, Sergei Kapustin, Viktor Shalimov, Vladimir Vikulov. (10 6 1 3 50-23).
3. Sweden: William Löfqvist, Göran Högosta; Stefan Persson, Roland Bond, Lars-Erik Esbjörs, Björn Johansson, Stig Östling, Stig Salming, Mats Waltin, Ulf Weinstock, Mats Åhlberg, Per-Olof Brasar, Lars-Erik Eriksson, Roland Eriksson(8+7), Hans Jax, Martin Karlsson, Bengt Lundholm, Dan Labraaten, Lars Ölberg, Dan Söderström. (6 0 4 36-29).
5. Finland: Jorma Valtonen, Markus Matsson; Timo Saari, Timo Nummelin, Tapio Flinck, Tapio Levo, Seppo Suoraniemi, Ari Kankaanperä; Tapio Koskinen(7+4), Matti Hagman, Esa Peltonen, Jouni Rinne, Henry Leppä, Kari Makkonen, Hannu Kapanen, Matti Murto, Jorma Vehmanen, Jouni Peltonen, Lasse Oksanen. (10 2 4 4 35-41).
1977
Vienna
In the arena called ”Wiener Stadthalle” the IIHF tournament was presented by Team Canada for the first time for eight years. Finally the national team was not assembled by the amateurs and not even by the minor league professionals. From now on the birthplace of modern ice hockey sent players from the teams, that didn’t make it to the Stanley Cup rounds. Many of these Canadian teams had difficulties in motivation. Also this team was named as a “Team Zoo” by the Canadian press. Wilf Paiement can be considered as a symbol of the Canadian national teams of this time in a way. He was on top both in scoring stats and penalties. But one can say, that so did a Sovjet players called Valeri Harlamov too. By the appearances of Paiement the European hockey audience learnt to know a concept “police”. Phil Esposito is best remembered for his throwing of the helmet, thinking “not a thing for a professional”.
Czechoslovakia won an IIHF title for the first time for two times in a row. Czechoslovakia got this title in a more Swedish style than the Swedish themselves. The team called “Tre Kronor” won Sovjet Union twice and this meant that the Czechs got the first place in the final round, after being the third in the first one. In addition to all this, their equalizing goal 3-3 against Canada happened to be an offside. The Swedish Team’s victories over Sovjet Union also meant a bronze medal for the Red Machine. Since this was their lowest performance for 16 years, they might have been disappointed.
Finland played a routine tournament, fifth in the final standings with more goals for than against. But the routine meant one of the greatest Finnish victories ever, against Rumania by 14-1. Losing only to the USA, while playing for places 5-8 in the final standings. The new head coach Lasse Heikkilä may have been a bit too much a routine professional. After this tournament his main achievement was to coach a club called Porin Ässät to the Championship of the Finnish League. The same spring there was some turbulence within the Finnish national team...
Czechoslovakia: Jiri Holecek, Vlado Dzurilla; Oldrich Machac, Frantisek Pospisil, Jiri Bubla, Milan Kajkl, Frantisek Kaberle, Miroslav Dvorak, Milan Chalupa, Vladimir Martinec, Milan Novy(7+9), Bohuslav Ebermann, Jiri Novak, Ivan Hlinka, Jiri Holik, Marian Stastny, Jaroslav Pouzar, Eduard Novak, Vincent Lukac. (10 7 1 2 54-32).
2. Sweden: Göran Högosta, Hardy Åström, C.Larsson: L.Lindgren, Jan-Erik Silfverberg, Stig Salming, Mats Waltin, Ulf Weinstock, Lennart Zetterström, Mats Åhlberg, Kent-Erik Andersson, Per-Olof Brasar, Lars-Erik Eriksson, Roland Eriksson((7+6), Rolf Edberg, Hans Jax, Martin Karlsson, Bengt Lundholm, Lars-Gunnar Lundberg, Bengt Lundholm, Nils-Olof Olsson. (10 7 0 3 43-19).
3. USSR: Vladislav Tretjak, Aleksander Sidelnikov; Valeri Vasiljev, Aleksander Gusev, Gennadi Tsigankov, Vladimir Lutshenko, Vjatseslav Fetisov, Vasili Pervuhin, Sergei Babinov, Boris Mihailov, Vladimir Petrov(7+14), Valeri Harlamov, Aleksander Maltsev, Vladimir Shadrin, Aleksander Jakushev, Sergei Kapustin, Viktor Shalimov, Helmut Balderis, Viktor Zhluktov, Aleksander Golikov. (10 7 0 3 77-24).
5. Finland: Urpo Ylönen, Jorma Valtonen; Pekka Rautakallio, Hannu Haapalainen, Pekka Marjamäki, Seppo Lindström, Risto Siltanen, Timo Nummelin, Seppo Suoraniemi; Pertti Koivulahti(5+6), Timo Sutinen, Lasse Oksanen, Martti Jarkko, Jukka Alkula, Kari Makkonen, Esa Peltonen, Jukka Porvari, Seppo Ahokainen, Veli-Matti Ruisma, Antero Lehtonen. (10 5 0 5 45-43).
1978
Prague
This was a jubilee tournament of Czech hockey, that had begun 70 years earlier. But the Sovjet Union had a jubilee with winning the Championship title, despite having real beginning of play 38 year after the hosts. Though this time they were lucky too; they scored exactly those two goals to win Czechoslovakia they needed with goals-for-and-against. The Canadians, having started the modern form of ice hockey about fifty years before the Czechs, took the bronze this time.
In their opening game, the Canadians were leading Finland by 4-1. But finally Finland reached a victory by 6-4, having their second win over the Maple Leaf in an IIHF tournament. Against the Czechoslovakian team Finland played in their 1970’s manner; first leading by 4-1, losing finally by 4-6. After this they played still one very good game against the Sovjets. Then a West-German called Erich Kühnhackl came along and the Finnish team lost a bit their touch. That bit, that in the final series for places 5-8 their most important victory was against East-Germany in the final round by 7-2. This secured their position on the pool A the next year. The reason for such a poor performance with the best possible team might have been the new head coach, Kalevi Numminen. At this time one Helsinki –team played an old-fashioned rough-ride North-American hockey, and so did a team from the Finnish west-coast city, Pori. The traditional skillful playing of the Finnish hockey-founding city, Tampere, being very far from this style. And the same thing with Jokerit, Helsinki. Turku, together with Rauma, both on the Finnish west-coast, were having a style between these two. Maybe the Finnish hockey culture still needed some form of unification...
A thing worth mentioning, Erich Kühnhackl was the first player to win the scoring statistics outside a medal-winning team after the Second World War, scores being 8+8. Though he was born in Czechoslovakia... The same year football (or soccer) was having its own World Championship tournament in Argentina. One comment being: “People say, no-one knows, what happens in the country during the tournament. But do we know, what happens in Czechoslovakia during the hockey World Championship tournament?”
USSR: Vladislav Tretjak, Aleksander Pashkov; Vladimir Lutshenko, Vjatseslav Fetisov, Vasili Pervuhin, Gennadi Tsigankov, Zinetula Biljaeletdinov, Juri Fedorov, Boris Mihailov, Vladimir Petrov, Valeri Harlamov, Aleksander Maltsev(5+8), Vladimir Golikov, Aleksander Golikov, Helmut Balderis, Viktor Zhlukotv, Sergei Kapustin, Juri Lebedev, Sergei Makarov. (10 9 0 1 91-26)
2. Czechoslovakia: Jiri Holecek, Jiri Chra; Sakac, Jiri Kralik, Oldrich Machac, Jiri Bubla, Miroslav Dvorak, Milan Kajkl, Frantisek Kaberle, Milan Chalupa, Zaijivek, Vladimir Martinec, Ivan Hlinka(4+10), Jiri Novak, Bohuslav Ebermann, Josef Augusta, Milan Novy, Marian Stastny, Peter Stastny, Jaroslav Pouzar, Frantisek Cernik, Pavel Richter. (10 9 0 1 54-21).
3. Canada: Denis Herron, Daniel Bouchard; Mike Murphy, Pat Hickey, Rick Hampton, Robert Picard, Brad Maxwell, David Shand, Dennis Kearns, Tom Lysiak, Dennis Maruk, Marcel Dionne(9+3), Guy Charron, Glen Sharpley, Jean Pronovost, Don Lever, Bob McMillan, Wilf Paiement. (10 5 0 5 38-36).
7. Finland: Urpo Ylönen, Antero Kivelä; Pekka Rautakallio, Timo Nummelin, Risto Siltanen, Tapio Levo, Reijo Ruotsalainen, Pekka Marjamäki; Pertti Koivulahti(1+8), Juhani Tamminen, Seppo Repo, Esa Peltonen, Seppo Ahokainen, Jukka Porvari, Matti Hagman, Martti Jarkko, Kari Makkonen, Mikko Leinonen. (10 4 4 6 37-44).
1979
Moscow
Maybe the IIHF made it up for the Sovjet Union, for not having a World Championship tournament in the 1960’s, by giving them a second tournament in the 1970’s. Their thanks for this was winning the title with style. The local audience paid a lot of interest to the three players of the Canadian team with Russian roots. Though the other North-American team got more interest from the press, spending a lot of time in the night-club. There is also an urban legend, that one of the players came to the game from a company of a woman. This team showed its future abilities, though, by having a tied score against Czechoslovakia by 2-2. In the qualification round West-Germany showed also its skills against the Sovjets, losing only by 2-3. Team Poland also gave a hard time for Sweden, losing only by 5-6. In the medal series, there was excitement... for example, the Sovjets winning Czechoslovakia by 11-1 and 6-1. This tournament was a farewell to the legendary troika by Mihailov-Harlamov-Petrov in a World Championship tournament.
Finland had paid its dues. Winning the series for places 5-8 with a strong, though routine-like performance. The only difficulties being against the American team, having a tie by 1-1 in the qualification round and losing by 2-6 in this series. The American team was given no chance whatsoever for the forth-coming Olympic tournament. This tournament meant the end of the national team career for the Finnish star of this decade, Pekka Marjamäki. Starting his career in the Swedish League in the beginning of the next decade. So, Finnish hockey had gone forward, despite all the ups and downs.
The Sovjets showed some showmanship, having the players of the teams interviewed, while coming to the arena by bus. The showmanship being practiced a long time before the World Championships being held in the Sovjet Union, them arranging an Izvestija –tournament before Christmas since the end of the 1960’s. Sometimes the tournaments had been visited by the North-American teams, but mostly there were only European teams.
USSR: Vladislav Tretjak, Vladimir Myshkin; Gennadi Zigankov, Vladimir Lutshenko, Valeri Vasiljev, Sergei Babinov, Zinetula Biljaletdinov, Vasili Pervuhin, Jurek Gimajev, Sergei Starikov, Boris Mihailov, Vladimir Petrov(7+8), Valeri Harlamov, Helmut Balderis, Viktor Zhluktov, Sergei Kapustin, Sergei Makarov, Vladimir Golikov, Aleksander Golikov, Aleksander Skvortsov, Juri Lebedev, Aleksander Jakusev. (9 9 0 0 70-17).
2. Czechoslovakia: Jiri Kralik, Marcel Sakac; Jiri Bubla, Miroslav Dvorak, Frantisek Kaberle, Milan Chalupa, Milan Figala, Viteslav Duris, Josef Bukovinsky, MilanKucela, Vladimir Martinec, Ivan Hlinka, Jiri Novak, Bohuslav Ebermann(5+4), Milan Novy, Marian Stastny, Peter Stastny, Jaroslav Pouzar, Libor Havlicek, Ladislav Svozil, Miroslav Frycer, Anton Stastny. (9 5 2 2 36-33).
3. Sweden: Göran Högosta, Sune Ödling, Peter Lindberg; Sune Ödling, Sune Andersson, Tomas Jonsson, Tord Nänsen, Leif Svensson, Mats Waltin, Ulf Weinstock, Lars-Erik Eriksson, Rolf Edberg, Bengt-Åke Gustavsson, Leif Holmgren, Inge Hammarström, Bengt Lundholm, Roger Lindström, Per Lundqvist, Dan Labraaten, Mats Näslund(5+2). (9 3 1 5 36-55).
5. Finland: Jorma Valtonen, Antero Kivelä; Pekka Rautakallio, Pekka Marjamäki, Reijo Ruotsalainen, Lasse Litma, Hannu Haapalainen, Timo Nummelin, Kari Eloranta, Pertti Valkeapää; Antero Lehtonen(3+3), Jukka Porvari, Seppo Repo, Juhani Tamminen, Jouni Rinne, Pertti Koivulahti, Matti Rautiainen, Tapio Koskinen, Mikko Leinonen, Seppo Ahokainen, Veli-Matti Ruisma, Jukka Koskilahti. ( 9 3 3 3 38-32).
The best of the decade:
Goalie: Jiri Holecek (Czechoslovakia 1970-78)
Defenceman: Vladimir Lutchenko (USSR 1967-81)
Forward: Valeri Harlamov (USSR 1970-79)
The team of the decade:
USSR 1973.
The medals:
USSR 7(Olympic:2)-0(Olympic:1)-1
Czechoslovakia 3-5(Olympic:1)-2(Olympic:1)
Sweden 0-3-6
USA 0-0(Olympic:1)-0
Canada 0-0-1
Weste-Germany 0-0-0(Olympic:1)
The 1980’s
This decade meant a medal-debut for Finland, that had been expected for a long time. The Red Machine was still going strong, but the end of the Cold War had its consequences by the end of the decade. A golden medal right in the beginning of the decade meant a new wave of interest in North-America to the international tournaments of one of the most North-American team sports. Sweden also got its first gold-medal for decades, still in a Swedish style...
The Olympics
1980
Lake Placid
The United States showed its good taste as a host. The Olympic Village being placed into a future juvenile-penitentiary. They also showed the American modesty by building an arena for 8,000 spectators... The whole population of Lake Placid being 3,000 inhabitants. In addition to all this, mr. James Earl Carter run a boycott for the Summer Olympics. So his countrymen lost their medals there. Naturally, the president didn’t think about his re-election...
The hosts started their tournament with a 2-2 tied game against Sweden. Some were wondering their good luck... Then the Team USA won Czechoslovakia and finally the Sovjet Union in the final series. This meant the Olympic gold. This being the first international gold for North-America for 19 years.By making history the history repeated itself; the Americans won with an unknown team of students, a bit like in Squaw Valley. The coach being by coincidence the first reserve-player to be sent home from the 1960 gold-medal team: Herb Brooks. Besides this, Dave Christian’s father had been in the 1960 team. Eric Strobel started to promote the brother of ice hockey, bandy, in the United States after this tournament. Behind the Americans and the Sovjets Sweden took the bronze with a routine performance. This place being their fate in all the Olympic tournaments in this decade.
Finland faced a sensation in the first game: the team being beaten by Poland by 4-5. Then Finland won Japan somehow by 6-3. But then the team won Canada by 4-3, the team that had returned to the Olympic circles, this time with an amateur-team. Finally, Finland was the fourth, for the first time with no “if”s. Though, Finland only lasted for the first two periods in their games. Leading them all after the first two ones and then stumbling the third one. Luckily, though, not losing all the games. Maybe the team still needed that final bit, both mentally and fysically...
USA: James Craig, Steve Janaszak: William ”Buzz” Schneider, John Harrington, Philip Verchota, John O’Callahan, William Baker, Kenneth Morrow, Michael Ramsey, Robert Suter, David Christian, David Silk, Mark Johnson(5+6), Robert McClanahan, Mark Pavelich, Steven Christoff, Neal Broten, Mike Eruzione, Eric Strobel, Mark Wells. (7 6 1 0 34-15).
2. USSR: Vladislav Tretjak, Vladimir Myshkin; Valeri Vasiljev, Vladimir Petrov, Valeri Harlamov, Aleksander Maltsev, Boris Mihailov, Zinetula Biljaletdinov, Vasili Pervuhin, Aleksander Skvortsov, Aleksei Kasatonov, Vjatseslav Fetisov, Sergei Starikov, Sergei Makarov, Vladimir Krutov, Aleksander Golikov(7+6), Juri Lebedev, Helmut Balderis. (7 6 0 1 63-17).
3. Sweden: Pelle Lindbergh, William Löfqvist; Mats Åhlberg(6+4), Mats Waltin, Thomas Eriksson, Tommy Samuelsson, Bo Berglund, Lars Molin, Mats Näslund, Tomas Jonsson, Sture Andersson, Jan Eriksson, Ulf Weinstock, Håkan Eriksson, Leif Holmgren, Bengt Lundholm, Per Lundqvist, Harald Lückner, Lennart Norberg, Dan Söderström. (7 4 2 1 31-19).
4. Finland: Antero Kivelä, Jorma Valtonen; Tapio Levo, Seppo Suoraniemi, Kari Eloranta, Lasse Litma, Hannu Haapalainen, Olli Saarinen; Jukka Porvari(7+4), Mikko Leinonen, Reijo Leppänen, Markku Kiimalainen, Markku Hakulinen, Esa Peltonen, Jari Kurri, Hannu Koskinen, Jukka Koskilahti, Ismo Villa, Jarmo Mäkitalo, Timo Susi. (7 3 1 3 31-25).
The World Championships
1981
Stockholm
In this tournament the Red Machine was striking back! After the lost of the Olympic gold Viktor Tihonov drastically renewed the national team and started an over-human training programme. The one lasted for years, the players meeting their friends and relatives for thirty (=30) days a year. Maybe Tihonov loved his team more than his family... Even the absence of Valeri Harlamov didn’t matter now. He had gone the other rinks the previous year by a car-accident.
