The
Golden Age Of The Canadian National Club Teams
1908
I have only mentioned the European Champion’s
rosters, because I haven’t found all of the other medal teams, unfortunately.
Also, to find any information about the goalscoring of the second and the third
teams has been very scarce.
With the
goalscorers, I have mentioned the best one, whenever possible. When not, I have
mentioned all the goalscorers I know.
Later,
with the Olympic and the World Championship medal teams (+Finland), there are
full rosters. And the best goalscorer/scorer.
With
the game series, they are compiled in the traditional European style (games
played, wins, ties, losses, goals for, goals against). Sorry, North-Americans!
If
anyone has something to add to the missing goalscores, naturally I’ll be
pleased to read about it!
The
1910’s
1910’s was the beginning
for the still going on tournaments of the International Ice Hockey Federation.
At this stage the tournaments were about the European Championships, many times
a club team being a national team, for example: the Berliner Schlittschuhklub
as the Team Germany. Also the Oxford Canadiens participated as a guest team.
The protective gear practically didn’t exist, the players playing in Les
Avants, for instance, with a jogging-like outfit. But the main thing happened:
the opening of the international hockey era.
The
most superior team beat the participants with a margin from 4-0 to 8-0. And
later even the European Champion team. Naturally the Oxford Canadians wasn’t
regarded as the European Champion.
(2.
Germany, 3. Belgium)
(2.
Germany, 3. Belgium)
In the tournament Fritz
Piper did the Austrian scoring debut against Germany. But after the tournament
Germany protested for the tied 2-2 against Bohemia. After that it was noticed,
that the Austrian IIHF membership had become valid two weeks after the
tournament. So, mostly this tournament is regarded as unofficial.
(2. Germany, 3. Austria)
And
what kind of a return! These days Belgium is more known for its football,
soccer that is, but the Flamish and the Vallons were the European Champions
this time. Sadly after this Belgium has remained as a has-been in international
hockey. Austrians debut continued this time with losses 1-13 and 4-14 against
Belgium and Germany.
(2.
Bohemia, 3. Germany)
Czechs
already thinking nationally had to fight hard to win the Germans 2-0, but
Belgium was sent home with a loss of 1-9. This meant practically the end of top
Belgium hockey.
(2.
Germany, 3. Belgium)
Goalie:
Vergult(Belgium).
Bohemia.
The medals:
Bohemia 2 (+ 1 unofficially)-1-0
Great Britain 1-0-0
Germany 0-3(+1 unofficially)-1
Belgium 1-0-3
Austria 0-0-0(+1 unofficially)
Sweden
won the only time a tournament at home with an attendance of 7,000 spectators
and because of the light the opponents wore sunglasses. This only game of the
tournament being played on natural ice made this new piece of Swedish sports
that much regular, that the first tournament for national championship took
place next spring. Since 1926 the best team has been rewarded with Raoul Le Mat
trophy. Him being the American father of Swedish hockey.
(2.
Czechoslovakia)
By
winning 3-2 the Czechs became the best Europeans on the natural ice in a
beautiful landscape. This time the number of countries participating was three.
The Czech super-star of the era, Josef Malecek, made his debut in this
tournament.
(2.Sweden,
3. Switzerland)
This
time the tournament got the greatest number of participants so far, five. The
odd thing seems to be, that France participated only now for the first time.
Maybe they were thinking about the level of the tournament.
(2.France,
3. Czechoslovakia)
The
winner of tournament was France, much because of its star, Leon Quaglia. His
strength was a backround as a speed-skater. Besides Italy, also Spain made its
debut in this tournament. This was the first time for Czechoslovakia being
absent.
(2.Sweden,
3.Belgium and Switzerland)
This
time Sweden was absent and this might have made its way for Austria getting its
first medal winning position. Very soon after this the country got its peak in
success.
(2.Austria,
3.Switzerland)
Sweden was
still absent, and Czechoslovakia gained a silver medal between new European top
countries. But this didn’t mean them falling off the top.
(2.Czechoslovakia,
3.Austria)
Hungary
made its debut on this tournament, being unsuccessful with even results: losing
twice by 0-5 and three times by 0-6.
(2.
Belgium, 3. Germany)
Poland
got surprisingly the silver medal, becoming one with no essential traditions in
this piece of sports. Finland was supposed to made its debut on this
tournament, but...
(2.Poland,
3. Austria)
Czechoslovakia 3-2-1
Sweden 2-2-0
Switzerland 1-0-3
France 1-1-0
Austria 1-1-2
Belgium 0-1-1
Poland 0-1-0
Germany 0-0-1
Antwerp
Canada
was superior in this pre-winter-olympic tournament with its brand new amateur
champion, the Winnipeg Falcons. The players of the team were descendants of the
Winnipeg Icelanders, the coach being born in Iceland. The USA had an assembled
team. Geran had tried in the NHL, but he wasn’t treated like Jim Thorpe
earlier. Maybe he was white enough. Team also included some originally
Canadians, for example Herb Drury. This time Finland was only presented in
hockey by m/s Finlandia, the ship bringing the Americans to the city.
The Europeans were missing all the proper
equipment, thus remaining only spectators on the ice. Sweden entered the
tournament with its first ice hockey team ever, pushing aside almost every
traditional European hockey team. They were managed by an American Raoul Le Mat
and played hockey, that was considered rough even by the North-American
standards of the day. The tactically more mature Czechoslovakia was the only
European team being ahead of them, because of the uneven system of the cup. The
father of the system was a Swedish called Bergvall.
2.
USA: Raymond Bonney, Cyril Weidenborner; Edward Fitzgerald, George Geran, Leon
Tuck, Frank Goheen, Herb Drury (14), Joseph McCormick, Frank Synott, Tony
Conroy. (4 3 0 1 52-2).
