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Winter Olympic Hockey, 1984-1994A round-robin tournament was used to determine medal standings until 1992. Since then, the top six countries from the previous Winter Olympics automatically qualify, and eight other teams are split into two pools for round-robin competition to determine two additional qualifiers. The eight qualifying teams then play a single-elimination tournament. The last year that the Summer and Winter Olympics were held in the same year was 1992. After the Albertville Games in 1992, the Soviet Union collapsed and the country's Olympic hockey dynasty ended. From the 1980s, professional hockey players who had played in the National Hockey League (NHL) were declared eligible to compete in the Olympic ice hockey tournament. These professionals primarily represented Sweden, Finland, and Czechoslovakia at the Olympic Games, as the Canadian and American players were competing in the NHL season. 1984 Sarajevo
The days preceding the 1984 Olympic ice hockey tournament were filled with turmoil and confusion concerning the subject of eligibility. Professionals were not allowed to compete in the Olympics, but there was disagreement as to who was a professional and who was not. The problem was that the IOC: had one definition, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) had another definition and Canada's Olympic ice hockey committee, apparently with the approval of the IIHF, had a third. IOC rules stated that any player who had signed a professional contract was ineligible. The IIHF said that only players who had actually played in a professional match were ineligible, while the Canadians claimed that their players were still amateurs if they had played in less than eleven NHL games. Adding to the confusion was the fact that the rules only applied to the NHL. Players who were active in professional minor leagues or who played in Europe were deemed eligible. In the end it was decided that players were forbidden to take part in the Olympics only if they had signed an NHL contract and played in an NHL game. For example, Bjgrn Skaare was allowed to represent Norway because, even though he had played one game for the Detroit Red Wings, he had never signed a contract, and Richard Cunningham could play for Austria despite the fact that he had played in more than 300 games for the defunct World Hockey Association. Canadians Mario Gosselin and Dan Wood, who had already signed NHL contracts, but had not yet played, were also allowed to compete. On the other hand, Canada, Italy and Austria all lost players who had played under contract in the NHL. The absurdity of the amateur/professional regulations was put into sharp focus when the results were finally posted. First place in the Olympics went to the U.S.S.R. and second place to Czechoslovakia. Both nations fielded teams made up entirely of players who were paid to play ice hockey. But because both countries were Communist, the players' paychecks were paid by the government and not by privately-owned clubs. Thus, by the IOC definition, they were all amateurs. In their final match, the U.S.S.R. beat the Czechs 2-0. The US. team, seeded seventh, finished seventh.
1988 Calgary
In the weeks leading up to the Calgary Olympics, the international press was filled with articles declaring the end of the Soviet ice hockey dynasty. Perhaps the team from the U.S.S.R. was still favored, but only by a slight margin. But once the tournament began, it was clear that nothing had changed. The Soviets cruised through the preliminary round, then crushed Canada 5-0 and Sweden 7-1. They did lose 2-1 to Finland in their final match, but by that time they had already clinched first place. In 1988 a cow town in Alberta, Canada was the site of an Olympic growth spurt. For the first time the Games were extended to 16 days, encompassing three weekends. From participating nations to global T.V. coverage, the XV Winter Olympics in Calgary were on the rise.
The 1988 team was placed in group B, the scores were: United States (10) over Austria (6), Czechoslovakia (7) over United States (5), Soviet Union (7) over United States (5), United States (6) over Norway (3) and West Germany (4) over United States (1), for a record of 2 wins, 3 losses and 0 ties. The top three teams from each group play the top three teams from the other group once. They did not advance to the medal round. As the amateur era draws to a close in most international sports, the Olympics are opened to professional hockey players. But the top professionals remain unavailable due to a conflict with the NHL schedule. The 1988 Olympic team finished seventh in Calgary but included players such as Tony Granato, Brian Leetch and Mike Richter before they were pros. It's the last team made up of college players. 1992 Albertville-Meribel
In the first semifinal, the Unified Team broke open a 2-2 tie with the United States midway through the third period by scoring three goals in 6-1/4 minutes. In the second semi, Canada scored twice in the final period to beat Czechoslovakia 4-2. The final was scoreless after two periods. Vyacheslav Butsayev struck first at the 1:01 mark of the third period. Igor Boldin made it 2-0 at 15:54. Chris Lindberg of Canada scored at 17:20, but a final goal by Vyacheslav Bykov sealed another Olympic championship for the ex-Soviets. The victors were the youngest team in the tournament as well as the least penalized. Although the team was overwhelmingly Russian, one member, Darius Kasparaitis, was actually from Lithuania even though Lithuania was competing as a separate nation in Albertville.
The U.S. Olympic Festival, sponsored by the U.S. Olympic Committee, is a major sporting event in the United States for top athletes from the entire country. In 1994, St. Louis hosted the United States Olympic Festival (USOF) which was called "outstanding" and the "best ever" by US Olympic Committee officials. The St. Louis festival broke 20 USOF records including total attendance in excess of 515,000 people and total event ticket sales at more than $2.84 million. The St. Louis Sports Commission began in 1989 as a committee of the RCGA, and was instrumental in bringing the U.S. Olympic Festival to town in 1994. The US Olympic Festival, originally called the National Sports Festival, ceased to exist after 1995.