The final series was a bit less exciting than the previous year, Sweden losing to the Sovjets by 1-13. Besides the Tre Kronor, also Czechoslovakia had more goals against than for in the final standings. In their final game the Canadians played a tie 4-4 against the overwhelming Sovjets. Whenever one Canadian player, disliked by the audience for his rough style, appeared to the ice, the classy Swedish spectators were booing all the time. The best Swedish scorers Håkansson and Sundström had both soccer-like points (4+0). Though a Czechoslovakian called Eduard Novak had been an even more pure goal-scorer nine years earlier (9+0). The best scorer being for a change someone outside the grand six in this tournament. Not being the one causing grey hair to Team Finland, but Holger Meitinger from the same team (8+12).
The games of Team Finland practically ended after the first game in the qualification phase. They lost to Canada by 3-4 and this meant a place outside the medal series. The not-so-motivated team played later a tie against West-Germany by 4-4, then later 3-3 against the still Olympic-gold celebrating Americans. Ending up to the 6th place in the final standings with more goals for than against was advancing though, when one is thinking the failed tournaments of the 70’s... Maybe the teams’s talks about “beggar’s banquet” already before the tournament told the same story.
USSR: Vladislav Tretjak, Vladimir Myshkin; Vjatseslav Fetisov, Aleksei Kasatonov, Valeri Vasiljev, Nikolai Makarov, Zinetula Biljaletdinov, Vasili Pervuhin, Sergei Babinov, Sergei Makarov, Vladimir Petrov, Vladimir Krutov, Viktor Shalimov, Sergei Shepelev, Sergei Kapustin, Aleksander Maltsev(6+7), Vladimir Golikov, Nikolai Drozdetski, Aleksander Skvortsov, Viktor Zhluktov, Andrei Homutov, Juri Lebedev. (9 7 2 0 73-15).
2. Sweden: Peter Lindmark, Reino Sundberg, Christer Abrahamsson; Tomas Jonsson, Tommy Samuelsson, Helander, Stig Östling, Anders Eldebrink, Mats Waltin, Göran Lindblom, Lars Molin, Harald Lückner, Dan Söderström, Inge Hammarström, Patrick Sundström(4+0), Stolz, Mats Näslund, Lennart Norberg, Thomas Steen, Ulf Isaksson, Roland Eriksson, Roland Eriksson, Bengt-Åke Gustavsson, Anders Håkansson(4+0). (9 5 2 2 27-31).
3. Czechoslovakia: Karel Lang, Jaromir Sindel; Milan Dvorak, Milan Chalupa, Jan Neliba, Hajdusek, Miroslav Horava, Arnold Kadlec, Petr Misek, Vladimir Martinec, Ivan Hlinka, Bohuslav Ebermann, Jaroslav Korbela, Darius Rusnak, Frantisek Cernik, Miroslav Frycer, Jaroslav Pouzar, Jiri Lala(7+3), Jindrich Kokrment, Pavel Richter, Norbert Kral. (9 4 3 2 40-29).
6. Finland; Hannu Kamppuri, Hannu Lassila; Tapio Levo, Reijo Ruotsalainen, Timo Nummelin, Lasse Litma, Kari Eloranta, Pertti Lehtonen, Seppo Suoraniemi, Juha Tuohimaa; Mikko Leinonen(5+3), Markku Kiimalainen, Kari Jalonen, Jorma Sevon, Seppo Ahokainen, Juhani Tamminen, Jukka Porvari, Pekka Arbelius, Antero Lehtonen, Pertti Koivulahti, Ilkka Sinisalo, Hannu Koskinen. (9 4 2 3 49-35).
1982
Helsinki, Tampere
So history repeated itself like this: just like Helsinki wasn’t ready to build an arena with a roof for 1965 WC, Espoo didn’t build the modern arena for every-kind-of-use. So, the prestigious two oldest Finnish fullroof-arens in Tampere and Helsinki shared this tournament. Team Finland gave a traditional farewell –tournament to their head-coach in his last one: a routine performance with a routine place in the final standings. The biggest vigour burning out already in the first game against Canada. They were getting over their jetlag, beating Finns by 9-2. The Finnish team was a bit too tense...
In the final series the Sovjets became the World Champions. The best Team Canada of the 1980’s was just about getting their silver-medal. The team also included a certain Wayne Gretzky, assuring, for example, a Finnish legendary whirlpool Matti Keinonen about his abilities. Though he had been skeptical in the beginning. One can also mention, that Gretzky was the top-scorer in this WC. The silver-medal would have needed a Sovjet win over Czechoslovakia. And voilá; the final game between them ended up as a tie by 0-0. They both played with that kind of style, that even a second-division Finnish team would have beaten them easily. Thanks to those division-two teams. One might wonder, why the audience was booing to the teams playing the final game. The Americans balanced the North-American performance by ending up to the pool B in the final standings. Though by coincidence in the pool A Team Italy their Italian sounded to be spoken with an American accent...
Team Finland had troubles even after the beginning. The trouble being one Erich Künhackl, but Finland won West-Germany by 4-3 in the end. After their shocking opening performance the Finnish Team had their chance to the medal rounds, though. This would have needed a victory in the final game in the first round. They did turn 1-3 to a tie 3-3. But that was it. The opposing team being Sweden...
USSR: Vladislav Tretjak, Vladimir Myshkin; Vjatseslav Fetisov, Aleksei Kasatonov, Valeri Vasiljev, Sergei Babinov, Zinetula Biljaletdinov, Vasili Pervuhin, Jurek Gimajev, Vladimir Subkov, Sergei Makarov, Igor Larionov, Vladimir Krutov, Aleksander Kozhevnikov, Vladimir Golikov, Viktor Tjumenev, Andrei Homutov, Viktor Zhluktov, Sergei Kapustin, Viktor Shalimov(8+5), Nikolai Drozdetski, Sergei Shepelev. (10 9 1 0 58-20)
2. Czechoslovakia; Karel Lang, Jiri Kralik; Milan Dvorak, Milan Chalupa, Miroslav Horava, Arnold Kadlec, Oldrich Svoboda, Eduard Uvira, Jaroslav Korbela, Darius Rusnak, Frantisek Cernik, Milan Novy, Jaroslav Pouzar, Jiri Lala(6+3), Jindrich Kokrment, Pavel Richter, Vincent Lukac, Antonin Planovsky, Dusan Pasek, Jiri Hrdina, Peter Ihnacak, Igor Liba. (10 5 2 3 38-20).
3. Canada: Gilles Meloche, Greg Millen; Curt Glies, Brad Maxwell, Graig Hartsburg, Rick Green, Kevin Lowe, Paul Reinhart, John van Boxmeer, Bill Barber, Ryan Walter, Mike Gartner, Mark Napier, Bobby Smith, Bobby Clarke, Rick Vaive, Dino Ciccarelli, Dale Hawerchuk, Bob Gainey, Brian Propp, Darryl Sittler, Wayne Gretzky(6+8). (10 5 2 3 46-30).
5. Finland: Hannu Kamppuri, Hannu Lassila; Pertti Lehtonen, Tapio Levo, Raimo Hirvonen, Hannu Helander, Pertti Valkeapää, Hannu Haapalainen; Jari Kurri(4+3), Kari Jalonen, Reijo Leppänen, Kari Makkonen, Arto Javanainen, Matti Forss, Juhani Tamminen, Ilkka Sinisalo, Pekka Arbelius, Juha Nurmi, Pertti Koivulahti, Seppo Repo, Seppo Ahokainen. (7 3 1 3 221-31).
1983
Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Munich
So, West-Germany now entered their domestic pool A -WC tournament! But all quiet on the eastern front, the Sovjets taking the gold and Czechoslovakia taking the silver. The Canadians were on a medal for the second time in a row on the Olympic and WC level. For the first time for fifteen years. The all-stars team had the following nationalities: Sovjet Union, Sovjet Union, Sovjet Union, Sovjet Union, Sovjet Union and... Sovjet Union. In this tournament the Sovjets had their 42nd win in a row. The previous record had been made between 1937-1949 and then the all-stars would have been the following: Canada, Canada, Canada, Canada, Canada and... Canada. One could sing: “…Nothing’s gonna change my world...” Despite the development of the game after the decades...
With Finland the history repeated itself with the exchange of the head-coach: first the team played suprebly against the biggest countries of hockey. And still a tie with the Swedes by 4-4 made sure a streak of not-lost games against this team for years... Then came the failures against the minor teams again. But one can say, that the newcomer had ideals. This future manager of Pori Jazz Festival and the City Theatre of Turku, Alpo Suhonen, was the first head-coach to say: Finland has taken enough influences by now and it’s about time to create an own style. But he faced the resistence of the most conservative Finnish hockey people. One reason being, that he had been serving in the military without a gun. One might think about the coaches oversees, that had never been in the military... Well, Suhonen was later a NHL-coach.
So, this tournament showed again, that Finland still had too much differences within its hockey-culture. The skillful Tampere teams(Tappara, Ilves) and Jokerit(Helsinki) here, Ässät(Pori) and HIFK(Helsinki) –club representing old-fashioned Canadian hockey there. TPS from Turku and Lukko from Rauma being something between these two extremeties. Internationally, Finland still had to face Erich Kühnhackl from West-Germany...
USSR: Vladislav Tretjak, Vladimir Myshkin; Sergei Babinov, Zinetula Biljaletdinov, Jurek Gimajev, Vladimir Subkov, Aleksei Kasatonov, Vasili Pervuhin, Sergei Starikov, Vjatseslav Fetisov, Helmut Balderis, Vjatseslav Bykov, Andrei Homutov, Mihail Vasiljev, Viktor Zhluktov, Sergei Kapustin, Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov(8+9), Aleksander Maltsev, Sergei Shepelev, Aleksander Skvortsov. (10 9 1 0 54-10).
2. Czechoslovakia: Jiri Kralik, Dominik Hasek; Milan Dvorak, Milan Chalupa, Arnold Kadlec, Oldrich Svoboda, Eduard Uvira, Jaroslav Benak, Frantisek Musil, Darius Rusnak, Frantisek Cernik, Jiri Lala(10+5), Pavel Richter, Vincent Lukac, Dusan Pasek, Jiri Hrdina, Igor Liba, Ladislav Svozil, Frantisek Cerny, Vladimir Ruzicka, Oldrich Valek, Vladimir Caldr. (10 6 2 2 40-21).
3. Canada: Rick Walmsley, Mike Veisor; Doug Halward, Scott Stevens, Rick Lanz, James Patrick, Tim Watters, Brian Engblom, Craig Hartsburg, Paul Reinhart, Gord Sherven, Mike Gartner, Marcel Dionne(6+3), Michel Goulet, Dave Taylor, Dennis Maruk, Charles Simmer, Bob Gainey, Pat Flatley, Brian Propp, Darryl Sittler, Glen Anderson. (10 6 0 4 35-30).
4. Finland: Kari Takko, Hannu Kamppuri; Pekka Rautakallio, Tapio Levo, Hannu Helander, Pertti Lehtonen, Matti Kaario, Lasse Litma, Risto Siltanen; Anssi Melametsä(6+3), Matti Hagman, Petri Skriko, Tony Arima, Kari Jalonen, Risto Jalo, Arto Javanainen, Raimo Summanen, Kari Makkonen, Ilkka Sinisalo, Arto Sirviö, Timo Susi, Juha Nurmi. (10 2 2 6 30-40).
The Olympics
1984
Sarajevo
Unfortunately these Winter Olympics really had an Orwellian fate. Including the hockey arenas Zetra and Skenderija, not existing today anymore, or maybe as ruins. Just like the idea about Yugoslavia as the home of the southern Slavic people. But the ideals about amateur sports was cracking in this tournament too; the International Olympic Committee had variable opinions about the players of the former WHA. So was the case with the Wilson brothers too, playing in a Helsinki club called HIFK in Finland. Officially they were working in a laundry service. Naturally, the twenty-year old lieutenant-colonels of Sovjet Union and Czechoslovakia were pure amateurs again...
Finland, despite being nervous this time too, had no trouble with the opening game, winning Austria by 4-3. Against Norway there was a taste of honey, victory by 16-2. Despite this, the old-timer goalie Jorma Valtonen hit his stick to pieces. The other goalie, Hannu Kamppuri, didn’t repeat his previous year’s treat, being the first Finnish goalie in the scores by having an assist. But then Canada showed its standard of players, and so did Czechoslovakia too. The US team of this tournament couldn’t handle the pressures caused by the previous Olympic tournament. But they got a tied game against Finland anyway. So Finland ended up to play for places 5-6. Then the Finnish team faced Erich Kühnhackl... and the rest of Team West-Germany. Though “The Big Eric” won the scoring stats by 8+6, he never entered the NHL. Probably thinking himself of being too slow. Strange, when thinking about the swift ones called Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux...
Just like the previous Olympic tournament, this one had no additional WC in the same year either. So Czechoslovakia didn’t get a World Champion title, ending up “only” to a silver medal. The Swedes facing “only” a bronze-medal too. In the final series they won one game, the goals-for-and-against being 3-12. So, the Sovjet Union had no trouble on their way to their sixth Olympic gold, thus equalizing their Olympic success with Canada. One can say, that they were still the only true Europeans to have won an Olympic hockey gold...
USSR: Vladislav Tretjak, Vladimir Myshkin; Aleksander Skvortsov, Vasili Pervuhin, Zinetula Biljaletdinov, Aleksei Kasatonov, Sergei Makarov, Sergei Starikov, Vladimir Krutov, Vjatseslav Fetisov, Aleksander Kozhevnikov, Igor Stelnov, Andrei Khomutov, Sergei Shepelev, Igor Larionov, Aleksander Gerasimov, Mihail Vasiljev, Nikolai Drozdetski(9+3), Viktor Tjumenev, Vladimir Kovin.(8 8 0 0 58-6).
2. Czechoslovakia: Jiri Kralik, Jaromir Sindel; Milan Chalupa, Arnold Kadlec, Vincent Lukac, Dusan Pasek, Eduard Uvira, Jaroslav Benak, Jiri Hrdina, Jiri Lala, Igor Liba, Miroslav Horava, Vladimir Ruzicka(5+5), Darius Rusnak, Frantisek Cernik, Jaroslav Korbela, Pavel Richter, Radoslav Svoboda, Vladimir Caldr, Vladimir Kyhos. (8 7 0 1 44-9).
3. Sweden: Rolf Ridderwall, Göte Wälitalo; Mats Waltin, Håkan Eriksson, Håkan Södergren, Jens Öhling, Michael Hjälm, Thom Eklund, Thomas Rundqvist, Tomas Sandström, Bo Ericsson, Göran Lindblom, Håkan Nordin, Mats Hessel, Mats Thelin, Michael Thelven, Per-Erik Eklund, Peter Gradin(9+4), Thomas Åhlen, Tommy Mörth. (8 4 1 3 37-27).
6. Finland: Kari Takko, Jorma Valtonen; Petteri Lehto, Arto Ruotanen, Markus Lehto, Simo Saarinen, Ville Siren, Pertti Lehtonen, Timo Jutila; Petri Skriko(6+4), Raimo Summanen, Risto Jalo, Anssi Melametsä, Jarmo Mäkitalo, Harri Tuohimaa, Arto Javanainen, Arto Sirviö, Erkki Laine, Raimo Helminen, Hannu Oksanen. (6 2 1 3 31-26).
The World Championships
1985
Praha
Despite this tournament didn’t take place in the Olympic year, the history repeated itself in a way: though the Sovjet Union won the first round in a splendid way, Czechoslovakia won them by 2-1 on front of their home crowd, just like in 1972. This meant their World Championship title. Just like since 1983, the first round was excluded from the final standings. After the Czechoslovakian triumph, the Canadians won the Sovjets too by 3-1. For the first time in the WC-Olympic level after year 1962 Canada took the silver medal. Their success against the Sovjets was considered even in the middle of the Stanley Cup qualification rounds in North-America. The coach of the team was eagerly saying: “The thing that makes this victory even more valuable, is, that we are no super-stars. But players, who have dropped out of Stanley Cup”. A player scoring two goals against Sovjet Union was called Mario Lemieux... the Red Machine finally ended up to the bronze-medal. Them still being in shock after the game against Czechoslovakia and before a game against Canada. USA made history by being among the first four teams for the first time since Lake Placid.
Finland made its best performance under the coaching of Alpo Suhonen. Despite it seemed impossible for him to gain a victory against West-Germany, Finland won Sweden twice by 6-1 and 5-0. But still even East-Germany seemed a bit hard to win. For Sweden, this was the first time since London 1937 to have a place lower than the 5th in the final standings. Norway was playing in pool B and Denmark somewhere in pool C. So, Finland was for the first time the best Scandinavian hockey country in an IIHF tournament. Well, this was the case in 1939 too. Finland being the only participant from the nordic countries... Hannu Järvenpää made Finnish history too, by being the best goalscorer of the tournament with nine goals.
So, Finland was heading upwards, despite all the difficulties. But still the spirit within the leadership of the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation was: “I’ve got the puck, but I won’t pass!” How, one could see it before the next tournament...
Czechoslovakia: Jiri Kralik, Jaromir Sindel; Drahomir Kadlec, Miroslav Horava, Eduard Uvira, Jaroslav Benka, Antonin Stavjana, Frantisek Musil, Radoslav Svoboda, Vincent Lukac, Darius Rusnak, Igor Liba, Jiri Hrdina, Vladimir Ruzicka, Pavel Richter, Jiri Lala(8+5), Dusan Pasek, Jiri Sejba, Oldrich Valek, Vladimir Kames, Michal Pivonka, Petr Rosol. (10 7 1 2 48-42).
2. Canada: Steve Weeks, Rick Walmsley, Pat Riggin; Doug Halward, Doug Lidster, Larry Murphy, Scott Stevens, Jamie Macoun, Steve Konroyd, Grant Ledyard, Brian McLellan, Dave Taylor, Mario Lemieux(4+6), Kirk Muller, Rick Vaive, Glenn Anderson, Ron Francis, Stan Smyl, Bernie Nicholls, Don Malony, Kevin Dineen, Steve Yzerman, Tony Tanti. (10 6 1 3 42-31).