3.Czechoslovakia:
Karel Wälzer; Otakar Vindys, Jan Palous, Karel Hartmann, Karel Pesek, Josef
Sroubek(1), Vilem Loos. (3 1 0 2 1-31).
This
time the tournament took place on natural ice. Canada came also this time with
an amateur champion team, this time from the previous spring. The modest name
of the team was the Toronto Granites. Their goalscoring rate wasn’t that
modest. Neither it was with the Boston AAA from USA. But also they couldn’t
match their northern neighbours. The US star of the tournament was Herb Drury
with his 22 goals. He happened to be the same Canadian-born, who played in
Antwerp four years earlier.
Canada’s
game series was following: winning USA 6-1, Great Britain 19-2, Sweden 22-0,
Czechoslovakia 30-0 and Switzerland 33-0. All these being the biggest losses in
a single game of these countries ever. While Canada’s game stats of 110-3 in
five games is the biggest ever. Also the 37 goals of Harry Watson is the
greatest number ever by a single player in a single tournament. A Canadian-born
player Blane Sexton scored a hat-trick against Belgium. This Great Britain team
was the only European one to gain more scored than allowed goals in any
tournament of the 1920’s. But that’s with a little help from Canada...
2.
USA: Alphonse Lacroix, John Langley; Irving Small, Clarence Abel, Herb
Drury(14), Justin McCarthy, Willard Rice, John Lyons, Frank Synott, George
Geran. (5 4 0 1 73-6).
3.
Great Britain: William Anderson, Lorne Carr-Harris; Colin Carruthers, Eric
Carruthers(12), Ross Cuthbert, Edward Pitblado, Hamilton Jukes, Blane Sexton,
George Holmes, Guy Clarkson. (5 3 0 2 40-38).
When
Sweden started its hockey practically from nothing eight years earlier, this
tournament became their climax so far. The feast was started by Sigurd Öberg,
him scoring against Czechoslovakia (3-0). The line Holmqvist-“Lulle”
Johansson-Petersen also played brilliantly. Also a basic thing for their
success was the defence-duo Abrahamsson-H.Johansson. “Björnungen” Johansson has
been considered as the best goalie of this tournament. Sweden later succeeded
well, when some other top countries didn’t participate.
But
one still has to consider Joseph Sullivan as the most legendary goalie of the
tournament. He played a total shutout in the tournament – allowing no goals at
all in his three games. The only other goalie playing all the tournament games
reaching the same was the other Canadian called Art Puttee a bit later.
Switzerland’s superstar made his debut in this tournament – Bibi Torriani
scoring his first goal, and being not even seventeen. But their best scorer was
still Dufour (3). Now everyone had proper equipment, no-one laughing at them.
Like the Europeans had done in Antwerp.
2.
Sweden: Bengt Johansson, Kurt Sucksdorff; Carl Abrahamsson, Emil Bergman,
Gustaf Johansson(5), Henry Johansson, Ernst Karlberg, Erik Larsson, Bertil
Linde, Sigurd Öberg, Vilhelm Petersen. (5 3 1 1 12-14).
3.
Switzerland: Adolf Martignoni; Gianni Andreossi, Murezzan Andreossi, Robert
Breiter, Louis Dufour(3), Charles Fasel, Albert Geromini, Fritz Kraatz,
Heinrich Meng, Anton Morosani, Luzius Rüedi, Richard Torriani. (5 2 1 2 9-21).
The team of the decade:
The medals:
Canada 3-0-0
USA 0-2-0
Sweden 0-1-0
Czechoslovakia 0-0-1
Great Britain 0-0-1
Switzerland 0-0-1
In
this decade the IIHF started to arrange the annual World Championship
tournaments between the Olympics. The Olympic tournament was considered a World
Championship as well, except for 1932, when it was the only time in addition to
1924 Chamonix/Milan, when there was a separate European and Olympic/World
Championship. The number of the participating countries increased slowly, but
steadily.
This
last European Championship tournament for years was won by Sweden. The Austrian
took the silver and Czechoslovakia the bronze. For some reason these countries
didn’t do that well in the World Championship tournaments of the time.
(2.Austria,
3.Czechoslovakia)
Japan
entered an international tournament for the first time with the medical
students team, but they lost 0-5 for Poland. While the games continued, the
natural conditions became intolerable. So one game took place on the artificial
ice of Vienna. And the final in Berlin sport palace, a fully covered arena.
This was a brilliant coincidence, since Germany was the other team in the first
World Championship final. They also opened the goalscoring by Gustav Jaenecke.
But inevitably the Canadians, though not being from the top leven of the Allan
Cup, won the game 6-1. After the game the captain Howard Armstrong shook hands
with his colleague, Gustav Jaenecke, who had broken his collarbone.
Switzerland
continued it triumph on medals, because Geromini had made two goals against the
Austrians in the Cup-form tournament. But their brand new star, Torriani,
couldn’t help his team with his goal against the Germans. Sweden had given up
its game against theAustrians. No wonder, since this year even in the birth region
of Finnish ice hockey, Tampere in the province of Häme, grass was growing on
natural hockey ground even in January!
2.
Germany: Walter Leinweber; Rudolf Ball, Alfred Heinrich, Heinrich Herker,
Gustav Jaenecke(9), Franz Kreisel, Günther Kummetz, Erich Römer, Martin
Schröttle, Marquardt Slevogt. (5 4 0 1 14-11).
3.
Switzerland: Albert Künzler; Robert Fuchs, Albert Geromini(3), Fritz Kraatz,
Carletto Mai, Heinrich Meng, Albert Rudolf, Beat Rüedi, Conrad Torriani,
Richard Torriani. (3 2 0 1 6-4).
