Home : Olympic Ice Hockey :Winter Olympic Hockey, 1964-19761964 Innsbruck
The tournament was actually much closer than the standings make it appear. If Canada had been able to defeat the U.S.S.R. in their final match, they would have finished first instead of fourth. The Canadians did in fact take a 2-1 lead, but the well-balanced Soviet team tied the score with a goal by Vyacheslav Starshinov at the end of the second period. The U.S.S.R. gained a 3-2 victory, thanks to an early third-period goal by Veniamin Aleksandrov. During the Canada-Sweden match (won by Canada 3-1), Sweden's Carl Oberg bashed the Canadian coach, Father David Bauer, on the head with his stick. Bauer ordered his players not to retaliate. They grudgingly obeyed. The referee was suspended for two games for failing to give Oberg a 10-minute misconduct penalty. That year the Olympic tournament was also recognized as the world championship tournament, however different systems for tie-breaking were used. Thus Canada, although they finished out of the medals in the Olympic Championship, placed third in the world championships. 1968 Grenoble
The final outcome of the 1968 competition was still in doubt with only two matches left to be played. The heavily favored Soviet team had received a shocking 5-4 defeat at the hands of Czechoslavakia, their first loss since 1963. This meant that the championship hinged on the games between Czechoslovakia and Sweden and the U.S.S.R. and Canada, all of whom had records of five wins and one loss. A Czech win combined with a Soviet win would give the gold medal to Czechoslovakia. However, the overcautious Czechoslovakian players, physically and emotionally exhausted by their upset victory over the U.S.S.R. in their previous game, fell behind the determined Swedes 2-1 late in the second period. They managed to score one goal to tie in the seventh minute of the final period, but that was all. The game ended in a 2-2 draw, which closed the door on Czechoslovakia's chances for first place. This left the Canada-U.S.S.R. match to decide the winner. Anatoly Firsov scored first for the Soviets after 14:51. Yevgeny Michakov made it 2-0 after 12:44 of the second period. Three more Soviet goals in the final period settled the issue, 5-0 for the U.S.S.R. 1972 Sapporo
Again the championship was decided by the final match-this time between the U.S.S.R. and Czechoslovakia. The winner-take-all game turned out to be an anticlimax, as the Soviet team took a 4-0 lead in the second period and coasted to a 5-2 victory. The United States was awarded second place because they had beaten Czechoslovakia, 5-1. For the first time since the Winter Olympics began, Canada did not take part in the ice hockey tournament. The Canadians withdrew from international amateur competition in 1969 because they objected to facing the professional amateurs of the U.S.S.R. and other Communist countries. Sweden joined the Olympic ice hockey boycott in 1976, but both nations returned in 1980. The number of men who have won an Olympic medal in hockey while playing with "USA” emblazoned across the chest of their sweaters is small. Whoever said you don’t win silver, you lose gold didn’t have the United States in mind at the 1972 Olympic Games tournament in Sapporo, Japan. The Americans weren’t supposed to win a single game at the ’72 Games but they surprised everybody but themselves in winning silver against all the odds. What you have to remember was that 30-plus years ago, the world of international hockey was vastly different to what it is now. You could count the number of Europeans in the NHL on one hand, and there were not many more Americans for that matter. The Berlin Wall divided East and West and the Vietnam War was in its height and coincidentally was a factor in how the United States team was assembled for Japan. When it came to hockey, Canada and the Soviet Union were the teams to beat, with Czechoslovakia occupying third place on the global pecking order. When Canada withdrew, this created an opening the Americans were able to exploit much to the chagrin of the so-called experts. Quoting the preview of the ’72 Olympic tournament in Sports Illustrated. "For the first time in 10 years, the club is made up of mostly American collegians with no naturalized Canadians ... the team’s average age is 22. They could be ready, but an upset like the one that stunned Squaw Valley in 1960 (when the U.S. won gold) seems unlikely. Fifth place is more like it.” The Americans were coached by Murray Williamson and when he asked players to join his team, some had no idea where the Olympics were going to be held. The players he culled together came from big-time eastern schools in New England, from the University