3. USSR: Vladimir Myshkin, Sergei Mylnikov; Vjatseslav Fetisov, Aleksei Kasatonov, Zinetula Biljaletdinov, Vasili Pervuhin, Irek Gimajev, Sergei Starikov, Aleksei Gusarov, Sergei Makarov(8+6), Igor Larionov, Vladimir Krutov, Aleksander Skvortsov, Nikolai Drozdetski, Andrei Homutov, Vjatseslav Bykov, Viktor Tjumenev, Mihail Vasiljev, Sergei Svetlov, Varnkov, Sergei Jashin, Vladimir Kovin. (10 8 0 2 64-16).
5. Finland: Kari Takko, Jukka Tammi; Arto Ruotanen, Kari Suoraniemi, Reijo Ruotsalainen, Juha Huikari, Timo Blomqvist, Markus Lehto, Jouko Narvamaa, Ville Siren; Hannu Järvenpää(9+2), Pekka Arbelius, Raimo Helminen, Esa Tikkanen, Pekka Järvelä, Petri Skriko, Mikko Mäkelä, Risto Jalo, Anssi Melametsä, Harri Tuohimaa, Christian Ruuttu, Kari Makkonen. (10 4 2 4 39-31).
1986
Moscow
With new forwards in center and still the Red Machine was going on strong! During the game-nights in the Luzhniki arena there wasn’t a real doubt at any stage about the number one team of the tournament. Naturally the little harsh training and game conditions created by mr. Tihonov had affected the thing. The Glasnost hadn’t quite reached the Sovjet sports life yet. Czechoslovakia was this time playing in Finnish style and being for the first time since Cortina 1956 outside the best four teams. A cartoon was published in Czechoslovakia, where a man is shouting a Czech slogan “Do toho!” and then kicks the kicks the tv-screen in.
Alpo Suhonen had had it and left his post just before the tournament. Rauno Korpi and Olli Hietanen formed the temporary coaching team called “The Korpi fire-brigade”. After hardly winning USA by 4-3 these hastedly hired coaches got their team to the medal series. For a moment the fourth place seemed to turn to a first medal ever. Then there was the second last game, Finnish team leading by 4-2 like later in the WC tournaments. There were 41 seconds left and then there were two goals scored against Finland swiftly. Well, the goalscorer was Anders Carlsson and the team was called Sweden.
Then in the final game seemed to become a tie by 3-3. Then, in the 17th minute of the third period a man called Tony Tanti scored the 3-4 goal. After the Czechoslovakians and the Swedes now even Canada knew, how to get a medal with more goals against than for. After the tournament mr. Korpi was weeping, telling the audience, that one day that medal...Despite the surprisingly balcaed performance one can say, that luck played its part with this Team Finland too. Czechoslovakia failed with their training camp and the North-Americans could have assembled slightly better teams. But no question, that all the top teams had attended the tournament and so the 4th place was well deserved. In the next tournament the Finnish were weeping for some other reasons...
USSR: Vladimir Myshkin, Jevgeni Belosheikin; Vjatseslav Fetisov, Aleksen Kasatonov, Zinetula Biljaletdinov, Vasili Pervuhin, Sergei Starikov, Aleksei Gusarov, Igor Sztelnov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Sergei Makarov(4+14), Igor Larionov, Vladimir Krutov, Andrei Homutov, Vjatseslav Bykov, Viktor Tjumenev, Sergei Svetlov, Mihail Varnakov, Sergei Jashin, Juri Hmylev, Valeri Kamenski, Sergei Ageikin. (10 10 0 0 50-15).
2. Sweden: Åke Lilljebjörn, Peter Lindmark, Peter Äslin; Tomas Jonsson, Tommy Samuelsson, Fredrik Olausson, Anders Eldebrink, Mats Kihlström, Tommy Albelin, Robert Nordmark, Thomas Steen, Per-Erki Eklund, Thom Eklund, Thomas Rundqvist, Matti Pauna, Michael Hjälm, Jonas Bergqvist, Dan Labraaten, Staffan Lundh, Lars-Gunnar Pettersson, Anders Carlsson(6+6), Kenneth Andersson. (10 6 2 2 46-30).
3. Canada: Jacques Cloutier, Kelly Hrudy, Micalef; Craig Redmond, Mark Hardy, Jay Wells, Phil Russel, Ken Daneyko, Dennis Potvin, Dale Hawerchuk, Marcel Dionne, Dave Taylor, Jimmy Fox, Phil Sykes, Mike Foligno, Brent Sutter(4+7), Tony Tanti, Dave Andreychuk, Mike Bullard, Kirk Muller, Creg Adams. (10 4 0 6 37-38).
4. Finland: Jukka Tammi, Hannu Kamppuri; Kari Eloranta, Jouko Narvamaa, Jukka Virtanen, Arto Ruotanen, , Jari Grönstrand, Kari Suoraniemi, Pekka Laksola, Harry Nikander; Kari Jalonen(4+6), Hannu Järvenpää, Pekka Arbelius, Erkki Lehtonen, Christian Ruuttu, Kari Makkonen, Timo Susi, Tommi Pohja, Kai Suikkanen, Jukka Vilander, Ari Vuori, Hannu Oksanen. (10 4 3 3 35-34).
1987
Vienna
The main topic of this tournament was Miroslav Sikora! And at the time of this tournament it was rather unpleasant to be Finnish. When Team Finland was surprised by West-Germany, then Kalervo Kummola of Finland, by co-incidence and in the name of fair-play, showed the records of Miroslav Sikora from the Polish national junior team. So the game was turned to Finland’s favour. The next phase took place in the court of Vienna. So, the case was turned to West-Germany’s favour again. The headquarters of the IIHF was located in Vienna at the time and this may have played its part. Kummola could have thought the reputation of the Finnish people at some point. For some reason the local audience made probably a world-record in booing, whenever Finland entered the ice. In the shadow of Sikora the all stars –team had two German players for the first time: a defenceman Udo Kiessling and a center called Gerd Truntschka, naturally from the West one.
The Sovjets got their sympathy the other way. They were the first silver-medal team ever without losing a single game! The reason being, of course, the final series without the qualification round points. The Canadians showed their spirit by playing a tie by 0-0 against the Sovjets. Then they got tired, again, and Sweden run them over by 9-0. Czechoslovakia improved their performance from last year, now entering the bronze-podium by routine. The final series without the qualification points had been used since 1983. The reason being the scandal tie by 0-0 the previous year...
Thinking about the Finnish performance, the Team Finland was a shadow of the one of the previous year. After this tournament Korpi went on to work for the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation and after that he went on even further with the legandary Finnish club called Tappara. Despite the routine-like performance this time the success was finally looking for Finland. It only needed a coach, putting all the necessary pieces together. Though this might have been the Finnish trouble already for some time. Like a man called Tarasov said in the beginning of the 1970’s: “How come you can assemble such a poor team from such good individuals?”...
Sweden: Anders Bergman, Åke Lilljebjörn, Peter Lindmark; Anders Eldebrink, Tommy Albelin, Mats Kihlström, Lars Karlsson, Peter Andersson, Robert Nordmark, Magnus Svensson, Tom Eklund, Thomas Rundqvist, Matti Pauna, Mikael Andersson, Bengt-Åke Gustavsson(3+8), Peter Sundström, Jonas Bergqvist, Lars-Gunnar Pettersson, Håkan Södergren, Lars Molin, Anders Carlsson, Peter Sandström, Håkan Loob. (10 5 2 3 44-22).
2. USSR: Sergei Mylnikov, Jevgeni Belosheikin; Vjatseslav Fetisov, Aleksei Kasatonov, Zinetula Biljaletdinov, Vasili Pervuhin, Sergei Starikov, Aleksei Gusarov, Igor Stelnov, Sergei Makarov, Igor Larionov, Vladimir Krutov(9+5), Andrei Homutov, Vjatseslav Bykov, Mihail Vasiljev, Sergei Svetlov, Mihail Varnakov, Juri Hmylev, Valeri Kamenski, Aleksander Semak, Sergei Prjahin, Anatoli Semjonov. (10 8 2 0 52-15).
3. Czechoslovakia: Jaromir Sindel, Jiri Kralik; Miroslav Horava, Drahomir Kadlec, Radoslav Svoboda, Eduard Uvira, Miroslav Benak, Frantisek Musil, Antonin Stavjana, Darius Rusnak, Jiri Lala, Pavel Richter, Vincent Lukac, Dusan Pasek(6+2), Jiri Hrdina, Igor Liba, Vladimir Ruzicka, Oldrich Valek, Jiri Sejba, Petr Rosol, Kames, Pivonka. (10 6 2 2 32-34).
5. Finland: Jarmo Myllys, Jukka Tammi; Teppo Numminen, Pekka Laksola, Timo Jutila, Hannu Virta, Jarmo Kuusisto, Jukka Virtanen, Arto Ruotanen; Pekka Järvelä(4+5), Jari Torkki, Risto Kurkinen, Janne Ojanen, Kari Jalonen, Timo Susi, Risto Jalo, Raimo Summanen, Iiro Järvi, Petri Skriko, Reijo Mikkolainen, Jukka Seppo Christian Ruuttu. (10 5 1 4 32-34).
The Olympics
1988
Calgary
Now the Maple Leaf got such games, that were never even thought to be cancelled! But they also noticed the pressures caused by a home-crows. They began their performance,for example, by losing against Finland by 1-3. The Canadians showed their fair play spirit by getting the Finnish goalie a penalty for wearing a wrong mask. After the awkward beginning the Canadian play improved so much, that they would have deserved a bronze-medal. But a team, that lost final game by 2-9 against the Sovjets, got the position. Here’s a clue: their jersey was yellow with three blue crowns.
Finland began its tournament with a traditional Finland’s North-American-tournament style; by losing by 1-2 against Switzerland. Luckily the team then beat France by 10-1. But came the promising win over Canada. Against Sweden Finland played by Swedish style; after about to lose their game by 1-3 they finally reached a tie by 3-3. Though the Finnish players were strikingly tense in their next game against Poland, they still could win by 5-1 and this made the feeling about this team being different from any previous Team Finlands. Then, in the medal-series, Finland-Germany was 8-0 for Finland. The best German effort being one shot to the pole of the cage, now without the Kühnhackl... Then Czechoslovakia won Team Finland by 5-2, the Finnish having congratulations for the debut-medal before the game. Then, the very last game against the Sovjet Union was won by Finland by 2-1. The Sovjets concentrating more on tourism. This made the Swedish press to speculate, whether the Sovjet intentionally lost their game, because of the previous year and Sikora. One official of the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation, a legendary defenceman Lalli Partinen burst into tears, wondering, what made this team different. So, this fierce defenceman could have been a bit emotinonal for the first Finnish international tournament medal ever...
Unlike Alpo Suhonen, Pentti Matikainen created the Finnish style of play without any declarations. And this style of play has only been developed by his successors. Though the strings of medal were waiting for some years, mr. Matikainen made a 75-percent ground-work for those successes, but the audience noticed better the 25 percent. The debut-medalists were welcome with flowers in their league-games after the tournament.
USSR: Sergei Mylnikov, Jevgeni Belosheikin, Vitali Samoilov; Vjatseslav Fetisov, Aleksei Kasatonov, Sergei Makarov, Vladimir Krutov(6+10), Igor Stelnov, Aleksander Kozhevnikov, Andrei Homutov, Igor Larionov, Vjatseslav Bykov, Aleksei Gusarov, Valeri Kamenski, Igor Kravtsuk, Ilja Prjahin, Sergei Jashin, Sergei Savetlov, Aleksander Tsernyh, Andrei Lomahin, Aleksander Mogilny, Anatoli Semjonov. (8 7 0 1 35-13).
2. Finland: Jarmo Myllys, Jukka Tammi; Reijo Ruotsalainen, Kari Eloranta, Teppo Numminen, Timo Blomqvist, Arto Ruotanen, Simo Saarinen, Jukka Virtanen, Jyrki Lumme; Erkki Lehtonen(4+6), Raimo Helminen, Timo Susi, Iiro Järvi, Erkki Laine, Reijo Mikkolainen, Kari Laitinen, Janne Ojanen, Pekka Tuomisto, Esa Keskinen, Jari Torkki, Kai Suikkanen. (8 4 2 2 34-11).
3. Sweden: Peter Äslin, Peter Lindmark, A.Bergman; Tommy Samuelsson, Bo Berglund, Lars Molin, Thomas Eriksson, Michael Hjälm, Håkan Södergren, Jens Öhling, Tom Eklund, Thomas Rundqvist, Peter Andersson, Mikael Johansson, Jonas Bergqvist, Mikael Andersson, Anders Eldebrink(4+5), Lars Ivarsson, Lars Karlsson, Mats Kihlström, Peter Eriksson, Lars-Gunnar Pettersson, Ulf Sandström. (8 4 3 1 33-21).
The World Championships
1989
Stockholm
After the Olympic Stadium and the traditional Johanneshov arena the Swedes got an arena nicknamed ”the greatest golf-ball in the world!” This arena was called Globen, meant for all kinds of occasions. Naturally the arena was built to the poorest end of Stockholm to make a higher profile there. The Sovjets got their higher profile by finally getting to the NHL too. So, now the Glasnost worked well. The best quintet got a permission to enter the league, but Aleksander Mogilny made history by defecting. Out of the famous five, those trained by hard facts of real life, made it very good. This wasn’t the case with Vladimir Krutov, after being taken care of for the whole of his career by the ZSKA Moscow. After this superstar flopped, he ended up to the division two in Sweden, fat and depressed. The intense concentration of the national team ended too. So, this meant the Russian gods to become mortal the next decade...
For the Canadians this was the next silver-medal tournament of this decade. Showing the signs of the next decade too. Csechoslovakia, after ending up to the fifth place in Calgary the previous year, now took the bronze-medal. Their players were looking eagerly over the ocean too. Though the consequences of a certain spring of Prague they had to wait til next fall to cross the Atlantic legally. Maybe this is why Sweden ended up to the 4th place in their domestic tournament. The previous 4th place at home for them had been in 1949. Maybe Globen demanded too much from Sweden... After being the second in the qualification group.
As an aftermath of the Olympic medal debut the previous year Finland now played a routine tournament. And Matikainen, instead of being fired, now got a post til 1992. So, this made one think, that the Finnish leadership could have improved...
USSR: Artur Irbe, Sergei Mylnikov, Vladimir Myshkin; Vjatseslav Bykov(6+6), Sergei Fjodorov, Andrei Homutov, Sergei Makarov, Valeri Kamenski, Vladimir Krutov, Dimitri Kvartalnov, Valeri Shirjajev, Vjatseslav Fetisov, Sergei Hmylev, Igor Larionov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Aleksei Gusarov, Aleksander Mogilny, Sergei Nemtsinov, Aleksei Kasatonov, Ilja Bjakin, Aleksander Tsernyh, Sergei Jashin, Svjatoslav Hasilov. (10 10 0 0 47-16)
2. Canada: Sean Burke, Grant Fuhr, Peter Sidorkiewicz; James Patrick, Mario Marois, Ken Daneyko, Dave Babych, Dave Ellet, Randy Carlyle, Scott Stevens, Pat Verbeek, Glenn Anderson, Gerard Gallant, Ray Ferraro, Kirk Muller, Brent Ashton, Brian Bellows(8+5), Steve Yzerman, Dale Hawerchuk, Kevin Dineen, Mark Messier, John McLean, Henry McBain. (10 7 0 3 57-29).
3. Czechoslovakia: Jaromir Sindel, Dominik Hasek; Arnold Kadlec, Antonin Stavjana, Bedrich Scerban, Frantisek Kucera, Jiri Latal, Frantisek Prochazka, Jergus Baca, Leo Gudas, Vladimir Ruzicka(7+7), Oldrich Valek, Jiri Sejba, Jiri Kucera, Jiri Dolezal, Robert Kron, Otakar Janecky, Vladimir Svitek, Rostislav Vlach, Otto Hascak, Tomas Jelinek, Zdeno Ciger. (10 4 2 4 38-21).
5. Finland: Jukka Tammi, Sakari Lindfors, Markus Ketterer; Hannu Virta, Reijo Ruotsalainen, Kari Eloranta, Pertti Lehtonen, Jarmo Kuusisto, Jouko Narvamaa, Timo Blomqvist, Simo Saarinen; Kari Jalonen(5+9), Jukka Vilander, Jari Kurri, Esa Keskinen, Esa Tikkanen, Jukka Seppo, Hannu Järvenpää, Timo Susi, Reijo Mikkolainen, Iiro Järvi, Pauli Järvinen, Ari Vuori. (10 5 1 4 35-27).
The best of the decade:
Goalie: Jim Craig(USA 1980), Jarmo Myllys(Finland 1988).
Defenceman: Vjatseslav Fetisov (USSR).
Forward: Vladimir Krutov (USSR).
The team of the decade:
USA 1980.
The medals:
USSR 5(Olympic:2)-0(Olympic:1)-1
Czechooslovakia 1-2(Olympia:1)-3
Sweden 1-2-0(Olympia.3)
USA 0(Olympia:1)-0-0
Canada 0-2-3
Finland 0-0(Olympia:1)-0
The 1990’s
After the end of the Cold War Russia inherited the place of the former Sovjet Union and the Czech republic the place of Czechoslovakia. The most important change in the rosters was the adding of the thied goalie. The things changed also that way, that there were more motivated teams from North-America in the IIHF tournaments. Since more players moved overseas, the North-American style of play became more European than before. But still the Russians and the Czechs had sometimes palyers from the top European leagues...
The World Championships
1990
Berne, Fribourg
So, now even the Sovjets were looking for players from the NHL. The team roster happened to include also a player from the Finnish Champion, Turun Palloseura. Still the final result was the World Champion title, the last one for the name Sovjet Union. Besides this, the Canadian team was a sign for the future of these tournaments. They won their qualification group, the only lost point being a tied game against the Sovjets. But this time the motivation didn’t get them quite far enough... Canada finally ended up fourth, the star of the team being Eric Lindros. One coach had estimated him being “good in everything, but brilliant in nothing”. Eric himself said to be ready to play everything, but being a goalie. Finland played its own style again: first leading Canada by 0-4, leading then by 5-3, but finally losing by 5-6.