The
Americans started their tournament by scoring steadily goals til 15-0. Then the
officials run out of numbers on the electric board! So the Yankees were just
playing for the rest of the game against the newcomers from Rumania. After the
game the captain of the Rumanian team expressed his great thankfulness for the
things learnt to the game records. In the pool B Alecsandru Botez scored the
first Championship goals for his country. The Americans lost for the first time
a game without scoring a goal. The opponent was obvious: their northern
neighbours, winning 2-0.
But
the Canadians experienced something new too; they lost one point to Sweden with
a tie (0-0). But this achievement was of no use for the Swedes: an Austrian
scored 1-0 against Sweden in this very even competion between the European
countries. And by this goal the Austrians got their first World Championship
merit, but this wasn’t their last one. The goalie Art Puttee made a legendary
six games series by not allowing a single goal. His teammate Blake Watson later
became a Hollywood gynecologist.
2.
USA: Ted Frazier; Osborn Anderson, Edmond Dagnino, Robert Elliott, Hall,
Francis Nelson, Charles Ramsey(10), Laurence Sanford, Dwight Shefler, Gordon
Smith, Richard Thayer. (6 5 0 1 22-3).
3.
Austria: Herman Weiss; Herbert Brück(4), Fritz Demmer, Jacques Dietrichstein,
Anton Emhardt, Josef Göbel, Bruno Kahane, Karl Kirchberger, Ulrich Lederer,
Walter Sell, Hans Tatzer, Ernst Trauttenberg. (8 4 0 4 14-16).
1932
Lake Placid
The
tournament was played so, that each team played against each other twice, and
there was a great lack of excitement. But Canada lost points for the second
tournament in a row, when the USA played a tie (2-2) in the first round. Vic
Lindqvist ensured the Canadian gold with his 2-1 goal in the second round
though. In the game USA-Germany the audience resented the referees,
sympathisizing the opponent overseas.
Rudi
Ball became the best German player with his hat-trick against Poland. After the
tournament the other European countries took the “Well, it was just Poland”
–attitude. The German goalie Walter Leinweber told on his behalf: “We were the
European Champion and the silver World Championship team in 1930 and a
bronze-team in 1934. We won some European teams too, after being there.” He was
the most bravest player of the tournament: he played his games with a broken
nose, not having a substitute goalie.
2.
USA: Franklin Farrell, Ted Frazier; John
Garrison, Osborn Anderson, John Chase, Douglas Everett, Winthrop Palmer(7),
John Bent, John Cookman, Joseph Fitzgerald, Gerald Hallock, Robert Livingston,
Francis Nelson, Gordon Smith. (6 4 1 1 27-5).
3.
Germany; Walter Leinweber; Alfred Heinrich, Erich Röhmer, Rudi Ball(3), Martin
Schröttle, Gustav Jaenecke, Erich Herker, Werner Korff, Marquardt Slevogt,
Georg Strobl. (6 2 0 4 7-26).
This was the tournament,
that the impossible thing took place! The Canadians lost for the first time on
the international level! But at this point, the winner was very easy to guess:
The Massachuchetts Rangers won the Toronto Nationals. The winning goals was
scored by a defenseman Ben Langmaid during the overtime. The manager of the
team was working behind the other scenes as well: with the Boston Celtics on
basket-ball and with the Boston Bruins on ice hockey. His name was Walter
Brown. One factor in this historical Canadian loss is said to have been the
beer of Prague.
The scene of the games
was a brand new artificial ice-rink on the island of Stavnice, the first such
thing in Czechoslovakia. The opening game was the first hockey game on the
radio in the country as well. The rink has been originally intended for use
already for the European Championship tournament in 1932. But there were some
delays in the process. The Czech hosts got their first medal for 13 years on
the international level. This meant the real beginning of the League in the
country. The most valuable player of the team was Josef Malecek with his 10
goals.
Another star of this
tournament was the little big man from Germany, Rudi Ball(163 cm), scoring 5
goals. After this World Championship he faced a hard time in his home-country
because of one Austrian corporal. But lacking Rudi Ball the German team faced
some hard times too, despite getting the bronze-medal the next year. His most
important teammate Gustav Jaenecke refused to play without him.
2.
Canada; Ronny Geddes; John Hearn(3), Clare McIntyre(3); Cliff Chisholm, Frank
Collins, Lynd Huggins, Kenny Kane(3), Gordie Kerr(3), Scotty McAlpine, Marty
Nugent. (5 4 0 1 17-3).
3.
Czechoslovakia: Jan Peka, Vorel; Alois Cetkovksky, Wolfgang Dorazil, Karel
Hromadka, Oldrich Kucera, Josef Malecek(10), Jan Mattern, Jan Michalek, Zbynek
Petrs, Jaroslav Pusbauer, Tomas Svihovec, Jiri Tozicka. (8 6 0 2 17-12).
The
later best known player of the Quakers team, a later NHL-player Tom Dewar,
didn’t play in any of the games. In the tournament this Allan Cup second best
team showed special respect for the Germans by defeating them 6-0. Also Peter
Bessone of the US showed the Germans a special respect by scoring two goals in
the semi-final. He joined the team from France. The team included some players
from the Alabama university too, but the main address remained the same:
Harvard and Boston. The Germans got the Bronze by Römer and Lang scoring the 1-1
and 2-1 goals against Switzerland.
The
ice palace of Milan still exists, and the ice too, but no longer hockey is
being played there. Italy is a good metaphor for the extremity of the time:
besides the ice hockey World Championship, the modest Mussolini government also
took care of the soccer world championship and the first European Championship
in track and field in Turin. All of these events happened the same year: 1934.
