thumb|200px|A postage stamp for the 1972 Winter Olympics

The men's ice hockey tournament at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, was the 12th Olympic Championship. Games were held at the Makomanai Ice Arena and at the Tsukisamu Indoor Skating Rink. The Soviet Union won its fourth gold medal. The United States won the silver, while Czechoslovakia won the bronze. Canada did not send a team to the event for the first time since ice hockey was first introduced to the Olympics in 1920, instead competing with and defeating the Soviets in a competition later that year known as the Summit Series. Canadian officials were frustrated that their best players, competing in the National Hockey League, were prevented from playing while Soviet players, who were "employees" of the industrial or military organizations that fielded "amateur" teams, were allowed to compete. At that point, the Canadian men's ice hockey team was the most successful team in the world, having won six of the eleven tournaments previously contested, with medals in ten of the eleven tournaments (and a controversial post-tournament rule change denying them a perfect eleven medals). Canada would not compete internationally in hockey until 1977, when the IIHF adopted eligibility rules that allowed for professional players to compete.

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

Medalists

140px|thumb|1972 Olympic gold medal

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<hr/> Vladislav Tretiak<br/> Alexander Pashkov<br/> Vitaly Davydov<br/> Viktor Kuskin<br/> Alexander Ragulin<br/> Gennadiy Tsygankov<br/> Vladimir Lutchenko<br/> Valeri Vasiliev<br/> Igor Romishevsky<br/> Yevgeni Mishakov<br/> Alexander Maltsev<br/> Alexander Yakushev<br/> Vladimir Vikulov<br/> Anatoly Firsov<br/> Valeri Kharlamov<br/> Yury Blinov<br/> Boris Mikhailov<br/> Vladimir Petrov<br/> Vladimir Shadrin<br/> Yevgeni Zimin

|<hr/> Mike Curran<br/> Pete Sears<br/> Wally Olds<br/> Tom Mellor<br/> Frank Sanders<br/> Jim McElmury<br/> Charles Brown<br/> Dick McGlynn<br/> Ronald Naslund<br/> Robbie Ftorek<br/> Stu Irving<br/> Kevin Ahearn<br/> Henry Boucha<br/> Craig Sarner<br/> Timothy Sheehy<br/> Keith Christiansen<br/> Mark Howe<br/> Tim Regan<br/>Bruce McIntosh

|<hr/> Vladimír Dzurilla<br/> Jiří Holeček<br/> Vladimír Bednář<br/> Rudolf Tajcnár<br/> Oldřich Machač<br/> František Pospíšil<br/> Josef Horešovský<br/> Karel Vohralík<br/> Václav Nedomanský<br/> Jiří Holík<br/> Jaroslav Holík<br/> Jiří Kochta<br/> Eduard Novák<br/> Richard Farda<br/> Josef Černý<br/> Vladimír Martinec<br/> Ivan Hlinka<br/> Bohuslav Šťastný

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First round

Fourteen nations qualified, but East Germany, Romania and France all chose not to travel for primarily financial reasons. The remaining eleven nations were seeded according to their placement in the 1971 World Championships with first place (USSR) and the five winners to play in Group A to for 1st–6th places. The five losers played in Group B for 7th–11th places. 1971 ranking appears in parentheses.

  • 3 February
  • Japan (12th) 2–8 Czechoslovakia (2nd)
  • Sweden (3rd) 8–1 Yugoslavia (11th)
  • 4 February
  • USA (6th) 5–3 Switzerland (7th)
  • Poland (8th) 4–0 West Germany (5th)
  • Finland (4th) 13–1 Norway (10th)

Final round

First place team wins gold, second silver and third bronze.

  • 5 February
  • Sweden 5–1 USA
  • Czechoslovakia 14–1 Poland
  • USSR 9–3 Finland
  • 7 February
  • USSR 3–3 Sweden
  • USA 5–1 Czechoslovakia
  • Finland 5–1 Poland
  • 8 February
  • Czechoslovakia 7–1 Finland
  • 9 February
  • Sweden 5–3 Poland
  • USSR 7–2 USA
  • 10 February
  • USSR 9–3 Poland
  • Czechoslovakia 2–1 Sweden
  • USA 4–1 Finland
  • 12 February
  • USA 6–1 Poland
  • 13 February
  • Finland 4–3 Sweden
  • USSR 5–2 Czechoslovakia

Consolation Round

Teams, which lost their games in the qualification round, played in this group.

  • 6 February
  • Norway 5–2 Yugoslavia
  • West Germany 5–0 Switzerland
  • 7 February
  • Japan 3–3 Switzerland
  • West Germany 6–2 Yugoslavia
  • 9 February
  • Japan 3–2 Yugoslavia
  • West Germany 5–1 Norway
  • 10 February
  • Japan 4–5 Norway
  • Switzerland 3–3 Yugoslavia
  • 12 February
  • Japan 7–6 West Germany
  • Norway 5–3 Switzerland

Statistics

Average age

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

Leading scorers

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; padding: 3px; border-spacing: 0; border: 0;"

! style="width: 14em;" | Player

! style="width: 2.5em;" | GP

! style="width: 2.5em;" | G

! style="width: 2.5em;" | A

! style="width: 2.5em;" | Pts

|-

| style="text-align: left;" | Valeri Kharlamov

|5||9||7||16

|-

| style="text-align: left;" | Václav Nedomanský

|6||8||3||11

|-

| style="text-align: left;" | Craig Sarner

|6||4||6||10

|-

| style="text-align: left;" | Kevin Ahearn

|6||6||3||9

|-

| style="text-align: left;" | Vladimir Vikulov

|5||5||3||8

|-

| style="text-align: left;" | Aleksandr Maltsev

|5||4||3||7

|-

| style="text-align: left;" | Jiří Kochta

|6||4||3||7

|-

| style="text-align: left;" | Anatoli Firsov

|5||2||5||7

|-

| style="text-align: left;" | Yuri Blinov

|5||3||3||6

|-

| style="text-align: left;" | Richard Farda

|6||1||5||6

|}

Final ranking

References

  • Jeux Olympiques 1972