Generally speaking, this tournament was the weakest Team Finland performance run by head coach Pentti Matikainen. Right from the start Finland played, for example, a tied game by 3-3 against Norway. Then losing with a narrow margin against the Americans, and the same thing with USA in the second game. West-Germany played a tied game against Finland too by 1-1. This was one of Erich Kühhackl’s, the best European non-IIHF-medal winning player’s last tournaments. When Glasnost went even further than forward, that meant the end of the geographical term before the name of Germany... The string of hockey national championships stopped too with the eastern German clubs Dynamo Weiswasser and Dynamo Berlin. These two teams forming the entire East-German league.
The tournament took place in a historical hockey country, and a person from the staff of Team Finland thought the conditions being rather historical too. The arenas being modern some decades ago. In Finland a sailor had started to run a team with an NHL-model and the old arenas, covered in the early1970’s, were swiftly being modernised. The talks about their modernisation had taken place since the 1970’s...
USSR: Artur Irbe, Sergei Mylnikov, Vladimir Myshkin; Andrei Homutov, Mihail Tatarinov, Vjatseslav Fetisov, Valeri Kamenski, Jevgeni Davidov, Sergei Nemtsinov, Sergei Fedorov, Pavel Bure, Dimiri Hristitsh, Igor Kravtshuk, Vjatseslav Bykov, Aleksander Semak, Vladimir Konstantinov, Aleksei Gusarov, Sergei Makarov, Ilja Bjahin, Juri Leonov, Viktor Tjumenev, Vladimir Malahov, Sergei Prjahin, Andrei Homutov(11+5). (10 8 1 1 53-13).
2. Sweden: Rolf Ridderwall, Peter Åslin; Tommy Samuelsson, Ulf Samuelsson, Tomas Eriksson, Pär-Olov Djoos, Magnus Svensson, Peter Andersson, Tomas Jonsson, Anders Eldebrink, Thomas Rundqvist, Per-Erik Eklund, Anders Carlsson, Kent Nilsson(10+2), Mikael Johansson, Håkan Loob, Johan Garpenlöv, Patrick Ericksson, Magnus Roupé, Anders Huss, Johan Strömwall, Mats Sundin. (10 7 1 2 40-23).
3. Czechoslovakia: Dominik Hasek, Petr Briza; Mojmir Bozik, Jergus Baca, Arnold Kadlec, Bedrich Scerban, Frantisek Prochazka, Antonin Stavjana, Leo Gudas, Robert Reichel(5+6), Jaromir Jagr, Robert Holik, Zdenko Ciger, Jiri Dolana, Ladislav Lubina, Tomas Jelinek, Oto Hascak, Martin Hostak, Robert Kron, Jiri Hrdina, Jiri Dolezal, Jiri Kucera. (10 5 1 4 36-30).
6. Finland: Sakari Lindfors, Jukka Tammi, Markus Ketterer; Jyrki Lumme, Simo Saarinen, Arto Ruotanen, Pekka Laksola, Hannu Henriksson, Jarmo Kuusisto, Heikki Leime, Kai Rautio; Christian Ruuttu(5+3), Raimo Summanen, Pauli Järvinen, Jukka Vilander, Esa Keskinen, Risto Jalo, Pekka Tirkkonen, Ari Vuori, Juha Järvenpää, Pekka Arbelius, Reijo Mikkolainen, Raimo Helminen. (10 6 0 4 35-43).
1991
Turku, Helsinki, Tampere
The eternal city of Finland now got its first World Championship tournament and hosted it in a brand new arena. They had built an artificial ice-rink already in 1962. Covering this rink took place so late in the early 1970’s, that they had to play their home-games in Forssa, in province of Häme. Because of the appearance of their roofed arena the local people had named it as “The tin can of Kupittaa”. After being the main arena since 1973, this building was finally replaced by the World Championship arena. Because the Union Bank of Turku had purchased the rights the arena was named Typhoon. But because of the level of prices the new arena was nicknamed “Pythoon” by some people. The other nickname being, because of its appearance, “The biggest stock of grain in Turku”.
The Grand Old hosts Tampere and Helsinki shared the tournament in the qualification stage. Their old arenas, being the first ones covered right from the start in Finland, were still among the best ones in the country... This was the greatest effort for Team Finland to succeed in a domestic tournament so far. The performance being very good. But then... Sweden played against the team in Swedish style: first Finland was leading by 4-2, the game finally ending to a tie by 4-4. Sundin,scoring the last two goals, later scored a 2-1 goal to get the World Championship title to his team. They faced the already down-hill going Sovjets. Kühhackl couldn’t harm the Finnish team alone anymore... But an American called Jeremy Roenick scored a last minute goal, which meant a good-bye for Finland from the medal-series. But this time, instead of letting go, Finland played the series for places 5-8 brilliantly.
In the medal-series the Canadians made a better-than-average performance, gaining the silver medal. The Americans may have tried to help them further, but it wasn’t quite enough. Sweden played a proper game against the Sovjet Union. So, the Sovjets performed for the last time as Sovjet Union and took the bronze. This was the first World Championship for the Tre Kronor without comments about the absence of other top teams or rights of national team players. So, obviously they had a great sigh of relief...
Sweden: Rolf Ridderwall, Peter Lindmark; Håkan Loob, Thomas Rundqvist, Johan Garpenlöv, Per-Erik Eklund, Mikael Johansson, Peter Andersson, Tomas Jonsson, Mats Sundin(9+5), Jonas Bergqvist, Kjell Samuelsson, Charles Berglund, Calle Johansson, Bengt-Åke Gustavsson, Kenneth Kennholt, Nicklas Lidström, Fredrik Stillman, Mats Näslund, Jan Viktorsson, Anders Carlsson, Patrick Erickson, Tommy Södderström. (10 5 5 0 43-29).
2. Canada: Sean Burke, Mike Vernon, Craig Billington; Doug Lidster, Steve Konroyd, Steven Bozek, Jamie Macoun, Rob Blake, Yves Racine, Brad Schlegel, Trent Yawney, Eric Natress, Joe Sakic(6+5), Theoren Fleury, Steve Thomas, Russ Courtnall, Trevor Linden, Cliff Ronning, Murray Craven, Dave Archibald, Ryan Smyth. (10 5 3 2 39-30).
3. USSR: Vladimir Myshkin, Andrei Trefilov, Aleksei Marin; Vjatseslav Fetisov, Aleksei Kasatonov, Vladimir Malahov, Boris Mironov, Aleksei Gusarov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Igor Kravtshuk, Ilja Bjahin, Sergei Makarov, Vjatseslav Bykov, Sergei Nemtsinov, Pavel Bure, Vjatseslav Butsajev, Valeri Kamenski(6+5), Andrei Lomahin, Aleksander Semak, Aleksei Zhamnov, Vjatseslav Koslov, Valeri Zelepuhin, Dimitri Kvartalnov. (10 7 2 1 51-25).
5. Finland: Markus Ketterer, Kari Takko, Sakari Lindfors; Jyrki Lumme, Ville Siren, Teppo Numminen, Hannu Virta, Hannu Henriksson, Arto Ruotanen, Timo Jutila; Jari Kurri(6+6), Teemu Selänne, Mika Nieminen, Christian Ruuttu, Esa Keskinen, Hannu Järvenpää, Pekka Tirkkonen, Risto Kurkinen, Raimo Summanen, Timo Peltomaa, Pekka Tuomisto, Pauli Järvinen, Teppo Kivelä. (10 6 1 3 35-21).
The Olympics
1992
Albertville
After a while the Olympic tournament took place in France again. The French hockey team played better than for a while too; being the 8th best team. The Cold War was melting down in this tournament too, The Sovjet Union playing this tournament as the Commonwealth of Sovereign States. Then, already in the additional World Championship tournament of this year, Russia finally took the place of the USSR, though reamaining the 4th. But still in Albertville they had a golden path. The Maple Leaf created a refreshing atmosphere by gaining the silver medal. The first Olympic medal for twenty-four years, but the silver was even eight years further than that. The Finnish Team probably liked the Czechoslovakians dropping the Swedes off the medals. After Sweden had dropped Finland out of the top six by winning them by 3-2...
Finland did its best to repeat the success of Clagary. But the then-trusted players were too trusted this time, being always a bit too slow. Teemu Selänne got a lot of attention. Like it happens many times, the center playing the puck for him, Mika Nieminen, remained too much as “Mika-who?”. Finally Finland remained the 7th with a slightly exhausted performance. Though in the fall of 1991, Pentti Matikainen had succeeded to coach his team to the 3rd place in the World Cup (Canada Cup at the time). The inner circle of the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation was planning to fire him again...
The IIHF was running bigger circles, starting to arrange the additional World Championship tournaments again in the Olympic years. Just like in the 1970’s, the arrangement seemed promising at the start, but very soon the tournaments of the Olympic years became tired and routine-like. The next improvement for the additional tournaments being the indipendence of Slovakia. Naturally, no-one thought money to play its part in the arrangement...
The CSS: Mihail Stalenkov, Andrei Terfilov, Nikolai Habibulin; Dimitri Mironov, Andrei Homutov(7+7), Vjatseslav Bykov, Andrei Kovalenko, Dimitri Juskevitsh, Aleksei Zhitnik, Aleksei Kovalev, Vladimir Malakhov, Darius Kasparaitis, Aleksei Zhamnov, Sergei Bautin, Igor Boldin, Nikolai Borshevski, Vjatseslav Butsajev, Jevgeni Davidov, Juri Khmylov, Sergei Peterenko, Vitali Prokhorov, Sergei Zubov. (8 7 0 1 46-14).
2. Canada: Sean Burke, Trevor Kidd, Sam St. Laurent; David Tippett, Wally Schreiber, Fabian Joseph, Brad Schlegel, Eric Lindros, David Archibald, Todd Brost, Kevin Dahl, Curt Giles, David Hannan, Gordon Hynes, Joe Juneau(6+9), Patrick Lebeau, Chris Lindberg, Kent Manderville, Adrian Plavsic, Daniel Ratushny, Randy Smith, Jason Wooley. (8 6 0 2 37-17).
3. Czechoslovakia: Petr Briza, Oldrich Svoboda, Jaromir Draga; Igor Liba, Miroslav Horava, Petr Rosol, Bedrich Scerban, Petr Hrbek, Otakar Janecky, Drahomir Kadlec, Kamil Kastak, Radek Toupal, Richard Zemlicka, Robert Svehla, Jiri Slegr, Robert Lang(5+8), Richard Smehlik, Patrik Augusta, Leo Gudas, Tomas Jelinek, Ladislav Lubina, Frantisek Prochazka, Petr Veselovsky. (8 6 0 2 36-21).
7. Finland: Jukka Tammi, Markus Ketterer; Timo Jutila, Arto Ruotanen, Kari Eloranta, Ville Siren, Simo Saarinen, Janne Laukkanen, Harri Laurila; Teemu Selänne(7+4), Hannu Järvenpää, Mika Nieminen, Mikko Mäkelä, Petri Skriko, Pekka Tuomisto, Jari Lindroos, Raimo Helminen, Raimo Summanen, Keijo Säilynoja, Timo Saarikoski, Timo Peltomaa. (7 3 1 3 25-20).
The World Championships
Prague, Bratislava
So the two capitals of one country arranged and additional World Championship tournament. A hockey nation with the names USSR/CSS/Russia made history by remaining the top four for the first time ever. Czechoslovakia did too, by remaining below the silver-medals for the first time at home since 1959. But they got the bronze, anyway. The Swiss Team made history by being among the best four for the first time since 1953. Maybe this tells something about the prestige of the World Championship tournaments among the top six countries in the Olympic years...
The Team Finland roster was almost totally changed after the Olympic tournament. This team winning all their games before the final. Sweden becoming the World Champion.... The team winning only one game in their qualification round, gaining one tied game and losing two. Then they played forward with the Swedish style. Team Finland, being happy about the first World Championship medal ever, lost the final. The Finnish Broadcasting Corporation had lost the rights about televising the games, when the national team was getting their medal in “the world’s most tv-like-game” ... Canada made history in this tournament by remaining outside the top six for the first time ever in an IIHF-tournament. Finland beating them in a Canadian style: Timo Peltomaa, known to be more like a rough-style player, scored a hat-trick against them. Jarkko Varvio making history too, by being the first-ever best Finnish player in total scores. Also, the all-stars of the tournament included a Finnish goalie, a defenceman and a forward for the first time. It seemed very obvious, why nobody talked now about firing the head-coach Matikainen...
Within four years Finland had made its break-throughs in the Olympic, World Championship and World/Canada Cup level. Without these performances the next Finnish national teams would have never gone as far as they did...
Sweden: Håkan Algotsson, Tommy Söderström, Peter Åslin; Petri Liimatainen, Fredrik Stillman, Arto Blomsten, Tommy Sjödin, Kenneth Kennholt, Peter Ottosson, Mats Sundin(2+6), Kent Roger Hansson, Patrick Carnbäck, Michael Nylander, Daniel Rydmark, Jan Larsson, Johan Garpenlöv, Peter Forsberg, Joakim Esbjörs, Calle Johansson, Anders Huss, Patrick Kjellberg, Lars Karlsson, Bo Mikael Andersson. (8 4 2 2 25-15).
2. Finland: Markus Ketterer, Sakari Lindfors, Ari-Pekka Siekkinen; Timo Jutila, Janne Laukkanen, Arto Ruotanen, Waltteri Immonen, Harri Laurila, Erik Hämäläinen, Kai Rautio; Jarkko Varvio(9+1), Mikko Mäkelä, Mika Nieminen, Timo Saarikoski, Rauli Raitanen, Juha Riihijärvi, Timo Peltomaa, Vesa Viitakoski, Hannu Järvenpää, Keijo Säilynoja, Pekka Tuomisto, Jere Lehtinen, Christian Ruuttu. (87 0 1 41-18).
3. Czechoslovakia: Petr Briza, Radoslav Svoboda, Milan Hlinicka; Drahomir Kadlec, Leo Gudas Robert Svehla, Frantisek Musil, Bedrich Scerban, Richard Smehlik, Jiri Jonak, Frantisek Prochazka, Tomas Jelinek(4+5), Otakar Janecky, Ladislav Lubina, Petr Rosol, Karel Lang, Kamil Kostak, Petr Veselovsky, Robert Reichel, Igor Liba, Patrick Augusta, Petr Hrbek, Richard Zemlicka. (8 6 0 2 33-.13).
1993
Munich, Dortmund
During the aftermath of the Cold War the unified Germany held a World Championship for the first time since Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936. But this time there wasn’t such a fury at all. The former model person of communism called Boris Mihailov had now grown a hippie-hair. And coached Russia to its World Championship. After this the Sovjet/Russian hockey has had the same kind of period in the international tournaments as Canada after the 1960’s; the Maple Leaf didn’t reach real success with their first real national teams in the 1960’s and the Russians couldn’t make it anymore, after intense concentrating of the Sovjet times. Since now the ZSKA Moscow was only one of the top clubs...
And again the Maple Leaf was brilliant in the beginning, winning its qualification group. The, in the final series, their motivation run out. In the quarter finals they could still win Finland. But then these Stanley Cup drop-outs didn’t make it either to the finals, or even to the bronze. That medal was taken by the Czech part of the former republic. Slovakia making its debut in the IIHF tournaments. To their misfortune they had to start from the pool C level. Winning their opponents by figures 20-0 the next few years may have shown their real level...
Finland played a rotten tournament, ending up to the 4th place in the qualification group, even Germany did it better. Then, when the Canadians dropped Finland to the 7th place, a fierce aftermath took place. Without telling about it to the head-coach of the moment, Kalervo Kummola hired the first man he met as a new head-coach for the national team. Causing embarrassment in both countries, since Curt Lindström was considered as a has-been both in the silvery Sweden and in Finland... This swift turn might tell something about the Finnish leadership in hockey.
Russia: Ilja Bjakin, Sergeri Shendelev, Andrei Trefilov; Maksim Mihailovski, Andrei Zujev, Aleksander Karpovtsev, Sergei Sorokin, Aleksander Mironov, Dimitri Frolov, Andrei Shaposnikov, Dimitri Juskevits, Igor Varitsky, Sergei Petrenko, German Titov, Andrei Homutov(5+7), Jan Kaminski, Aleksei Jashin, Sergei Putshkov, Aleksei Nikolishin, Valeri Karpov, Konstantin Astrtantsev, Vjatseslav Bykov, Vjatseslav Butsajev. (8 5 1 2 30-18).
2. Sweden: Tommy Söderström, Peter Åslin, Mikael Sundlöv; Peter Popovic, Arto Blomsten, Kenneth Kennholt, Fredrik Stillman, Roger Äkerström, Stefan Larsson, Peter Andersson II, Stefan Nilsson, Patrick Juhlin, Thomas Rundqvist, Håkan Åhlund, Ulf Dahlen, Jonas Bergqvist, Markus Näslund, Jan Larsson, Peter Forsberg, Charles Berglund, Michael Nylander, Michael Renberg(5+3), Bo Mikael Andersson. (8 5 0 3 27-22).
3. Czech: Peter Briza, Roman Turek, Zdenek Orct; Leo Gudas, Milos Holan, Drahomir Kadlec, Bedrich Scerban, Antonin Stavjana, Milos Horava, Ales Flasar, Peter Rosol(4+5), Kamil Kastak, Richard Zemlicka, Jiri Kucera, Jan Caloun, Peter Hrbek, Tomas Kapusta, Otakar Janecky, Roman Horak, Martin Hostak, Radek Toupal, Jiri Dolezal, Josef Beranek. (8 6 1 1 33-10).