2.
USA: Clem Harnedy; Peter Bessone(2), Walter Bender, Fred McDonnel, Ed Keating,
Bob Jeremiah, Dick Maley, Frank Stubbs(2), Bob Nilon(2). (4 3 0 1 6-2).
3.
Germany: Walter Leinweber; Werner George(2), Gustav Jaenecke(2), Theodor
Kaufmann, Roman Kessler, Werner Korff, Alois Kuhn, Hans Lang(2), Horst
Orbanowski(2), Erich Röhmer, J.A.Von Bethmann-Hollweg. (7 4 0 3 11-14).
This
time their national team was the Champion of Manitoba. And since this team
there were no more national teams from Winnipeg. The most significant player of
the team internationally was Victor Lindqvist. For some reason the Swedish
managed to hire him as a coach to Sweden for the years 1936-1939. They
certainly had a reason to do so, since the Swiss superb line Bibi Torriani –
Hans Cattini – Pic Cattini scored four goals, the final scores being for
Switzerland 6-1.
Great
Britain was becoming an important European hockey nation as well; Bob Wyman
scored the only goal against the French team, the final score being 1-0. In the
long run this team brought the first GBR medal for 11 years, though. That was a
bronze one. But you have to mention, that this team was just like the others;
Great Britain had a lot of tricks and treats imported from Canada. Of the
Baltic countries Latvia participated for the second time (the debut took place
in 1933), but they didn’t start their tournament pretty well: a loss to Canada
0-14. Holland of the Benelux countries made a tolerable debut by losing to
Hungary with pretty tolerable numbers: 0-6.
2.
Switzerland: Albert Künzler; Christian Badrutt, Ferdinand Cattini(10), Hans
Cattini, Otto Heller, Arnold Hirtz, Ernst Hug, Charles Kessler, Herbert
Kessler, Paul Müller, Thomas Pleisch, Oscar Schmid, Richard Torriani. (8 5 2 1
24-8)
3.
Great Britain; Scotty Milne; Carl Erhardt, Gordon Dailley(4), Bob Wyman, Gerry
Davey, Ted Jakcson, Ernie Ramus, Ernie Leacock, Pete Halford, Gordon Johnson,
Pete Stevenson. (7 4 0 3 14-14).
Then
there was Great Britain. They reached their peak in this tournament, by using
every kind of method as an old empire. There was even one real Great Britain
player in this, the rest being from Canada. For some reason the top World
Championship level countries urged Canada to protest. The games began and,
however, the “Europeans” reached the gold medal for the first time. In the long
run most of the players of this team returned to create a career in Canada. The
master-mind behind this British swindle was later the president of the IIHF;
Bunny Ahearne. His travel agency, Blue Ribbon, had a monopoly to bring the
North-American teams to the tournaments.
The
Finnish were planning their debut for this tournament. But finally Finland only
sent two observers. You can say, though, that there was some kind of Finnish
flavour on the ice: Ray Milton and Gustav Saxberg having Finnish roots in team
Canada. You can call the hometown of the former Allan Cup finalists, Port
Arthur Bearcats, the unofficial Finnish Canadian capitol too. But the Finns
from Finland were coming in the long run.
2.
Canada: Francis Moore, Arthur Nash; Herman Murray, Walter Kitchen, Raymond
Milton; David Neville, Kenneth Farmer, Hugh Farquharson(11), Maxwell Deacon,
Alexander Sinclair, William Thomson, James Haggarty, Ralph Saint-Germain. (8 7
0 1 54-7).
3.
USA: Thomas Moone, Malcolm McAlpin; Francis Shaughnessy, Philip LaBatte; Frank
Stubbs, John Garrison(5), Paul Rowe, John Lax, Gordon Smith, Eldridge Ross, Francis
Spain, August Kammer. (8 5 1 2 12-4).
1937
The
Canadian players (with Great Britain passports) were going fast forward. This
was sealed in the semifinals with goals scored by Davey and Brenchley against
Switzerland. Then came the real Canadians. The Kimberley Dynamiters was the
first Allan Cup winner ever from their west-coast the previous year. They
finally won the final, despite having hard times with the Swiss in the
semifinals, winning only 2-1. The londoners showed an example of their
civilized manners by throwing orange-peels to the ice. They might have been
schocked by the number of “krauts” in a Canadian team. The main Canadian
goaltender, Swede Hornqvist, had been injured in a car crash.
Gustav
Jaenecke was missing from the bronze medal game, but he hardly wouldn’t have
made anything by himself against the Swiss team. So, the superb line called
“Ni” scored four goals against the Germans. The final score, 6-0, probably
tells something about the level of the game. Finland was presented this time by
the presence of the London ambassador. Sweden played obviously their weakest
tournament of all-time. But the most nordic northern countries were present
somehow. The Soviet Union was only making friends with this game at this time.
2.
Great Britain: Jimmy Foster, Scotty Milne; Jimmy Anderson, Alex Archer, Edgar
Brenchley(10), James Chappell, John Coward, Gordon Dailley, John Davey, Carl
Erhardt, Goldie, Jimmy Kelly, Paul MCPhail, Norm McQuade, N.McJohnKilpatrick,
Archibald Stinchcombe, Bob Wyman. (9 8 0 1 50-3)
3.
Switzerland: Albert Künzler; Christian Badrutt, Ferdinand Cattini(8), Hans
Cattini, Albert Geromini, Arnold Hirtz, Max Keller, Charles Kessler, Herbert
Kessler, Heini Lohrer, Beat Rüedi, Richard Torriani(8). (8 4 1 3 27-12).