of Minnesota, and from smaller schools like Colgate, Oswego State and Bemidji State. The only player whose name was recognized throughout the world of hockey was a 16-year-old defenseman named Mark Howe. It didn’t take long for the team to come together. The chemistry was right and something special was happening. "I saw a spark in their eyes,” goalie Michael (Lefty) Curran says. "I saw an innocence and optimism that I had never experienced on other clubs that I had played on.” A handful of players on the ’72 roster were drafted and were to go to war. Before being shipped out to Vietnam, they were assigned to the Olympic team. "It always stood out in my mind that Murray (Williamson) knew there were about five of us in the Army, or had been in the Army, and he told us – either you make the team or you go to Saigon. There was plenty of incentive for us to do well, and there was no guarantee,” Tim Sheehy says. Once the Americans got to Japan, things began to unfold their way. Back then, there was no medal round in the Olympic competition. Teams played a round-robin tournament and the medals were determined by the final standings. The United States opened with a 5-1 loss to Sweden and followed with a 5-1 win over Czechoslovakia. They lost Game 3, 7-2 to Russia and beat Finland 4-1 to even their record to 2-2. Game 5 was the final game of the tournament and the United States dominated Poland in a 6-1 triumph. The Americans knew that depending on the outcome of the remaining games between Finland and Sweden, and Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, they could end up with a silver medal, a bronze medal or nothing at all. The Finns did their part, beating Sweden 4-3. After the game, a couple of players rushed back to the Olympic Village to round up the rest of the team and tell them the news that they had won a medal. Clinching a silver medal for the team that wasn’t supposed to win a game. It was the first Olympic medal on foreign ice since Corina d’Ampezzo, Italy in 1956 and the first medal of any kind since the team won gold in Squaw Valley, Calif., in 1960. Like a bunch of 10-year-old kids, they hugged giddily, slapped each other on the back and cried as they came together from where they were watching in different parts of the rink. All they knew was they were taking home an Olympic medal – an unexpected feat that no one could’ve imagined or dreamed of but them. The Silver Medal-winning 1972 United States Olympic hockey team (the forgotten team) members included schoolboy heroes, college All-Americans, and players that were plucked from the jungles of Vietnam. The accomplishment of the United States Olympic hockey team during the 1972 Winter Games has seemingly been one of American hockey’s most well-kept secrets. The team’s anonymity through the years most certainly was due to the extremely low expectations others had for them going into the Games. They were playing in a remote land, Sapporo, Japan. The time difference to parts of the United States was 10 hours. There was also, in large part, a lack of media coverage and exposure. Part of that was by the coach’s design, trying to protect his team from pressure. Perhaps being sandwiched between the Cold War heroics of the 1960 team and the miraculous victory in 1980 made it easier for people to forget the silver medal-winning team of 1972? The glow of those golden moments blinded others into never letting the brilliant shine of unexpected silver line their collective memories. Or maybe it was just the times. The country’s collective conscience was preoccupied with the Vietnam War and the turmoil of world events while the feats of this other band of brothers, who were also representing their country in Asia, became overshadowed and unrecognized. Like the returning Vietnam veterans, it became easier to forget them than to remember. They became forgotten in the times. 1976 Innsbruck
The tournament was thrown into confusion when Czechoslovakia's captain, Frantisek Pospisil, was chosen for a random drug test after a victory over Poland. The team trainer immediately admitted that Pospisff had been given codeine to combat a virus infection. The IOC expelled Pospisil and ordered the game against Poland declared null and void. The final decision on the case was actually delayed, so as not to spoil the drama of the winner-take-all game between Czechoslovakia and the U.S.S.R. In that match, the Czechs led 3-2 in the final period. But with five minutes to play, Aleksandr Yakushev tied the score. Twenty-four seconds later Valery Kharlamov knocked the puck into the net again to give the U.S.S.R. their fourth straight set of gold medals in ice hockey.
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