7. Finland: Markus Ketterer, Sakari Lindfors, Ari Sulander; Timo Jutila(1+2), Kari Harila, Janne Laukkanen, Mikko Haapakoski, Ville Siren, Erik Hämäläinen, Waltteri Immonen; Juha Riihijärvi(1+2), Jarkko Varvio, Mika Alatalo, Vesa Viitakoski, Saku Koivu, Timo Saarikoski, Jari Korpisalo, Marko Palo, Keijo Säilynoja, Mika Nieminen, Esa Tikkanen, Timo Peltomaa, Juha Ylönen. (6 2 1 3 8-12).
The Olympics
1994
Lillehammer
The Norwegians arranged as modest Games as one can expect from a fore-running country of modern winter sports. These Games were called in a winter-like manner: “The Green Games”. In Hamar the tournament hockey games took place in a brand new arena, the main arena being the one called “Håkons-hallen”. The most innovative one was in Gjövik, bein built inside a cave. Thinking also about a possible protection of peole in the wartime...
So, many people thought the Finnish team to have a has-been as a new head-coach. Right from the start Finland had been winning Czech by 3-1, then Russia by 5-0, then Norway by 4-0... Until the Canadians could take advantage from the only murky moment of Team Finland, winning them and continuing to the final. This time Finland showed the real has-been of the tournament; winning Russia in the bronze-game by 4-0. Anything like this against the Russians had been played by Canada (1955 by 5-0) and Czechoslovakia (1974 by 7-2) in their Sovjet days. Mr. Lindström shaped the Finnish style created by Matikainen “lite bättre”, his Swedish slogan meaning “a little better”. Thus affecting more on the mental side, causing a Finnish sports commentator to say: “Whenever there is some foreigner telling to a Finnish team: “You’re so good”...” Slovakia made its debut on the pool A level very well, playing very good games, for example, against the Czech team. Reaching the 6th place in the tournament showed the start from the pool C level being exaggerated....
For the second time in a row the Canadians were trying to reach the first gold since 1952. Those days the Games were held in Oslo, Canada bein presented by the Edmonton Mercurys. The main article of the sponsor being Ford Mercury. Now those connections didn’t worry people that much. Canada was a penalty-shot away from their aim. The goalie handling the trial very well this time was called, by co-incidence, Tommy Salo...
Sweden: Tommy Salo, Håkan Algotsson, Mikael Sundlöv; Tomas Jonsson, Mats Näslund, Jonas Bergqvist, Charles Berglund, Håkan Loob, Daniel Rydmark, Fredrik Stillman, Patrick Kjellberg, Peter Forsberg, Kenny Jönsson, Jörgen Jönsson, Andreas Dackell, Christian Due-Boje, Niklas Eriksson, Roger Hansson, Roger Johansson, Patrik Juhlin(7+7), Leif Rohlin, Magnus Svensson, Stefan Örnskog. (7 6 1 0 33-18).
2. Canada: Corey Hirsch, Manny Legace, Allain Roy; Wally Schreiber, Fabian Joseph, Brad Schlegel, Paul Kariya(3+4), Mark Astley, Adrian Aucoin, David Harlock, Todd Hlushko, Creg Johnson, Chris Kontos, Ken Lovsin, Derek Mayer, Peter Nedved, Dwayne Norris, Gregory Parks, Jean-Yves Roy, Brian Savage, Chris Therrien, Brad Werenka. (7 5 1 1 27-19).
3. Finland: Jarmo Myllys, Jukka Tammi, Pasi Kuivalainen; Marko Kiprusoff, Mika Strömberg, Hannu Virta, Timo Jutila, Janne Laukkanen, Erik Hämäläinen, Pasi Sormunen; Mika Nieminen(3+5), Ville Peltonen, Saku Koivu, Janne Ojanen, Esa Keskinen, Raimo Helminen, Mikko Mäkelä, Marko Palo, Jere Lehtinen, Mika Alatalo, Petri Varis, Sami Kapanen, Tero Lehterä. (7 7 0 1 38-10).
The World Championships
1994
Milan, Canazei
O tempora, o mores! When Italy got their first hockey World Championship for 60 years. The Canazei arena was like a small-town Finnish arena. This may tell something about the level of Finnish arenas. But then, on the other hand, the World Championship was used as an excuse to build a huge arena in Finland... One difference compared to the 1934 tournament was, that this one was the only World Championship one in team-sports in Italy this year.
When the Winter Olympiad was after two years this time, naturally this was like an additional tournament. Of course the economy didn’t play any role in the IOC’s decision. Though this time the tournament wasn’t like a normal additional one. Team Finland started its task with a tied game by 4-4 against the Czechs. Then Finland made a second great tournament in a row, reaching almost the World Champion title. Also Finland had to face a slight penalty shot... Not this time in Swedish style, but the one with Luc Robitaille. Because of Mika Nieminen’s failed penalty shot in the final called he was the most broken man in Finland for a while. So, the Maple Leaf was the World Champion. For the first time after 33 years. The remaining members of the previous team, the Trail Smoke Eaters, sent wires to Milan. One sensation of the tournament was the Canadian team winning the fair-play, not happening so often in the past tournaments...
There was one basic change in the backround of the come-back of North-America. From now on the basic roster was already assembled before from the players ready to go, not bringing players little-by-little in the course of the Stanley Cup. Though this team played a triumph right from the beginning, in the future it wasn’t quite like this for Canada. So, now Canada had finally recovered from the falling-down of the national club teams. They are still presenting Canada, though, but in invitational tournaments arranged in, for example, countries like Taiwan. While Canada was reviving its international traditions, Finland was about to start them... Still liking, naturally, to drop the Swedes to the less shiny medals.
Canada: Bill Ranford, Stephane Fiset, Jamie Store; Luke Richardson, Joe Sakic, Bobby Dollas, Patrick Verbeek, Shayne Corson, Geoff Sanderson, Luc Robitaille, Kelly Buchberger, Marc Bergewin, Yves Racine, Stephane Fiset, Paul Kariya(5+7), Mark Recchi, Jason Arnott, Rob Blake, Rod Brind’Amour, Steve Thomas, Nelson Emerson, Darryl Sydor, Steve Duchesne, Brendan Shanahan. (8 8 0 0 35-10).
2. Finland: Jukka Tammi, Jarmo Myllys, Pasi Kuivalainen; Timo Jutila, Hannu Virta, Waltteri Immonen, Mika Strömberg, Marko Kiprusoff, Erik Hämäläinen, Janne Laukkanen; Saku Koivu(5+6), Jari Kurri, Mikko Mäkelä, Jere Lehtinen, Sami Kapanen, Raimo Helminen, Ville Peltonen, Mika Nieminen, Esa Keskinen, Christian Ruuttu, Janne Ojanen, Marko Palo, Mika Alatalo. (8 6 1 1 48-11).
3. Sweden: Tommy Salo, Roger Nordström, Johan Hedberg; Mikael Andersson, Peter Andersson, Charles Berglund, Jonas Bergqvist, Patrik Carnbäck, Roger Hansson, Mikael Johansson, Roger Johansson, Patrik Juhlin, Kenny Jönsson, Jan Larsson, Tommy Sjödin, Fredrik Stillman, Mats Sundin, Magnus Svensson(8+1), Stefan Örnskog, Andreas Dackell, Jörgen Jönsson, Thomas Forslund, Nicklas Lidström. (8 5 1 2 36-21).
1995
Stockholm, Gävle
This time Finland had a less glorious start. Losing to Czech by 0-3, even Saku Koivu getting a 10-minute penalty. But then Team Finland won both of their neighbouring countries playing very well. After those victories winning Austria was more like a rehearsal. So, it was utmost difficult thing to do, but finally Finland reached a tied game by 4-4 against USA. After this the games went on now in the best Finnish style, all the way to the final. Though the referee, Sylvain Bibeau, Canada, was eager to send Finnish players to the penalty box, it was their game. Though, thinking about the Swedish style, when the puck passed the Finnish goalie, hit by the stick of a Finnish defenceman, created an “Oh no, not again” –feeling... Naturally the feeling of seeing the Finnish players on the Stockholm’Sergel square was great. Also the first World Champion title created a spontaneous carnival to the spring of Finland. The Finnish cradle of hockey, Tampere in Häme, also let loose for a while. Its people known for being a bit slow and restraint. One note to mention, because the NHL was closed because of the disagreements of salaries of players, mr. Lindström may have had some luck. More than some other coaches...
The disagreement of the salaries of the NHL-players also brought the college-players from USA to play in this tournament. Their motivation being a bit higher than the one of an average US team. Then they faced the team of their neighbouring country, Canada being this time totally underrated. The Maple Leaf had assembled a team consisting of the minor league players plus players playing in the European leagues. For the first time for years one could see a North-American team shouting for joy about a bronze-medal...
About 100 000 people gathered to the Big Market Square in Helsinki to celebrate, the later carnivals for the World Champion title also refreshing the atmosphere of a country in a difficult economic situation. Naturally Finland started to believe in its ice hockey. Though this meant a totally new situation to the national team. Being behind the pole position was easier than to be on one... There was also an auction in Finnish television to honour the Champs. It failed slightly because of the swindlers. As a gentleman mr. Lindström gave up his medal, because the auction was for an anti-drug campaign...
Finland: Jarmo Myllys, Ari Sulander, Jukka Tammi; Timo Jutila, Mika Strömberg, Janne Niinimaa, Marko Kiprusoff, Hannu Virta, Petteri Nummelin, Erik Hämäläinen; Ville Peltonen(6+5), Saku Koivu, Raimo Helminen, Mika Nieminen, Jere Lehtinen, Esa Keskinen, Sami Kapanen, Juha Ylönen, Janne Ojanen, Raimo Summanen, Tero Lehterä, Marko Palo, Antti Törmänen. (8 6 1 1 34-18).
2. Sweden: Thomas Östlund, Roger Nordström, Boo Ahl; Tommy Sjödin, Fredrik Stillman, Robert Nordmark, Tomas Johnsson, Marcus Ragnarsson, Mikael Johansson(3+6), Andreas Johansson, Andreas Dackell, Daniel Alfredsson, Erik Huusko, Stefan Örnskog, Per-Erik Eklund, Tomas Forslund, Jonas Johnson, Roger Hansson, Charles Berglund, Jonas Bergqvist, Stefan Nilsson. (8 5 1 2 28-25).
3. Canada: Corey Hirsch, Dwayne Roloson, Andrew Verner; Jamie Heward, Brad Schlegel, Dale DeGray, Leonard Esau, Peter Allen, Brian Tutt, Greg Andrusak, Tom Tilley, Andrew McKim(8+1), Iain Fraser, Ralph Intranuovo, Todd Hlusko, Jean-Francois Jomphe, Luciano Borsato, Chris Bright, Rick Chernomaz, Michael Maneluk, Mark Freer, Chris Govedaris, Brandon Convery. (8 4 1 3 27-22).
1996
Vienna
And this was the case! After arranging an Olympic/WC tournament in1964, an Olympic tournament in 1976 and the pool A tournaments in 1967, 1977 and 1987 Austria was finally playing on pool A in a tournament at home. Still the only result being ending up to the pool B next year. “Sic transit gloria mundi” was true indeed with this former medal-level country...
Finland started its task as a reigning champion with a tied score by 1-1 against Norway. Despite losing by 2-4 against Czech after this game, their playing improved a lot. Then against Italy and France the games were very playful. But then... Sweden got two penalties in their game against Finland. The final score being 5-5. So Finland faced Canada in the quarter-finals. One might think about the Tre Kronor making some tactical arrangements here... Against the Maple Leaf Finland played with five players against three for a minute. Finally Canada won by 3-1. Maybe the Finnish players became nervous in the course of the game. Then Canada dropped Russia into the bronze-medal game in the best game of the tournament. The final scores were made by penalty-shots. So, Americans were a lot more motivated in the bronze-medal game and took the medal. Scoring a goal even behind the goalie, and when the scores were 0-3 for Russia, USA finally won by 4-3. This medal was the first American one in an IIHF tournament for 34 years. In fall the Canada Cup had changed into World Cup...
But before the event Czech and Canada played an exciting World Championship final. The scores being 2-2, until Patera scored 3-2. There was a lot of playtime left: 19 seconds. This meant a streak of medals for the Czech republic. Ending the next millenium, in the Olympic tournament in Salt Lake City. Including pretty many gold-medals. Their neighbouring Slovaks entering the pool A level the next year and getting their medals the next millenium. One has to say, that they had luck with their rosters, the Slovak NHL-teams not going far very often in the play-offs...
Czech: Roman Turek, Roman Cechmanek, Peter Franek; Radek Bonk, Robert Reichel, Robert Lang(5+4), Michael Sykora, Otakar Vejvoda, Martin Prochazka, Frantisek Kucera, Drahomir Kadlec, Jiri Veber, Robert Kysela, Frantisek Kaberle, David Vyborny, Jiri Dopita, Radek Belohlav, Pavel Patera, Antonin Stavjana, Viktor Ujcik, Roman Meluzin, Stanislav Neckar, Jiri Vykoukal. (8 7 1 0 42-14).
2. Canada: Curtis Joseph, Martin Brodeur, Andrew Verner; Yannick Perreault(5+3), Travis Green, Paul Kariya, Steve Thomas, Ray Ferraro, Jason Dawe, Jeff Friesen, Steve Duschesne, Derek Mayer, Darryl Sydor, Garry Galley, Doug Bodger, Dean McAmmond, Andrew Cassels, Blake Wesley, Jean-Francois Jomphe, Kelly Buchberger, Luke Richardson, Brad May, David Matsos. (8 4 1 3 25-12).
3. USA: Parris Duffus, John Grahame, Tim Thomas; Kevin Stevens, Brian Rolston, Chris Tancill(5+2), Joe Sacco, Marty McInnis, Tom Chorske, Daniel Plante, Craig Johnson, Derek Plante, Darby Hendrickson, Chris Luongo, Tom Pederson, Brian Bonin, Mike Crowley, Paul Stanton, Scott Lachance, Mike Lalor, Keith Aldbridge, Tom O’Regan, Bobby Reynolds. (8 5 0 3 22-24).
5. Finland: Markus Ketterer, Ari Sulander; Janne Niinimaa, Kimmo Timonen, Teppo Numminen, Timo Jutila, Jyrki Lumme, Petteri Nummelin, Mika Strömberg, Hannu Virta; Teemu Selänne (5+3), Mika Nieminen, Kai Nurminen, Ville Peltonen, Sami Kapanen, Esa Keskinen, Raimo Helminen, Juha Riihijärvi, Janne Ojanen, Christian Ruuttu, Juha Ylönen, Esa Tikkanen. (6 2 2 2 24-18).
1997
Helsinki, Turku, Tampere
So, Finnish hockey had entered this phase. Tampere, having its “concrete-tent” since 1965, Helsinki having its “Ice-sledge” since 1974 and Turku having its “Pythoon” since 1991 as World Championship arenas an heir of an old Finnish industrialist-family named Harry “Hjallis” Harkimo, known as a world-around sailor before this, built his own private arena. Concentrating naturally more on productivity than sportmanship. In this arena Lindström finished his Finnish career with a “Finland always in my hearrt” sign after the final game of the team. Finland played a routine tournament, though with a lot of champagne. The only one saying thank you for mr. Matikainen for the ground-work of success being... Curt Lindström. But in this case the history loyally repeated itself; the Finnish stars of the 1960’s always praised Joe Wirkkunen for his gound-work, but the public remembered mr. Bubnik better for the first-ever victories of his teams over the top-countries.
The Canadians started their tournament with their good old rough style. The worst one being Owen Nolan. He had been born in such a natural hockey place as Dublin. Meaning the Irish one. In the course of the games the Canadians concentrated more on skillful playing, even to an extent, that meant the Swedes ending up to the silver-medal. Even mr. Nolan showed very skillful play this time. Naturally the Swedish players gave ”who cares” –kind of comments after the game... Czech were playing again for another bronze-medal. Russia remaining the 4th, still in a shadow of the brilliant Sovjet past... This tournament meant also the first African-originating World Champions; the Canadians Anson Carter and Jerome Iginla.
This time the bad luck for Finland was the lower end of the boards. The puck bouncing from the plastic piece behind the goalie meant a goal. Maybe the “Hartwall Arena” had some shortage of the maintenance men... But naturally this wasn’t still the only explanation for a routine-performance. And again there were discussions about the new head-coach. Though no-one had doubts about the person’s professional abilities, this the discussion was going around the personality. By the time the Finnish audience had got used such colourful coaches like Pentti “The fashion-follower” Matikainen and Curt “Curre” Lindström. In the course of time Hannu Aravirta, more a clerk-like type, got more medals from the tournaments than his predecessors together...
Canada: Sean Burke, Rick Tabaracci, Dominic Roussel; Brian McCabe, Steve Chiasson, Chris Gratton, Jerome Iginla, Geoff Sanderson, Rob Blake, Travis Green(3+6), Jeff Friesen, Rob Zamuner, Bob Errey, Cory Cross, Mark Recchi, Dean Evason, Keith Primeau, Owen Nolan, Don Sweeney, Anson Carter, Joel Boucahrd, Sean Donovan, Chris Pronger. (11 6 1 4 28-18).
2. Sweden: Johan Hedberg, Tommy Salo; Ronnie Sundin, Tommy Albelin, Magnus Svensson, Mattias Norström, Mattias Öhlund, Marcus Ragnarsson, Roger Johansson, Stefan Nilsson, Johan Lindbom, Marcus Thureson, Nicklas Falk, Per Eklund, Jörgen Jönsson, Per Svartvadet, Andreas Carlsson, Niklas Sundblad, Magnus Arvedson, Niklas Andersson, Jonas Höglund, Michael Nylander(6+5). (11 7 1 3 32-21).