Canada
was represented by the Sudbury Wolves and for the first time in the tournament
history the men wearing a maple leaf jersey weren’t divine. In the
qualification round Canada hardly won Sweden 3-2. The US team made its lowest
rank, losing the semi-final series with 0 goals to 3. They remained into places
6-7 and the team had never before returned from an IIHF international tournament
without a medal. Hungary, being a promising European country of the time,
gained a tie against the Canadians by 1-1 in the semi-final series.
Hungary had proved its
level already earlier, being the European bronze-team in the 1934 WC. A man
called Ladislaus Rona was later the first foreign player in the Finnish series,
representing the Kiffen league-level club in the beginning of the 1940’s. The
reason wasn’t purely for the sports reasons; he had disagreements with his
government. Great Britain, with its Canadians, took the silver medal once
again. The next year they gave up in the middle of the semi-final series,
obviously for the impossible chances to reach the medal games. Anyway, this
year Gerry Davey scored a goal in the final against Canada, but before that Reg
Chipman had already scored two goals and Pat McReavy scored the third one.
Gordie Bruce scored three goals in this tournament and reached the NHL later.
2. Great Britain: James
Foster, Reg Merrifield; Alexander Archer, James Chappell, Gordon Dailley, Gerry
Davey(9), Pete Halford, Jimmy Kelly, Archibald Stinchcombe, Pete Woozley, Bob
Wyman. (8 6 1 1 27-8).
3. Czechoslovakia:
Bohumil Modry; Alois Cetkovsky, Jarda Cisar, Antonin Houba, Oldrich Hurych,
Drahos Jirotka, Zdenek Jirotka, Oldrich Kucera, Josef Malecek, Jan Michalek,
Frantisek Pacalt, Frantisek Pergl, Jaroslav Pusbauer, Ladislav Trojak(3). (7 4
1 2 9-6).
The
Allan Cup winner called the Trail Smoke Eaters came to win again the title for
Canada, being the first team to wear a pure club jersey. They became the most
appreciated World Champion team between the World Wars time. For example, the
model for Anatoli Tarasov was exactly this team. A very good friend with the
team was Mike Buckna, the coach of Czechoslovakia since 1936. He was a Canadian
with Slovakian roots and he happened to have been born in Trail. The only goal
against the Canadians wasin a game against Czechoslovakia. The final score was
2-1, after a defenseman Tom Johnston scored into his own net!
Sweden
didn’t participate this time. The Swedish hockey in general had its haydays
gone; the artificial rink, made into a shelter of aeroplanes, was moved away to
the Stockholm Stadium in 1938. The prime game being bandy there. So it seemed
at the time, that Sweden was fading away from the international hockey. But
then... after this tournament a real big and more serious tournament took place
and the international hockey touring was only some random games now and then.
2. USA: Ed Maki; Ralph
Dondi, Leonard Saari, Spencer Wagnild, Thomas Leaky, Ed Nickolson, Al Van, Pud
Quirk(9), Dick Maley, Art Bogue. (9 7 0 2 25-8).
3.
Switzerland: Hugo Müller, Albert Künzler: Christian Badrutt, Ferdinand
Cattini(12), Hans Cattini, Reto Delnon, Dürst, A.Geromini, Franz Geromini,
Charles Kessler, Herbert Kessler, Heini Lohrer, Beat Rüedi, Richard Torriani,
Trauffer. (10 7 1 2 51-13).
14. Finland: Lars Blom,
Teuvo Castren; Erik Hedman, Seppo Jaakkola, Henry Lindahl, Kalevi Sutinen;
Holger Granström(3), Klaus Hagström, Kalevi Ihalainen, Pentti Lappalainen, Olof
Nyholm, Erkki Rintala, Ronald Sarnasto, Edmund Sjöberg, Risto Tiitola (5 0 0 5
5-25).
Canada 8-2-0
USA 1-4-1
Great Britain 1-2-1
Switzerland 0-1-3
Germany 0-1-2
Czechoslovakia 0.0-2
Austria 0-0-1
Prague
The
aftermath of the war was still going on, when this tournament took place! For
the first time the United States was the only north-American country to
participate into an international tournament. CAHA of Canada had its difficulties
with the IIHF. The two federations had their disputes in the United States, so
the team in Prague was a compromise.
In
the tournament itself the Czehcoslovakians already thought themselves to remain
a silver-medal team in their own tournament, after Ericsson had scored against
them twice and guaranteed the win. The Swedes already considered themselves as
the World Champions too. Then a certain man named Wurm showed his swift skills
in the goal, and both Wurmbrandt and Winger scored 2-1 for a win over Sweden.
So the Swedes ended up being “only” the silver medal team. Maybe the Austrians
were feeling uneasy, losing their European Championship medal, despite becoming
a World Championship bronze-medal team; the young Swiss team did win the
European teams, but the Austrians won the USA. For obvious reasons the Czech
audience suddenly found their way to the stands in the middle of the
Sweden-Austria game. For an obvious gratitude the Czechs sent a trainful of coal and candies to Austria,
being ruled by the allies at the time. In the train-station the Austrian team
was sent home by thounsands of people. The red-and-white team never reached the
World Championship medals again.
The
most peculiar thing happened to the Belgium team. For some incidents their
goalies ended up staying in their home-country. When they had no substitute,
they recruited a fan in the town. He was convinced, that the shots on goal were
not dangerous. Jahn Milo played only one international game, that ended pretty
dangerously. The Swedes won 24-1. This was the last appearance on the level A
of Belgium.
2.
Sweden: Arne Johansson, Charles Larsson; Åke Andersson, Sigvard Boström, Rolf
Ericsson, Hans Hjelm, Erik Johansson, Rune
Johansson, Gunnar Landelius, Lars Ljungman(20), Birger Nilsson, Holger Nurmela,
Åke Olsson, Bror Pettersson, Rolf Pettersson. (7 6 0 1 55-15).