1994 Lillehammer
A somber, solitary figure stood in virtual silence outside the locker room of the 1994 U.S. Olympic Ice Hockey Team. The strain of not just six months, but more than 20 years of tireless preparation riddled his face. This isn't how the script was to have been written for U.S. head coach Tim Taylor and his band of lightning-fast skaters. The U.S. Olympic Ice Hockey Team carried lofty medal expectations into the XVIIth Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway. No talk of miracles among this group ... they expected to play well and win. But on this day, as they quietly prepared to meet Germany in their eighth and final Olympic contest, optimism and expectation had melted into bland disappointment. No medal would be on the line today-only seventh place for the team that could summon enough resolve and energy to string together one last winning effort. As his team quietly prepared to face Germany, Taylor reflected with other members of his coaching staff on the preceding two weeks of Olympic competition. What had gone wrong? Why had a team that achieved so much during six months of pre-Olympic preparation (a 37-17-7 overall exhibition record that included a 17-6-3 mark on the domestic John Hancock USA Hockey Tour) been unable to show its true brilliance in Lillehammer? This was a team built on speed, an electric group of skaters capable of jitterbugging their way through the nastiest minefields opposing defenses had to offer. But with any advantage comes a disadvantage, and the trade-off Taylor made for his bounty of speed was youth, inexperience and an unnerving tendency for defensive lapses.
The Chorus Of Concern was played early - and often - for Team USA in the 1994 Games. The U.S. avoided disaster in its opening game by rallying for a pair of goals in the final 10:00 to force a 4-4 tie with a scrappy team from France. "In many ways, I feel fortunate to have come out of this game with a tie and one point in the standings," Taylor would say afterward. "Down by two goals in the third period, we could have faded. But our players hung together and showed resolve." It was that same resolve that enabled the U.S. to stage similar, eleventh-hour comebacks and force 3-3 ties with both Slovakia and Canada in its next two round-robin contests. In each instance, Team USA found itself trailing in the third period before responding with a collective surge of adrenaline that kept the squad undefeated, yet winless. Three games, three ties. "It's a true testament to the will power and grit of this team that we've been able to come back and tie three straight games," said Taylor following the draw with Canada. "We must be a high-wire act for people watching. It's exciting. It's hectic. It shows that we have heart and that we're a very capable team." While dodging the sniper's bullet on three straight occasions had yielded three points in the pool B standings for Team USA, there would be no margin for third period theatrics against the next opponent - a veteran, talent-rich Swedish team that carried a haughty reputation and the tools to match. But in painful repetition of a tired tune, the U.S. once again found itself trailing late in the game against Sweden, this time scrambling to recover from a 4-1 deficit as the third period began. Forwards Peter Ferraro and Brian Rolston provided the requisite reasons to believe, scoring goals at 3:25 and 5:20 of the third period to slice Sweden's lead to 4-3. But the heady Swedish team would not succumb to Team USA's lategame thrill show and hung on for a 6-4 victory. The high-wire act had ended. The only way to land on the safety net now would be to defeat Italy in the final round-robin game for each team. A loss would send Team USA crashing head-first into the consolation bracket for ninth through 12th place. A victory, however, would lift the Americans into the coveted medal round, where the sins of games gone past are easily forgotten. The U.S. established an early, business-like tenor against Italy, exploding for five goals in the first period. For at least one day, Team USA could dispense with the late-game heroics. Rolston, celebrating his 21st birthday, and Ferraro each scored two goals as the Americans cruised to a 7-1 victory and earned a spot in the medal round opposite Finland, the surprise team of the tournament and the first-place squad from pool A.
Team USA's Achilles' heel throughout round-robin play had been its penchant for the penalty box, a disturbing ailment for which Taylor could find no cure. Against the well-disciplined Finnish team, that ailment turned fatal as the U.S. yielded four power-play goals and lost, 6-1. Finland went on to claim the bronze medal with a 4-0 shutout of Russia. Dashed were the youthful dreams of Olympic glory that had fueled this team's six-month march to Lillehammer. The loss to Finland dropped Team USA into the consolation bracket for fifth through eighth place, where an inspired team from the Czech Republic dealt the U.S. its second straight setback, 5-3. And with that loss so too came the bitter final chapter for Team USA. It had all boiled down to one game against an aging team from Germany. Not the game they had privately whispered about when training camp began in Cromwell, Conn., in August of 1993. Not the game they dared to speak publicly about as the team steamrolled through its pre-Olympic schedule. There would be no medal on the line today. Only seventh place for the team that could find the energy to succeed when fuel was at a precious minimum. For a scant snapshot in the two-week Olympic photo album, Team USA appeared destined to leave Lillehammer on an up note. Goals by forwards David Sacco and Ted Drury had given the Americans a 2-1 lead midway through the second period. But fatigue - both mental and physical - and the untamed penalty plague took their tolls on Team USA, and Germany rallied for a 4-3 victory. The United States finished Olympic competition in eighth place with a 1-4-3 overall record. "This is obviously a tremendous disappointment for our players and coaching staff," said an emotionally-spent Taylor after the loss to Germany. "We came into this tournament with expectations that were high, but I still believe those expectations were realistic. I'm proud of this team and the way they never quit. "
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. Commemorative Publications. 1994.
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