3. Czech: Milan Hnilicka, Roman Cechmanek; Jiri Vykoukal, Libor Prochazka, Jiri Veber, Ladyslav Benysek, Frantisek Kaberle, Vlastimil Kroupa, Jiri Slegr, David Vyborny, Pavel Patera, Viktor Ujcik, Richard Zemlicka, Rostislav Vlach, Martin Prochazka(7+7), Robert Lang, Ondrej Kratena, David Moravec, Vladimir Vujtek, Robert Reichel, Jiri Dopita, Roman Cimicek. (9 6 0 3 30-20).
5. Finland: Jarmo Myllys, Ari Sulander, Jani Hurme; Mika Strömberg, Teppo Numminen, Timo Jutila, Jyrki Lumme, Hannu Virta, Marko Kiprusoff, Petteri Nummelin; Mika Nieminen(4+3), Olli Jokinen, Janne Ojanen, Raimo Helminen, Petri Varis, Ville Peltonen, Saku Koivu, Kai Nurminen, Antti Aalto, Marko Jantunen, Juha Lind, Antti Törmänen, Jarkko Varvio. (8 5 0 3 29-15).
1998
The Olympics
Nagano
Since the NHL had a break for the first time during the Olympic tournament, the main attention was paid on the North-American Olympic teams. The Maple Leaf getting the main attention on the local media. The Canadian team started by scoring the most brilliant goal in the entire tournament. Al McInnis pretended a shot, thus getting the other players away from a close-range of the line. Then he took a step forward, and again a pretended shot. Thus everyone moving on front of the goalie Tommy Salo. Then came the third shot for real, meaning a goal.So Canada won Sweden by 3-2.
But then… they had to face a goalie called Dominik Hasek, from the Czech republic. After the penalty-shots The Maple Leaf had to face a bronze-game. Some Canadian fans, in the Olympic fair-play spirit, told Eric Lindros should have shot the Czech-goalie to the head. But to drop out of the medal games was even harder to handle for the American Team; they smashed their apartment completely in the Olympic village. A Swedish player called Michael Nylander showed his own fair-play by hitting intentionally Esa Tikkanen to the eye. Despite getting some more seconds to play, because of the troubles with the timing, Sweden lost against Finland by 1-2 and this meant the end to their games.
So Finland surprised everyone by going this far. In the game for getting to the final Aleksei Jashin was like a ghost from the past to the Finnish Team, scoring most of Team Russia’s seven goals. But in the bronze-game Finland made sure, that all the medal-winning countries in this tournaments were European. The star of the team being in this game Ville Peltonen, just like in the World Championship final in 1995. After their loss by 2-3, it took the Canadians 45 minutes to leave their dressing room. When the final took place, a Czech called Svoboda scored the winning goal in the third period. As a kind of ghost of the past, he was a defector from the communist-times. But without Dominik, the “Dominator”, Hasek the Czech republic would very probably never have got their first-ever Olympic gold. For obvious reasons, the Vaclav square in Prague had a welcome-party of 200 000 people...
Czech: Dominik Hasek, Roman Cehcmanek, Milan Hnilicka; Vladimir Ruzicka, Jiri Slegr, Richard Smehlik, Robert Lang, Jaromir Jagr, Jaroslav Spacek, Jiri Dopita, Martin Rucinsky, Milan Hejduk, Pavel Patera(2+3), Roman Hamrlik, David Moravec, Frantisek Kucera, Jan Caloun, Libor Prochazka, Martin Prochazka, Martin Straka, Petr Svoboda, Robert Reichel. (6 5 0 1 19-6).
2. Russia: Mihail Stalenkov, Andrei Trefilov, Oleg Tsevtsov; Aleksei Gusarov, Valeri Kamenski, Igor Kravtshuk, Aleksei Zhitnik, Andrei Kovalenko, Dimitri Mironov, Dimitri Juskevitsh, Aleksei Zhamnov, Darius Kasparaitis, Aleksei Jashin(3+3), Boris Mironov, Pavel Bure, Sergei Fedorov, Sergei Gonchar, Valeri Bure, Aleksei Morozov, German Titov, Sergei Krivokrasov, Sergei Nemtsinov, Valeri Zelepuhin. (6 5 0 1 19-8).
3. Finland: Jarmo Myllys, Ari Sulander, Jukka Tammi; Janne Niinimaa, Teppo Numminen, Jyrki Lumme, Kimmo Timonen, Tuomas Grönman, Janne Laukkanen, Aki Berg; Teemu Selänne(4+6), Saku Koivu, Jere Lehtinen, Jari Kurri, Ville Peltonen, Mika Nieminen, Raimo Helminen, Esa Tikkanen, Kimmo Rintanen, Sami Kapanen, Juha Lind, Antti Törmänen, Juha Ylönen. (6 3 0 3 20-19).
The World Championships
Basle, Zürich
So, again an interesting additional World Championship tournament in the Olympic year took place. The organizers telling the Hallenstadion of Zürich being the oldest still working one in Europe. In Basle the Finnish Team compared the ice to the one used in drinks, being used for playing games in this arena for the very first time. Maybe people were thinking in Switzerland to create an old-fashioned atmosphere with a natural-like ice... Though Team Finland wasn’t thinking about the past in this city, the times playing the Finnish debut in 1939 on an artificial ice-rink.
In the tournament Team Sweden made up their failure on the Olympic ice. In the finals they were facing Finland. The best luck of the Swedish team bein an American referee Alex Dell, becoming later a bit notorious in Finland. The final games used the same pattern as the Olympic ones: first by 0-0, then by 0-1. Canada and USA didn’t make up their unlucky Olympic performances. The Olympic champions ended up to the bronze-game, facing the hosting country Switzerland. But the Swiss Team couldnd’t stop the Czechs reaching for the bronze. The Russians seemed to be capable to revive their Sovjet-herited traditions only in the Olympic tournaments. But their greatest disaster was waiting at home some years ahead.
So, the clerk-like Hannu Aravirta handled the pressure very well. Starting the longest streak of medals for Finland so far. The only shadow on his debut being losses against Russia in both of the tournaments this year. In this tournament it was a bit more tolerable, by 2-4. The bronze-winning Czechs scored a tied game, this being the only lost point in the qualification stage for Finland. In the following stage the Canadians played a tied score by 3-3. Then came the biggest loss by... 0-1. This was the other game of the finals, facing Sweden.
Sweden: Johan Hedberg, Tommy Salo; Matthias Öhlund, Kim Johansson, Hans Jonsson, Niclas Hävelid, Christer Ohlsson, Mikael Renberg, Peter Nordström, Fredrik Modin, Niklas Sundström, Mikael Johansson, Mats Sundin, Niklas Falk, Peter Forsberg(7+6), Anders Huusko, Jonas Bergqvist, Ulf Dahlen, Patrick Kjellberg, Jörgen Jönsson, Matthias Nordström, Johan Tornberg, Jan Metzig, Tommy Westlund, Magnus Eriksson. (10 9 1 0 38-9).
2. Finland: Ari Sulander, Jarmo Myllys; Kimmo Timonen, Jere Karalahti, Marko Kiprusoff, Toni Lydman, Janne Laukkanen, Petteri Nummelin, Antti-Jussi Niemi; Raimo Helminen(2+9), Ville Peltonen, Sami Kapanen, Antti Törmänen, Juha Ikonen, Mika Alatalo, Mikko Eloranta, Kimmo Rintanen, Jarkko Ruutu, Joni Lius, Olli Jokinen, Marko Tuomainen, Toni Mäkiaho. (10 4 3 3 43-17).
3. Czech: Milan Hnilicka, Roman Cechmanek, Martin Prusek; Radek Belohlav(9+6), Pavel Patera, Martin Prochazka, David Vyborny, Ladislav Lubina, Frantisek Kucera, Jiri Dopita, Marian Kacir, Jan Hlavac, Frantisek Kaberle, Robert Reichel, David Moravec, Josef Beranek, Jiri Vykoukal, Petr Sykora, Libor Prochazka, Patrick Elias, Robert Kantor, Jiri Veber, Jiri Slegr, Vaclav Burda, Milan Hejduk. (9 6 2 1 33-14).
1999
Lillehammer, Oslo, Hamar
All the venues in this tournament had been the Olympic venues. The Håkons-hallen being in real good shape, but the one in Hamar needed already some renovation. The Jordal Amfi had been an arena with a roof for 27 years. Being before that the main venue for the 1952 Olympic tournament and for the 1958 World Championship tournament, both times as an artificial open-air ice-rink. This made the Jordal Amfi as a unique Olympic/World Championship arena. The only comparable to this being the Stavnice in Czech/Czechoslovakia (WC in 1933, 1938, 1947, with a roof on in 1959 and 1972). Norway followed its traditions by being in pool A on a domestic tournament this time too. One player, Espen “The Shampoo” Knutsen, having played in the NHL as well...
In this tournament Team Finland presented a stamina never seen before. In the qualification round against Russia Finland scored a tied game by 3-3 in the last few seconds. The goal scored by the troublesome of the team, Jere Karalahti. Then in the quarter-finals Finland was playing again an exciting game against USA, winning hardly by 4-3. Then everything went very well til the semi-finals. Finland winning the first game by 3-1, then Sweden winning the second one by 1-2. Then the thing used only in this tournament, the time-out goal, was scored by the Finnish Team by 1-0. This made the Tre Kronor talking about themselves being at least as good as the Finns. This time it was spoken about the Finnish style...
Then the last World Championship final of the millenium took place in a two-game series. The Czech team winning the first one by 1-3. Then Finland winning the second by 4-1. The same time-out took place for a long time, until a Finnish defenceman lost his speed to a Czech forward, scoring the winning goal... the bad luck Finn being Toni Lydman. When the Finnish team had played in Finnish style, the Czech team played in golden style. Again Prague held a great welcome-party. But not as great as the previous year, like it happens with a string of golden successes. In the statistics below the games series includes the time-out goals too.
Czech: Milan Hnilicka, Roman Cechmanek Martin Prusek; Frantisek Kucera, Libor Prochazka, Jaroslav Spacek, Ladislav Benysek, David Vyborny, Pavel Patera, Viktor Ujcik, Frantisek Kaberle, Roman Meluzin, Petr Sykora, Radek Dvorak, Martin Prochazka, David Moravec, Pavel Kubina, Tomas Vlasak, Martin Rucinsky, Jan Hlavac(5+5), Roman Simicek, Tomas Kucharcik, Jan Caloun, Jiri Vykoukal. (9 8 0 1 43-16).
2. Finland: Ari Sulander, Miikka Kiprusoff, Vesa Toskala; Jere Karalahti, Marko Kiprusoff, Kimmo Timonen, Kari Martikainen, Antti-Jussi Niemi, Toni Lydman, Petteri Nummelin, Aki Berg; Saku Koivu(4+12), Teemu Selänne, Marko Tuomainen, Juha Lind, Ville Peltonen, Olli Jokinen, Raimo Helminen, Tomi Kallio, Mikko Eloranta, Kimmo Rintanen, Toni Sihvonen, Antti Törmänen. (9 6 0 3 29-22).
3. Sweden; Tommy Salo, Johan Hedberg, Peter Rönnqvist; Christer Olsson, Pär Djoos, Kim Johansson, Anders Eriksson, Ove Molin, Daniel Alfredsson, Daniel Sedin, Jesper Mattsson, Jan Huokko, Nicklas Falk, Hans Jonsson, Thomas Johansson, Peter Nordström, Henrik Sedin, Jörgen Jönsson, Niklas Sundström, Samuel Påhlsson, Jan Larsson, Markus Näslund(6+4), Michael Nylander. (9 7 0 2 26-15).
The best of the decade:
Goalie: Dominik Hasek (Czech) 1998.
Defenceman: Timo Jutila (Finland 1984-1997).
Forward: Luc Robitaille (Canada) 1994.
The best team of the decade:
Canada 1994.
Mitalit:
Sweden 2(Olympic:1)-0(Olympic:1)-1
Czech/Czechoslovakia 2(Olympic:1)-0-5(Olympic:1)
Russia/USSR 2(Olympic: 1)-0(Olympic:1)-1
Canada 2-2(Olympic:2)-1
Finland 1-4-0(Olympic:2)
USA 0-0-1
The stars of the millenium:
Goalie: All the best goalies per decade.
Defenceman: All the defecemen per decade.
Forward: All the forwards per decade.
The team of the millenium:
All the teams per decade.
2000 St. Petersburg
So, the first World Championship tournament of the millenium in Russia took place without the traditional Luzhniki arena in Moscow. But St. Petersburg offered a gorgeous sports-palace made of glass instead. All this was flavoured with a brilliant-looking home-team roster. Making history: this team was the first Russian/Sovjet one ever outside the top-four at home, ending up to the 11th place. The Russian audience had adopted the Brazilian soccer-traditions, throwing toilet-paper to the ice... Some Finnish players joking about the paper being as rough as in the times they were visiting the Sovjet Union.
Team Finland didn’t have any better start, playing a tied game against Austria by 3-3. Naturally, in the 1940’s this result would have been a great achievement, Austria being a medal-level team then... Then, when the opponent became tougher, Finland reached a tied score against Slovakia by 2-2. In the course of the tournament Finland faced difficulties playing against a penalized team, playing while being penalized, etc. But the level of the team in general made it possible for Finland to reach the bronze-medal, despite all the hardships. The Slovakian audience at home had a huge celebration after winning Finland in the semi-final. The market-square of Bratislava being crowded by almost 200 000 people. But then their big brother took care of the final. Canada using the familiar pattern; first stumbling against the minor countries in the qualification stage, but the further the tournament got, the better the Canadian performance. Though... This time they faced Finland in the bronze-medal game, not quite reaching the medal this time.
So Finland got its fourth medal in a row. The Finnish audience was getting used to this. To the extent, that even the threat of not getting a medal was thought to be a disaster. For Sweden losing by 1-2 in the quarter-finals meant a disaster, the Finnish spectators singing World Championship tune of 1995 to the Tre Kronor. They finally ended up to the 7th place, the last time this happened was in London 1937...
Czech: Roman Cechmanek, Vladimir Hudacek, Dusan Salficky; Petr Buzek, Frantisek Kucera, Ladislav Benysek, Michal Bros, Radek Martinek, David Vyborny, Pavel Patera, Frantisek Kaberle, Vaclav Prospal, Martin Spanhel, Martin Havlat, Petr Cajanek, Jan Tomajko, Martin ProchazkaRobert Reichel, Vaclav Varada, Tomas Vlasak, Michal Sykora, Jiri Dopita(4+7), Martin Stepanek. (10 9 0 1 43-22).
2. Slovakia: Jan Lasak, Miroslav Lipovsky, Pavol Rybar; Zdenko Chara, Radoslav Suchy, Martin Strbak, Stanislav Jasecko, Vlastimil Plavucha, Ronald Petrovicky, Lubomir Vaic, Petr Podhradsky, Peter Pucher, Lubomir Visnovsky, Miroslava Satan(10+2), Lubormi Hurtaj, Miroslav Hlinka, Lubos Bartecko, Jan Pardavy, Ivan Droppa, Peter Bartos, Richard Kapus, Michal Handzus, Michal Hreus, Lubomir Sekeras. (10 6 1 3 40-24).
3. Finland: Vesa Toskala, Ari Sulander, Pasi Nurminen; Petteri Nummelin, Jyrki Lumme, Janne Niinimaa, Jere Karalahti, Aki Berg, Toni Lydman, Antti-Jussi Niemi; Niko Kapanen(4+3), Juha Lind, Tomi Kallio, Kimmo Rintanen, Jukka Hentunen, Marko Tuomainen, Raimo Helminen, Olli Jokinen, Ville Peltonen, Esa Tikkanen, Tony Virta, Toni Sihvonen, Antti Aalto. (10 6 2 2 36-23).
2001
Hannover, Cologne, Nuremberg
In Germany Aravirta got his best game-series as a head-coach for Team Finland. The only major failure being the game gainst USA in the qualification stage, losing by 1-4. Naturally the home-crowd did its best, but Finland managed to drop Germany in the quarter-finals by 4-1. Then in the semi-final they made it even against USA by winning 3-1. A player not noticed in the beginning of the tournament being Antti Laaksonen. Later he became one of the MVPs of Finland, originating from Forssa, making his debut in HPK club in Hämeenlinna, reaching then the college-hockey series in the US. Despite his performance history repeated itself again in the final. A Czech got away from Aki Berg and scored a 2-3 goal. Letting a defenceman having a jetlag at its worst to play in the final caused some criticism against the head-coach. This wasn’t the first unlucky incident for Finland in sports-events in Germany though. Sweden lost against Finland by 4-5, but improved their position from last year, reaching the bronze-medal this time.
The Maple Leaf was outside the top-four for the first time in a WC tournament not taking place in an Olympic year. USA followed its traditions by reaching the 4th place in a tournament prior a domestic one. Russia also improved its performance from its domestic one: 6th. Germany was finally recovering from their hockey –downfall, caused by the rule of five German players per team in German league. In the turn of the millenium this had caused them even to visit the pool B...
So, Finnish hockey was going strong, despite all the minor difficulties. The streak of medals getting longer and longer, though without the golden one. Some were still claiming a foreign coach to have brought one. The next Olympic tournament got some extra tensions, thanks to Osama “The Bomber” Bin Laden...
Czech Milan Hnilicka, Vladimir Hudacek, Dusan Salficky; Martin Richter, Jaroslav Spacek, Radek Martinek, Filip Kuba, David Vyborny, Pavel Patera, Viktor Ujcki, Frantisek Kaberle, Pavel Kubina, Petr Cajanek, Jaroslav Hlinka, Radek Dvorak, Martin Prochazka, Robert Reichel((5+7), David Moravec, Tomas Vlasak, Martin Rucinsky, Karel Pilar, Jiri Dopita, Jan Tomajko. (10 8 2 0 34-16).