3.
Austria: Josef Wurm, Alfred Huber; Franz Csöngey, Fritz Demmer(14), Reinhold
Egger, Egon Engel, Walter Feistritzer, Adolf Hafner, Oskar Nowak, Hans
Schneider, Willibald Stanek, Friedrich Walter, Helfried Winger, Rudolf
Wurmbrandt, Hans Zehetmayer. (7 5 0 2 49-32).
1948
Again
the north-American teams were the most colourful ones, both inside and outside
the rink. First Canada didn’t intend to send a team, but one officer from the
head-quarters of the RCAF formed the team first, and asked for a permission
second. The team got its “blessing” afterwards from his superiors and opened
its exhibition tour utmost badly. For some reason the Ottawans had a “What a
hell are you doing there?” –feeling about them. But the team was lucky by being
unlucky; Dick Ball got a lung infection and they were utmost lucky by getting
the best amateur goalie of Canada, Murray Dowey. The federations dispute of the
US reached its peak; the USOC sent their own team, and the AHA their own too.
Finally one team was in the opening ceremonies, the other one played the
tournament. While the AHA team’s player were accused for being professional,
their number of amateur players was infact greater than in the one of the USOC.
The
Grand Old Man of the Swiss team was Bibi Torriani. He swore the olympic oath
and did perform in his national team already 20 years earlier. He scored his
last international tournament goals here too. The Swiss audience showed their
fair play –spirit in the game against the Canadians by throwing everything with
snow-balls. The Canadian team’s response was militarily blunt; they won 3-0 and
got their gold-medal with a better for-and-against-goals compared to the Czechs.
2. Czechoslovakia:
Bohumil Modry, Zsdenek Jarkovsky; Vladimir Bouxzek, Jaroslav Drobny, Premysl
Hajny, Stanislav Konopasek, Miroslav Pokorny, Vaclav Rozinak, Miroslav Slama,
Karel Stibor, Vilem Stovik, Ladislav Trojak, Josef Trousilek, Vladimir
Zabrodsky(21). (8 7 1 0 80-18)
3.
Switzerland: Hans Bänninger, Reto Perl; Alfred Bieler, Heinrich Boller,
Ferdinand Cattini, Hans Cattini, Hans Dürst, Walter Dürst, Emil Handschin,
Heini Lohrer, Werner Lohrer, Gebhard Poltera, Ulrich Poltera(12), Beat Rüedi,
Otto Schubiger, Richard Torriani, Hans-Martin Trepp. (8 6 0 2 67-21).
Stockholm
After
the qualification round Czechoslovakia became the first EuropeanWorld Champion
with a fair play in the final series. The best guarantee being a win over
Canada with the result 3-2. Sweden played a tie 2-2 and the Swiss team played
also a tie with the Maple Leaf team, the final result being 1-1. Austria with
its veteran players began to fade away, like the five goals scored by an
American called Bruce Mather showed to the audience. USA faded away against
Canada that much, that their northern neighbour finally reached the silver
medal.
Team
Finland’s return was miserable thinking about the results: they lost 1-12
against Sweden and 2-19 against Czechoslovakia in the qualification games. On
the other hand, Finland won for the first times: 7-3 against Norway and 17-2
against Belgium. But the Czechs lost 0-2 for the Americans. Though the made it
to the Championship. Then the local communists sent the World Champions to the
salt-mines. Except a certain Vladimir Zabrodsky...
2. Canada: Robert Mills, Al Picard; Jimmy
Russell, Tom Russell, Don Stanley, Joe DiBastiani, Don Munro(10), Ray Bauer,
Bud Hashey, Joe Tergeson, Emile Gagne, Barney Hillson, Bill Dimoch. (7 4 2 1
74-10)
3. USA: Dick Bittner, Pat Finnegan; Art Crouse, Dan Crowley, Charlie Holt, Milt Johnson, Russ Johnson, Gerry Kilmartin, Bruce Mather(19), Jack Riley, Bill Thayer, Norman Walker, Al Van, Al Yurkewicz. (8 5 0 3 59-22).
7. Finland: Unto Viitala,
Juhani Linkosuo; Matti Rintakoski, Toivo Hellen, Ossi Kauppi, Esko Tie, Paul
Väinjärvi; Aarne Honkavaara(6), Keijo Kuusela, Loft Nasib, Kalle Havulinna,
Matti Karumaa, Rauni Laine, Eero Salisma, Nils Nummelin, Tuomo Pohjavirta. (4 3 02 32-36 (When Denmark gave up
their game against Finland, Finland was considered as a winner by figures 5-0)).
The medals:
Czechoslovakia 2-1-0
Canada 1-1-0
Sweden 0-1-0
Austria 0-0-1
Switzerland 0-0-1
USA 0-0-1
This
was the decade, when politics really took its place in sports. You could say,
that even going to a toilet without a permission was a provocation from the
west or the communists. Despite making its sensation the Sovjet Union (or USSR)
was still just an apprentice on the international level. But in the long run
the Northest American country had to give up its national club team tradition
and really start to think about a real national team. Finland took its real
steps on the international level. The province of Häme was again a forerunner
of conditions by making the first national artificial ice-rink. The national
team was still firmly in the hands of Häme people as well.
Sweden
collapsed totally by winning only Norway in the final series. At the time
Norway was a promising country on the pool A-level. Great Britain made history
too, by assembling the first team ever with no Canadians. But some people might
say, that Canada was still officially a part of Great-Britain... Again the
British audience showed its British civilized manner: when Forbes was penalized
for hurting a Swede called Axberg, the stuff was thrown on the ice by
nine-thousand people.
And
Finland then: like the song goes: “... brother, can you spare a dime?...” At
this time the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation was one of the poorest ones in
sports in the country. Still, a player called Honkavaara visited Canada at this
time. A visit, that payed its dues in many ways to the Finnish hockey, more
than anything for a while...
2.
USA: Dick Desmond, Bernie Burke; Al Van, Bob Frick, Bob Graizinger, Jim Pleban,
John Gallagher, Bun Trombley(12+3), John McIntyre, Buzz Johnson, Prince
Johnson, Bruce Gardiner, Robert Rompre, Sam Pohling, Byrne. (7 5 0 2 49-29).
3.
Switzerland: Häns Bänninger, Martin Riesen; Alfred Bieler, Heinrich Boller,
Othmar Delnon, Reto Delnon, Walter Dürst, Emile Golaz, Emil Handschin, Werner
Härter, Hans Heierling, Wilhelm Pfister, Gebhard Poltera, Ulrich Poltera(17+4),
Martin Riesen, Silvio Rossi, Alfred Streun, Hans-Martin Trepp. (7 4 0 3 57-46).
Canada
brought in again a Western Canadian Champion, this time named Lethbridge Maple Leafs.
The team was a typical a bit over average North-American national club team.
But USA made its worst flop so far with its national club team. Called the
Bates Hockey Club. After losing with a lot of goals by Sweden and even being
beaten by Finland in their exhibiton game series this team hardly became sixth
in the tournament. But after this the Americans have obviously always assembled
a team for the international tournaments. This was faced a bit later by their
northern neighbours.
In
this tournament you can say, that the Championship became a bit more
sportsmanship-like, because there were pools A and B right from the start.
There were big losses on the pool B too, though: France won Belgium 10-0. For
Switzerland this was a last fair-play medal-winning tournament. After this
tournament the best goal-scorer, Uli Poltera, played splendidly with his
linemate, Hans-Martin Trepp, but generally speaking the Swiss team started to
float to pool B-level.
2. Sweden; Lars Svensson, Arne
Johansson; Åke Andersson, Hans Andersson, Stig Andersson, Stig Karlsson, Rolf
Ericsson, Erik Johansson, Gösta Johansson(8), Rune Johansson, Yngve Karlsson,
Bengt Larsson, Åke Lassas, Börje Löfgren, Lars Pettersson, Sven Thunman. (6 4
1 1 33-14)
3. Switzerland: Hans Bänninger, Jean Ayers; Emil Handschin, Hans Heierling, Otto Schläpfer, Emile Golaz, Walter Dürst, Hans-Martin Trepp, Gebhard Poltera, Ulrich Poltera(8), Freddy Bieler, Wilhelm Pfister, Reto Delnon, Gian Bazzi, Güggenbühl. (6 4 1 1 28-12)
7. Finland: Matti Naapuri,
Unto Viitala; Esko Tie, Eero Saari, Matti Rintakoski, Jukka Wuolio, Ossi
Kauppi, Pentti Isotalo; Matti Karumaa(3), Aarne Honkavaara, Keijo Kuusela,
Christian Rapp, Kalle Havulinna, Lofti Nasib, Pentti Isotalo, Teuvo Takala,
Kauko Mäkinen, Yrjö Hakala. (6
1 0 5 15-37).
After
two tournaments taking place in an arena with a roof there was a return to an
artificial rink – or you could rather call the Jordal Amfi a brilliant-looking
open-door arena! Some games were played on natural ice as well. After two
attempts Finland finally appeared to the Olympic hockey scene. Many have told
the team Canada was nominated because of the merits of the WC 1950 and most of
all because of the manager’s eager promotion work. But maybe a fairly good
success in the 1951 Allan Cup had its own role. So the Edmonton Mercurys became
the Team Canada to win the Olympic Gold, thus being the last amateur club team
to make such an achievement. By
coincidence the manager of the team owned a car-dealer-shop in Edmonton. Their
main article being the Ford Mercury.
The US team scared off
the other teams to win a silver medal. To show the exact figures: the three
most penalized players of the team got more penalties than all the other teams
together. Though one has to remember, that without the help of their neighbours
(with a tie 3-3) the Americans would have ended up fourth. Sweden became the
bronze-medal team, winning a game played for the medal after the series. Czechoslovakia,
returning to the scene in this tournament, naturally called the new game a
political provocation. And so did the Polish players, when the American players
with a Polish backround were trying to make jokes to them. There was a
super-star called Hjallis in the scene; but he was Hjalmar Andersen, a
Norwegian speed-skater. Thus giving a baby-aged Finnish boy (later to become a
Finnish national hockey manager) a nick-name.
The
Finnish team prepared for the tournament on a really short notice, because of
the shortage of natural ice in the country. Considering this, the seventh place
wasn’t a bad achievement. Especially, when thinking, that there was only one
country on the level A to play only on natural ice back home. The Swiss
superstars Uli Poltera and Hans-Martin Trepp scored 11 goals per player. But
the rest of the team had lost its touch totally. Markus Egen of Western Germany
scored 9 goals, all three being in the top ten. Team Finland having none in the
group. Maybe “the lions” were a more even team... Despite, losing to the Swiss
0-12 on this stage.