2. Finland: Pasi Nurminen, Mikka Kiprusoff, Jarmo Myllys; Petteri Nummelin, Sami Salo, Kimmo Timonen, Marko Kiprusoff, Ossi Väänänen, Antti-Jussi Niemi, Aki Berg, Janne Grönvall; Juha Ylönen(5+9), Sami Kapanen, Tony Virta, Timo Pärssinen, Antti Laaksonen, Raimo Helminen, Tomi Kallio, Niko Kapanen, Toni Sihvonen, Jukka Hentunen, Juha Lind, Kimmo Rintanen, Jarkko Ruutu. (8 0 2 45-18).
3. Sweden: Andreas Hadelöv, Tommy Salo, Mikael Tellqvist; Mattias Öhlund, Kim Jöhnsson, Christer Olsson, Kristofer Ottosson, Andreas Johansson, Per-Johan Axelsson(3+6), Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Mathias Johansson, Jimmie Olvestad, Mikael Renberg, Henrik Zetterberg, Jörgen Jönsson, Kristian Huselius, Andreas Salomonsson, Daniel Alfredsson, Leif Rohlin, Björn Nord, Fredrik Modin, Daniel Tjärnqvist, Peter Andersson. (10 7 1 2 44-18).
2002
The Olympics
Salt Lake City
Most of the new participants in these Winter Olympics were the security-men. The hits on the World Trade Center the previous fall causing an atmosphere of fear through-out the western world. Naturally mr. George W. Bush didn’t think about his prestige being the first president-in-office to attend the Winter Olympics... Maybe he also tried to improve his image internationally, after thinking mr. Putin to be the Canadian Prime-minister, because Quebec has a junk-food called Poutine...
In the hockey tournament USA showed its great knowledge and stamina, going all the way through to the final with their players from the NHL. Just like they knew how to make it at home with the unknown national college-teams in 1932 Lake Placid, 1960 in Squaw Valley and 1980 in Lake Placid. The Maple Leaf had a more modest beginning, their manager being the legendary Wayne Gretzky. But like ever since the 1990’s, they improved their performance a lot by the end of the tournament. In the now totally North-American final Canada finally got its first gold since the car-salesmen of the Edmonton Mercurys of 1952. The first ones to congratulate the new gold-medalists were the Mercs themselves... And naturally Canada went crazy. One could see, for example, a person in Montreal laying on the side of his van with a Maple-Leaf in his hand, slightly exhausted. Martin Brodeur made a contribution for his father, the goalie of 1956 by decorating his mask with the following text: “Cortina 1956- Salt Lake City 2002”... Russia was the best European team, winning the bronze-medal.
Finland played the best they could. Losing against USA by 0-6, then winning Belarus by 8-1 and even Russia by 3-1. Then in the playoff-stage the Canadians scored fast 1-2 and held back the game til the end. Despite the streak of medals was over, Finland finally reached its “old” place by being 6th in the final standings. In the first-ever bigger American town Olympic tournament the greatest anti-hero was a Swede; Tommy Salo losing the puck from his trapper against Belarus, thus causing their winning goal. When Belarus had gone further than expected, their 4th place in the final standings will probably be their best international performance for a long time...
Canada: Martin Brodeur, Curtis Joseph, Ed Belfour; Eric Lindros, Paul Kariya, Rob Blake, Theo Fleury, Adam Foote, Al McInnis, Joe Nieuwendyk, Chris Pronger, Joe Sakic(4+3), Brendan Shanahan, Steve Yzerman, Eric Brewer, Simon Gagne, Jerome Iginla, Ed Jovanovski, Mario Lemieux, Scott Niedermayer, Owen Nolan, Mike Peca, Ryan Smyth. (6 4 1 1 22-14).
2. USA: Mike Richter, Mike Dunham, Tom Barrasso; Chris Chelios, Scott Young, Brian Leetch, Keith Tkachuk, Brian Rolston, Tony Amonte, Adam Deadmarsh, Bill Guerin, Brett Hull(3+5), John LeClair, Mike Modano, Jeremy Roenick, Gary Suter, Doug Weight, Chris Drury, Phil Housley, Aaron Miller, Tom Poti, Brian Rafalski, Mike York. (6 4 1 1 26-10).
3. Russia: Maksim Afinogenov, Nikolai Habibulin, Ilja Bryzgalov; Igor Larionov, Igor Kravchuk, Aleksei Kovalev(3+1), Vladimir Malahov, Darius Kasparaitis, Aleksei Zhamnov, Andrei Nikolishin, Pavel Bure, Valeri Bure, Sergei Fedorov(3+1), Sergei Gonchar, Boris Mironov, Aleksei Jashin, Pavel Datsjuk, Ilja Kovalchuk, Oleg Kvasha, Danil Markov, Sergei Samsonov, Oleg Tverdovsky. (6 3 1 2 19-14).
6. Finland: Jani Hurme, Pasi Nurminen, Jussi Markkanen; Janne Niinimaa, Aki Berg, Ossi Väänänen, Jyrki Lumme, Teppo Numminen, Kimmo Timonen, Sami Salo; Teemu Selänne(3+0), Olli Jokinen, Niklas Hagman, Tomi Kallio, Jere Lehtinen, Sami Kapanen, Mikko Eloranta, Raimo Helminen, Ville Nieminen, Juha Ylönen, Juha Lind, Jarkko Ruutu, Antti Aalto. (4 2 0 2 12-10).
The World Championships
Gothenburg, Jönköping, Karlstad
This time the Slovaks celebrated! They got their first independant World Champion title. By coincidence, this happened in an additional tournament. Thinking about the locations maybe the organizers thought like that too. The North-Americans weren’t among the top-four. Slovakians were also lucky, thinking about the thing, that their NHL-teams were off the qualification-games... Russia got its first World Championship-medal for nine years. Yet one can think the Slovakian World Champion title to be an achievement as such. The new nation had about the same population as Finland, but only a quarter of the players and arenas compared to Finnish capacity. Naturally the title was widely celebrated in Slovakia.
Finland started its tournament very well. Winning very clearly its qualification group. Losing only for Sweden in the second round. In the semi-final Russia won only by penalty-shots. Then again against Sweden Finland was playing well, leading the game clearly. Then... the atmosphere was suddenly in Finland like the 1980’s. Sweden won the bronze-game by 5-3. So, mr. Aravirta returned to an every-day head-coach life, just like his predecessors.
This international season was the first one for Finland without a medal for Finland for five years, making some people to talk about a disaster. When thinking about the low-key performances of Team Finland in Prague 1978, playing in pool B in Squaw Valley 1960, the debut in Basle 1939, losing against Germany by 1-12... Though, thus the basics were there, making it possible to feel every-day success a lot less fun than the great one. In fourteen years Finland had reached enough medals to be the sixth nation in medal-standings, with no excuses for other top-nations being absent. The host country of this tournament having one with its first-ever World Championship in 1953, the only top nation there...
Slovakia: Jan Vlasak, Miroslav Simonovic, Rastislav Stana; Radoslav Hecl, Jergus Baca, Martin Strbak, Peter Smrek, Dusan Milo, Peter Bondra, Josef Stümpel, Vladimir Orzagh, Lubomir Visnovsky, Miroslav Satan(5+8), Rastislav Pavlikovsky, Radovan Somik, Lubomir Bartecko, Zigmund Palffy, Michal Handzus, Ladislav Nagy, Miroslav Hlinka, Peter Pucher, Robert Petrovicky, Richard Lintner, Robert Tomik, Ladislav Cierny, Marek Uram. (10 9 0 1 42-26).
2. Russia: Jegor Podomatski, Maksim Afinogenov, Maksim Sokolov; Aleksander Judin, Sergei Vyshedkevitsh, Dimitri Bykov, Anton Voltsenkov, Aleksander Guskov, Sergei Gusev, Aleksei Kosnev, Dimitri Satonski, Dimitri Rjabkin, Ivan Tkatshenko, Aleksander Prokopjev(3+4), Vjatseslav Butsajev, Ravil Gusmanov, Roman Ljashenko, Viktor Tsistov, Maksim Sushinski, Valeri Karpov, Dimitri Kalinin, Andrei Kovalenko. (10 5 1 4 36-26).
3. Sweden: Stefan Liv, Tommy Salo, Rolf Wanhanen; Pierre Hedin, Kim Johnsson, Magnus Johansson, Per Gustafsson, Andreas Johansson, Per-Johan Axelsson, Niklas Falk, Mathias Johansson, Thomas Johansson, Markus Näslund, Henrik Zetterberg, Jörgen Jönsson, Ulf Dahlen, Ronnie Sundin, Niklas Andersson, Thomas Rhodin, Mattias Weinhandl, Jonas Johnson, Daniel Tjärnqvist, Kristian Huselius(5+6), Johan Davidsson, Michael Nylander. (10 8 0 2 45-20).
4. Finland: Jussi Markkanen, Fredrik Norrena, Kari Lehtonen; Jere Karalahti, Janne Niinimaa, Tom Koivisto, Kimmo Timonen, Marko Tuulola, Toni Lydman, Petteri Nummelin; Timo Pärssinen(3+5), Niklas Hagman, Antti Miettinen, Tomi Kallio, Kimmo Rintanen, Janne Ojanen, Niko Kapanen, Vesa Viitakoski, Olli Jokinen, Raimo Helminen, Antti Aalto, Juha Lind, Lasse Pirjetä. (9 7 0 2 28-10).
2003
Helsinki, Turku, Tampere
It took one more year to get a new arena to Prague. So, Czech and Finland changed the order of the tournaments. The Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Elysee Arena (formerly known as the Pyth... sorry, Typhoon) in Turku and Hakametsän Jäähalli in Tampere offered a nice event, especially for the Danish team. They had improved a bit since their previous encounter with Canada, playing a tied game this time. Instead of a defeat by 0-47. Maybe someday some Canadian coach finds a way to bring Iceland to the pool A level. Thus this pool would include all the Nordic countries...
Finland took a modest victory in its first game in the qualification group, against Slovenia by 12-0. The next stage went well too, the only thing being a loss against Slovakia. Oh, and the Germans had a tied game too. But then the old-fashioned Finnish style took over; Sweden rolled over a nice Finnish lead, winning the game finally by 5-6. This causing the traditional curses and moanings of the Finnish tv-audience, despite this Finland was the 5th in the final standings. So, Aravirta followed the same routine performance in his final tournament as a head-coach like his predecessors. And watching the Slovaks reaching the bronze-medal...
The final was a replay of Canada-Sweden from 1997. Even the main arena being the same. In the end of the brilliant final-game the Canadians started to cheer. The referee first blowing the whistle for that. After a long, long, long video-check the goal, scored by a rasta-haired buy called Anson Carter, was accepted. By everyone except the Swedish press and head-coach Hardy Nilsson. The Swedish press wondering about the video-footage... Well, the videos are found in the stores. And one can see the puck moving to the goal between the goalie’s pads... Except, naturally, in the eyes of the most stubborn Swedes. The previous Olympic silver-medal country, USA, was close to the pool B in this tournament. But their route to the pool A became clear in the qualification games the next fall, this time by a college-team.
Canada: Sean Burke, Roberto Luongo, Martin Biron; Eric Brewer, Jay Bouwmeester, Jamie Heward, Daniel Briere, Shawn Horcoff, Mathien Dandenault, Patrick Merleau, Dany Heatley(7+3), Kyle Calder, Kirk Maltby, Shane Doan, Anson Carter, Cory Cross, Steve Staios, Steven Reinprecht, Kris Draper, Krys Kolanos, Craig Rivet, Mike Comrie, Ryan Smyth. (10 9 1 0 48-27).
2. Sweden: Henrik Lundqvist, Tommy Salo, Mikael Tellqvist; Magnus Johansson, Per Gustafsson, Niklas Kronwall, Peter Nordström, Per-Johan Axelsson, Mats Sundin(6+4), Matthias Norström, Mathias Johansson, Marcus Nilson, Mikael Renberg, Henrik Zetterberg, Peter Forsberg, Ronnie Sundin, Niklas Andersson, Thomas Rhodin, Dick Tärnström, Henrik Lundqvist, Daniel Tjärnqvist, Jonas Höglund, Mika Hannula , Jörgen Jönsson, Johan Davidsson. (10 7 1 2 37-20).
3. Slovakia: Jan Lasak, Pavol Rybar, Rastislav Stana; Radoslav Suchy, Martin Strbak, Lubomir Vaic, Dusan Milo, Peter Bondra, Josef Stümpel, Vladimir Orzagh, Lubomir Visnovsky, Miroslav Satan, Richard Zednik, Zdeno Ciger, Richard Kapus, Ivan Majesky, Zigmund Palffy(7+8), Ladislav Nagy, Miroslav Hlinka, Pavol Demitra, Richard Lintner, Robert Svhela, Ladislav Cierny, Peter Cejna. (10 8 1 1 54-20).
5. Finland: Pasi Nurminen, Jani Hurme, Kari Lehtonen; Kimmo Timonen, Petteri Nummelin, Aki Berg, Ossi Väänänen, Toni Lydman, Janne Niinimaa, Marko Kiprusoff, Sami Helenius; Teemu Selänne(8+3), Saku Koivu, Kimmo Rintanen, Ville Peltonen, Tomi Kallio, Esa Pirnes, Niklas Hagman, Olli Jokinen, Mikko Eloranta, Lasse Pirjetä, Antti Miettinen, Tommi Santala, Tony Virta, Juha Ylönen. (8 4 1 3 30-17).
2004
Prague, Ostrava
The post-communistic Czech republic had postponed its new arena for one year. But it was worth it, the arena being gorgeous. The history made by the Czech team was far less gorgeous, them being outside for the first time in a home-tournament ever. This is, when one icludes the European Championship of 1912 too, later changed to unofficial because of the protest of Team Germany. The neighbouring Slovaks didn’t make it much better, despite their top players. This tournament was a jubilee for the North-Americans, especially for USA, getting its first medal for eight years. This time by penalty-shots. Maybe the World Cup next fall had some effect to the thing...
The final was a repetition of the previous spring. Though this time it seemed to be all the way through for Sweden in the beginning. Then the Swedish head-coach let his players to let loose for a while. So, this evidently meant the Maple Leaf to win the final, by 5-3. The second World Champion title in a row was the first one for Canada to be achieved with the Stanley Cup outsiders. The previous double was a bit further away, achiveden in 1958-59. Then the Team Canadas being Whitby Dunlops and Belleville McFarlands. Those days they were called amateur teams, but it’s worth thinking, what was their real profession...
Finland faced a new tournament with a new head-coach, Raimo Summanen. First Team USA seemed to rule over Finland, but finally the Finnish team won by 4-2. Next games followed a familiar pattern, a tied game against Sweden by 1-1 and the a victory over Russia by 4-0. Before those games there was a loss against Slovakia by 2-5. This taking place almost at home of Slovakia... Then came the quarter-finals and an overtime-loss against Canada by 4-5. The new head-coach telling this to be the present situation of Team Finland. The Finnish tradition, that had started from Calgary 1988 now had to end; the new head-coach starting his task with a medal... Next fall mr. Summanen improved a lot by bringing Finland for the first time ever to the World Cup final. Though by causing some frictions within the team before the Cup... Like surprisingly often in Finland, despite Summanen being a forerunner like this, he became fired.
Canada: Roberto Luongo, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Marc Denis; Eric Brewer, Jay Bouwmeester, Willie Mitchell, Steve Staios, Scott Niedermayer, Derek Morris, Nick Schultz, Brendan Morrison, Shawn Horcoff, Justin Williams, Jeff Friesen, Dany Heatley(8+3), J-P Dumont, Brendan Morrow, Matt Cooke, Glen Murray, Patrice Bergeron, Rob Niedermayer, Danny Briere, Ryan Smyth. (9 7 1 1 30-18).
2. Sweden: Daniel Henriksson, Stefan Liv, Henrik Lundqvist; Per Hallberg, Christian Backman, Niclas Hävelid, Ronnie Sundin, Dick Tärnström(4+2), Daniel Tjärnqvist, Magnus Kahnberg, Andreas Johansson, Andreas Salomonsson, Jonathan Hedström, Jörgen Jönsson, Niklas Andersson, Samuel Pålsson, Fredrik Sjöström, Jonas Höglund, Johan Davidsson, Matthias Tjärnqvist, Daniel Alfredsson(4+2). (9 6 2 1 27-14).
3. USA: Mike Dunham, Ty Conklin, Alex Westlund; Brett Hauer, Andy Roach, Hal Gill, Paul Mara, Keith Ballard, Blake Sloan, Aaron Miller, Erik Westrum, Dustin Brown, Jeff Halpern, Ryan Malone, Bates Battaglia, Andy Hilbert, Matt Cullen, Richard Park(5+3), Chris Drury, Mike Grier, Adam Hill, Jeff Jillson. (9 5 1 3 30-21).
6. Finland: Jussi Markkanen, Mika Noronen, Fredrik Norrena; Peteri Nummelin, Sami Salo, Antti-Jussi Niemi, Jere Karalahti, Tuukka Mäntylä, Toni Söderholm, Janne Niinimaa; Ville Peltonen(4+6), Niklas Hagman, Olli Jokinen, Tony Virta, Lasse Pirjetä, Niko Kapanen, Antti Laaksonen, Jukka Hentunen, Timo Pärssinen, Kimmo Rintanen, Jarkko Ruutu, Esa Pirnes, Tomi Kallio. (7 4 1 2 26-14).
2005
Vienna, Innsbruck
This spring the ice on both arenas was on the same level as the one used in drinks. Unlike the level of the teams, the medal-winning teams being of the NHL level. Once again, the NHLPA had disagreements about salaries, thus the league not being played this season. Finland’s World Cup team showed its patriotism in the following way; fifteen (=15) players refused to represent their country in this season’s top tournament. And the North-Americans were traditionally thought to only think about money in this issue... Team Canada and Team USA were represented by their best players, even not all of them were in shape in the beginning.
In the tournament Russia made history by losing its first point ever for Switzerland, with a tied game by 3-3. After that the Russians improved a lot, finally reaching the bronze-medal. The Canadians showed incredible will-power by reaching the final. The team was very obviously not in full shape, and still the scoring stats included three Canadians on the top (1. J. Thornton, 2. C. Nash, 3. S. Gagne). Their goalie Martin Brodeur was insecure, until he faced the semi-final and the final. The Czech team was this time in that much better shape, that they took the World Champion title. Though, a player worth mentioning is, by co-incidence, Jaromir Jagr. The head-coach, Vladimir Ruzicka, told about his with-drawal after the tournament. Maybe he was intrigued about the thought leaving the arena invincible...
Then the performance of Team Finland… The best games were routine-victories over Denmark and Ukraine. With the rest, this meant a return to the 1980’s... One sign being a strange tied game against Latvia by 0-0. Then with the penalty-shots in the Russia game (after reaching from 1-3 to a tied game by 3-3) Finland showed its lack of mental capability. Making the coaches thinking about the level of junior individual coaching... The hasty firing of the head-coach after the World Cup naturally had its effects too... For the first time for five years, Sweden didn’t get a medal in a World Championship.
Czech: Tomas Vokoun, Milan Hnilicka, Adam Svoboda; Jiri Fischer, Marek Zidlicky, Jaroslav Spacek, Frantisek Kaberle, Pavel Kubina, Tomas Kaberle, Jan Hejda, Jiri Slegr; David Vyborny, Petr Zajanek, Radek Dvorak, Vaclav Varada, Martin Rucinsky, Martin Straka, Petr Sykora, Vaclav Prospal, Josef Vasicek, Jaromir Jagr(2+7), Petr Prucha, Ales Hemsky. (9 8 0 1 26-9).
2. Canada: Roberto Luongo, Martin Brodeur, Marty Turco; Chris Philips, Wade Redden, Scott Hannan, Dan Boyle, Robyn Regehr, Sheldon Sourayl, Ed Jovanovski; Brendan Morrison, Brenden Morrow, Dany Heatley, Mike Fisher, Kirk Maltby, Shane Doan, Simon Gagne(6+10), Patrick Marleau, Scott Walker, Kris Draper, Rick Nash(6+10), Ryan Smyth, Joe Thornton(6+10). (9 6 1 2 35-24).
3. Russia: Maksin Sokolov, Sergei Zivanin; Sergei Gusev, Aleksander Karpotshev, Vitali Proshkin, Denis Denisov, Sergei Vysodkevitsh, Aleksander Rjantsev, Dimitri Kalinin, Andrei Markov; Aleksander Ovetshkin(5+3), Pavel Datsjuk, Jevgeni Markin, Aleksander Haritonov, Ivan Neprjaev, Viktor Kozlov, Aleksei Kovalev, Vladimir Antipov, Maksim Afinogenov, Ilja Kovaltsuk, Aleksei Jashin, Fedor Fedorov, Sergei Zinovjev. (9 6 2 1 30-20).
7. Finland; Niklas Bäckström, Fredrik Norrena, Pasi Nurminen; Jere Karalahti, Toni Söderholm, Pekka Saravo, Petteri Nummelin, Lasse Kukkonen, Ossi Väänänen, Kimmo Timonen, Antti-Jussi Niemi; Olli Jokinen(1+4), Niko Kapanen(1+4), Riku Hahl, Jari Viuhkola, Petri Pakaslahti, Ville Peltonen, Tomi Kallio, Timo Pärssinen(1+4), Jukka Hentunen, Niklas Hagman, Jani Rita, Jarkko Ruutu, Mikko Eloranta, Jussi Jokinen. (7 2 3 2 17-18).
2006
The Olympics
Turin
The history loyally repeated itself! Sweden showed its most skillful playing against Finland in this tournament. A goal was scored behind a Finnish goalie Niittymäki just ten seconds after the beginning of the third period. So, Finland played its one and only insecure game in the whole tournament. This time the Big Market Square in Helsinki was attended only by few thousand people, despite the medal being the first Finnish one for five years. A very small comfort being, that The Gazette recommended Finland’s game against Russia to be used as a training video for junior players. The other very small comfort was the All Stars full of Finnish players after the Olympic tournament.
A man playing in a 1970’s model helmet caused a lot of overwhelming conversation, while being checked by Jarkko Ruutu. The most common reasoning being, that he would have avoided his head-injuries with a present model. Naturally the Czechs reminded a bit about Jarkko Ruutu’s former checks against the Czechs. His arrogant commentaries from the former World Championships also being noticed internationally this time. In the qualification stage the Czech team stumbled a bit. Despite stumbling in the next games too they finally reached the bronze-medal. Unfortunately Finland made a steady performance, only stumbling in their final game...
Switzerland showed its capability to be a pleasant surprise, being a non-former top-hockey country this time. Naturally carried on by the NHL a lot. The North-Americans stumbled in their qualification stage, like they have traditionally done. But this time the improving on the next stage didn’t take place. Canada and USA being probably for the very first time the 7th and the 8th in the same tournament. Though, one has to say, that in an NHL-like rink the American team could have won Team Finland, but reaching the medal made the Finns to return to the 21st century...
Sweden: Stefan Liv, Henrik Lundqvist, Mikael Tellqvist; Christian Bäckman, Kenny Jönsson, Daniel Tjärnqvist, Nicklas Lidström, Mattias Öhlund, Nicklas Hävelid, Ronnie Sundin; Daniel Alfredsson (5+5), Per-Johan Axelsson, Peter Forsberg, Mika Hannula, Tomas Holmström, Jörgen Jönsson, Fredrik Modin, Samuel Påhlsson, Mikael Samuelsson, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Mats Sundin, Henrik Zetterberg. (8 6 0 2 31-19).
2. Finland: Nicklas Bäckström, Fredrik Norrena, Antero Niittymäki; Aki-Petteri Berg, Toni Lydman, Teppo Numminen, Antti-Jussi Niemi, Sami Salo, Kimmo Timonen, Petteri Nummelin; Jukka Hentunen, Olli Jokinen, Niko Kapanen, Ville Nieminen, Mikko Koivu, Saku Koivu, Antti Laaksonen, Jere Lehtinen, Niklas Hagman, Ville Peltonen, Jarkko Ruutu, Teemu Selänne (6+5), Jussi Jokinen. ( 8 7 0 1 29-7).
3. Czech: Milan Hnilicka, Tomas Vokoun, Dusan Saflicky; Frantisek Kaberle, Tomas Kaberle, Filip Kuba, Marek Malik, Jaroslav Spacek, Marek Zidlicky; Jan Bulis, Petr Cajanek, Martin Erat, Milan Hejduk, Ales Hemsky, Jaromir Jagr, Robert Lang, Rostislav Olesz, Vaclav Prospal, Martin Rucinsky, Martin Straka (2+6), David Vyborny, Ales Kotalik. (8 4 0 4 23-20).
The World Championships
Riga
In the beginning this additional tournament, the first World Championship in Latvia, didn’t feel like an additional one. The Latvian audience was cheerful and sportmanship-like. Until they thought a referee not acting sportsman-like: the game against Canada being interrupted because of the behaviour of the audience twice. The Maple Leaf responded to this in a Maple Leaf way; their final victory being 11-0. In another game the ice started to melt down, so one qualification game took a bit longer than usual.
In their first game Finland was as if rehearsing, winning Slovenia by 5-3, despite the beginning being 0-2 for Slovenia. Then the next game against the Czech team was dragging a cart without a horse for some reason, though finally the result became tolerable by 3-3. Then the following games were played with the best Finnish style. Until Canada scored twice short-handed, winning the second round group. Later the Czech team also scored a short-handed goal, meaning a victory for them by 1-3. The latter one was more significant, being a semi-final game. Finally Finland took its most glorious victory over Canada by 5-0 and this meant a Finnish bronze-medal. Despite the medal, the zero-tolerance of the referees had caused some troubles for the Finnish team. The main if being: had there been less penalties and a bit more careful play in general... The special things this year being two; for the first time for a long time the medal-winning teams were the same as in the Olympic tournament. And the best scorers of the best teams; the only one having a forward as the best one being Czech.
In the final the figures scored by the winning team were as clear as the ones in the bronze-medal game. Sweden won by 4-0 and like in the semi-finals, the 1-0 was done in Swedish style, the puck bouncing from the sticks. In the semi-final a Canadian scored a goal to his own cage with a skate. So, Sweden were the Lords of the rink. While Finland celebrated its Lords of the Athens for their victory in the Eurovision song-contest.
Sweden: Stefan Liv, Johan Holmqvist, Daniel Henriksson, ; Mattias Timander, Magnus Johansson, Niklas Kronwall(2+8), Per Hållberg, Ronnie Sundin, Andreas Holmqvist, Kenny Jönsson; Tony Mårtensson, Jesper Mattson, Jonas Nordqvist, Mathias Johansson, Joel Lundqvist, Andreas Karlsson, Björn Melin, Fredrik Emwall, Mikael Samuelsson, Johan Franzen, Henrik Zetterberg, Mika Hannula, Jörgen Jönsson, Michael Nylander, Nicklas Bäckström. (9 6 2 1 36-19).
2. Czech: Milan Hnilicka, Adam Svoboda, Tomas Pöpperle; Lukas Krajicek, Zbynek Michalek, Martin Richter, Tomas Kaberle, Jan Hejda, Martin Skoula, Miroslav Blatak, Zdenek Kutlak; David Vyborny(3+6), Peter Hubacek, Tomas Plekanec, Jaroslav Hlinka, Zbynek Irgl, Jaroslav Bednar, Jan Hlavac, Jan Bulis, Jaroslav Balastik, Tomas Popperle, Ivo Krorok, Tomas Rocinek, Petr Tenkrat, Patrik Stefan, Martin Erat. (9 5 2 2 26-24).
3. Finland: Nicklas Bäckström, Fredrik Norrena, Antero Niittymäki; Aki Berg, Petteri Nummelin(3+11), Lasse Kukkonen, Pekka Saravo, Tuukka Mäntylä, Mikko Lehtonen, Mikko Luoma; Olli Jokinen, Jari Viuhkola, Mikko Koivu, Tommi Santala, Esa Pirnes, Ville Peltonen, Tuomo Ruutu, Riku Hahl, Jarkko Ruutu, Jani Rita, Jukka Hentunen, Tomi Kallio, Sean Bergenheim, Antti Miettinen, Jussi Jokinen. (9 6 1 2 31-13).
2007
Moscow
This time the IIHF World Champion torunament took place in the arenas named Hodonka and Mystitchy. In addition to the new playing pattern (in the brackets there are games played, wins, wins from overtime/shoot-out, losses from overtime/shoot-out, losses) another mystery occured with the host nation Russia and its neighbour, Estonia, about a bronze-statue. The warrior memorial was correctly justified by the Russians as a memory from a war to become free from the nazis. But the Estonian point about the memorial being a reminiscent about Sovjet-occupation and forced joining the USSR was equally correct.
In the tournament itself the Maple Leaf showed no signs of donwfall by reaching the title. Despite playing the same patter as usual, “awkward beginning and bright finishing”, this time team Canada was the only one not to lose a single game. Their final game was just like the semi-final, playing exactly what needed, and no useless extra. The best and most dramatic quarter-final game was the one by Finland and USA. This being the only one in the round to end up to the shoot-out. Finland continued the same dramatic pattern, ending up to the overtime against the Russians in the semi-final game. Thus causing the only loss to the hosting team. In the final-game Finland couldn’t help it against the Canadians, just like the Swedes in the semi-final, the final climax being the goal scored by Rick Nash almost immediately after Finland had scored theri second goal, reachig 2-3. The Canadian goal took place only one minute and six second before the end of the game. Finland basic fault in this game, like throughout the tournament, being easiness for penalties. Erkka Westerlund remained in history as the first-ever Finnish head-coach finishing his task with a tournament-medal.
Everyone expected Russia becoming the new World Champion in this tournament, thus causing low attendance in the non-domestic team games. Their coach Vyacehslav Bykov had a spaghetti-western –like stoic face throughout the tournament. Despite he was having the best Russian team for a long time, reaching even the Sovjet-times to some extent. But after beating Sweden in the bronze-medal game even he gave a smile. But the fact remains, that after Moscow 1986 the hosting team has never won a tournament...
Canada: Cam Ward, Dwayne Roloson; Eric Brewer, Barret Jackman, Cory Murphy, Mike Commodore, Dan Hamhuis, Shea Weber, Dion Phaneuf, Nick Shcultz; Jay McClement, Jorda Staal, Justin Williams, Eric Staal, Mike Camalleri, Jonathan Toews, Shane Doan, Colby Armstrong, Jamal Myers, Jason Chimera, Rick Nash, Matthew Lombardi (6+6). (9 8 1 0 0 42-21).
2. Finland: Kari Lehtonen, Fredrik Norrena; Aki Berg, Lasse Kukkonen, Jukka-Pekka Laamanen, Tuukka Mäntylä, Petteri Nummelin, Pekka Saravo, Toni Söderholm, Ville Koistinen; Sean Bergenheim, Jukka Hentunen, Tomi Kallio, Niko Kapanen, Mikko Koivu, Petri Kontiola, Antti Miettinen, Ville Peltonen (2+7), Mika Pyörälä, Timo Pärssinen, Jarkko Ruutu, Tuomo Ruutu, Jari Viuhkola, Jere Lehtinen. (9 4 2 0 3 29-17).
3. Russia: Aleksander Jeremenko, Vasili Koshetshkin; Vitali Atjushov, Aleksei Jemelin, Sergei Gontshar, Denis Grebeshkov, Maksim Kondratjev, Andrei Markov, Ilja Nikulin, Vitali Proshkin; Aleksander Frolov, Aleksander Haritonov, Ilja Kovaltshuk, Nikolai Kulemin, Jevgeni Malkin, Aleksei Morozov (8+5), Ivan Neprjaev, Aleksander Ovetshkin, Aleksander Radulov, Peter Shastlivi, Denis Zaripov, Sergei Zinovjev, Sergei Brylin. (9 8 0 1 0 43-14).
2008
Halifax, Quebec City
And at last, by the centennial celebration of The IIHF/LIHG, a tournament in the birthplace of modern ice hockey took place... Maybe it was a coincidence, that the locations of the games were a traditional amateur-hockey-town and a former NHL-city! Russia honoured the jubilee by winning their first World Champion title for fiftteen (=15) years, despite the awkward games against Czech and Belarus. The Maple Leaf improved its success with the domestic tournaments, since despite not winning a tournament at home they improved a lot from the 4th place in Calgary and now reaching a silver-medal... The Belarus meant trouble for Sweden, despite the goalie didn’t face a Tommy Salo’s fate from 2002 this time!
Finland played in a turbulant way, winning first the Germans in a bright game by 5-1. Then they hardly won the second-rate A-level teams. Their retro-jersey originated from the 1965 one, but the game against Norway was also very retro. Hardly winning in extra-time. Then the game against the US was a brilliant one. In that game the history took place in another way too; everyone, except the Swedish video-referee saw clearly, that the first Finnish goal wasn’t a goal. When they faced the US for the next time, playing for the medals, then all the goals were certainly goals. After that the Finnish performance was really weak against the Russians. But that had another thing too; Russia was clearly a better team...
The team making the worst failure was Slovakia, ending up to the qualification games, and even hardly winning Slovenia in those games. Sweden’s performance was clearly a bad one too, they even lost the bronze-medal game against Finland by 0-4! The US team had a very promising start, but they failed by the time the tournament went forward. Their neighbour suprisingly did the same thing while leading by 2-4. Getting passive in this situation is pretty un-Canadian. Despite this the Canadian team played the most solid series of games, crumbling only against the Norwegians in the first game of the teams. But one has to remember, that this is not a game, where there are points given for style. Just like the IIHF/LIHG tradition has been for a hundred years. The newer tradition went forward also in this tournament. The hosting country wasn’t the Championship, hasn’t won since 1986!
Russia: Mihail Birjukov, Jevgeni Nabokov, Aleksander Jeremenko; Denis Grebeshkov, Dimitri Kalinin, Konstantin Kornejev, Daniil Markov, Andrei Markov, Ilja Nikulin, Vitali Proshkin, Fedor Tjutin, Dimitri Vorobjev; Maksim Afinogenov, Sergei Fedorov, Konstantin Gorovnikov, Ilja Kovaltshuk, Aleksei Morozov, Sergei Mozjakin, Aleksei Ovetshkin, Aleksei Radulov, Aleksei Semin (6+7), Maksim Sushinski, Aleksei Tereshtshenko, Danis Zaripov, Sergei Zinovjev. (11 9 2 0 0 48-18).
2.Canada: Cam Ward, Pascal LeClaire, Mathieu Garon; Jay Bouwmeester, Brent Burns, Mike Green, Dan Hamhuis, Ed Jovanovski, Duncan Keith, Steve Staios; Jason Chimera, Shane Doan, Ryan Getzlaf, Dany Heatley (12+8), Chris Kunitz, Jamal Mayers, Rick Nash, Derek Roy, Patrick Sharp, Jason Spezza, Martin St. Louis, Eric Staal, Jonathan Toews. (11 10 0 0 1 59-21).
3. Finland: Niklas Bäckström, Petri Vehanen, Karri Rämö; Ossi Väänänen, Ville Koistinen, Mikko Luoma, Antti-Jussi Niemi, Anssi Salmela, Janne Niskala, Mikko Jokela, Sami Lepistö; Olli Jokinen, Mikko Koivu (4+5), Niko Kapanen, Riku Hahl, Saku Koivu, Esa Pirnes, Teemu Selänne, Ville Peltonen, Jussi Jokinen, Tuomo Ruutu, Sean Bergenheim, Mika Pyörälä, Hannes Hyvönen, Antti Pihlström. (11 8 2 0 1 31-20).