Canada: Eric Patterson, Ralph Hansch;
William Dawe, John Davies, Allan Purvis, Don Gauf, Robert Meyers; Bill
Gibson(15), Davis Miller, Robert Dickson, George Abel, Frank Sullivan, Gordon
Robertson, Louis Secco, Robert Watt, Tom Pollock. (8 7 1 0 71-14)
2. USA: Dick Desmond,
Don Whiston; Robert Rompre, Joe Czarnota, Al Van, Gerry, Kilmartin; Arnold
Oss(7), Ken Yackel, Cliff Harrison, John Mulhearn, Andre Gambucci, Ruben
Bjorkman, Len Ceglarski, Jim Sedin, John Noah. (8 6 1 1 43-21)
3. Sweden: Lars Svensson, Thord Flodqvist; Rune Johansson, Åke Andersson, Göte Almqvist, Lasse Björn, Sven Thunman; Göte Blomqvist(9), Sven Johansson, Gösta Johansson, Lars Pettersson, Hans Öberg, Stig Tvilling, Hans Tvilling, Erik Johansson, Holger Nurmela. (8 6 0 2 48-19).
7. Finland: Unto Wiitala,
Pekka Myllylä; Jukka Wuolio, Eero Saari, Ossi Kauppi, Pentti Isotalo, Christian
Rapp(5), Keijo Kuusela, Lauri Silvan, Aarne Honkavaara, Eero Salisma, Matti
Karumaa, Yrjö Hakala, Erkki Hytönen, Kauko Mäkinen, Esko Rekomaa, Matti
Rintakoski. (8 2 0 6 21-60).
The
Czechs did attend to the tournament. But then fate took its place; their
president Gottwald died. So a return home was taking place. By coincidence the
team had lost to Sweden. But the Swedes played to some extent like their
Finnish neighbours; a German called Poitsch scored four goals against Sweden.
Though that was the Swedish way, that they finally won 8-6. The last starry
moment for the last so-far medal-winning Swiss team - in the double-series of
the pool A teams - was the crucial goal scored by Hans-Martin Trepp. So even
the superstars of Switzerland were on their way to history.
Finland
was going forward as usual: their World Championship debut was delayed for
three years. The Olympic one for 12 years. And now for something obvious: a
debut as a medal-winning team probably was delayed for thirtyfive years. One
could claim, that some future-Finnish managers should have been born some years
earlier...
2.
Western-Germany: Alfred Hoffmann, Ulrich Jansen; Martin Beck, Anton Biersack,
Karl Bierschel, Bruno Gutowski, Kurt Sepp, Xavier Unsinn, Georg Guggemos, Otto
Brandenburg, Markus Egen, Walter Kremerschof, Fritz Poitsch(5+2), Dieter Niess,
Karl Enzler, Hans Rampf. (4 1 0 3 17-26)
3.
Switzerland: Hans Bänninger, Martin Riesen; Miggi Handschin, Rudolf Keller,
Silvio Rossi, Armin Schütz, Otto Schläpfer, Walter Dürst, Hans-Martin Trepp,
Gebi Poltera, Uli Poltera, Gian Bazzi, Michael Wehrli, Francis Blank, Otto Schubiger(1+3),
Mudry. (4 1 0 3 9-27).
The
USA was obviously still angry about the coincidende of the previous year, being
absent this time. The Swedes showed at home with their bronze-medal, that the
title of the previous year wasn’t a coincidence. Finland started to show the
first signs of its potential, by losing only 3-5 against Sweden. But one cannot
notice, that the sensational new World Champions lost their only point to a
Swedish style; Sweden played a tie 1-1 in a blizzard. One sovjet led a way to a
future Finnish super-star; Shuvalov was causing a lot of minor penalties to his
opponents by grinning a lot, especially for the Canadians.
So, Finland was making steps forward
against Sweden. But otherwise the Finns were just like earlier, being sixth
even behind Western Germany. Though, the superstar of the time was absent from
the ice. Afterwards he became utmost important off the ice, though. In an
exhibition game against Poland 1953 Aarne Honkavaara had fatally injured his
ankle...
2.
Canada: Don Lockhart, Gavin Lindsay; Tom Campbell, Doug Chapman, Hal Fiskari,
Tom Jamieson, Russ Robertson; Earl Clements, Maurice Galand(16+4), Norman Grey,
Bob Kennedy, John Petro, George Sayliss, John Scott, Bill Shill, Vic Sluce,
Eric Unger. (7 6 0 1 59-12).
3. Sweden: Thord Flodqvist, Hans Isaksson; Göte Almqvist, Lasse Björn, Åke Lassas, Sven Thunman; Åke Andersson, Göte Blomqvist, Stig Karlsson, Erik Johansson, Gösta Johansson, Sven Johansson(7+2), Holger Nurmela, Hans Öberg, Rolf Pettersson, Hans Tvilling, Stig Tvilling. (7 5 1 1 30-18).
6. Finland: Esko Niemi,
Unto Viitala; Ossi Kauppi, Panu Ignatius, Olli Knuutinen, Matti Lampainen,
Matti Rintakoski; Esko Rekomaa(4), Teuvo Takala, Christian Rapp, Rainer
Lindström, Lauri Silvan, Yrjö Hakala, Aarno Hiekkaranta, Erkki Hytönen, Teppo
Rastio, Reino Rautanen. ( 7 1 1 5
12-52).
And
this team showed the lines of Canadian international hockey for quite some
time: a portion of goon-like physical hockey and real skillfull hockey
side-by-side. In a game, that felt like the Third World War, Canada finally won
5-0. Some have even commented, that they could have won 10-0. In the Canadian
parliament a break was held, when the final result was clear. For very clear
reasons the 12,000 inhabitants of Penticton, B.C., started a carnival. The
Sovjets took their loss relatively calmly; Yevgeni Babitsch threw his skates
out of a hotel window.
The
Finnish played their worst-ever tournament in pool A, being finally the ninth
team. Maybe the first-ever win over a has-been country called Switzerland
didn’t bring much constellation. And again Finland got its will-be top manager
by injury; The playing career of Seppo Liitsola ended up, when his thigh-bone
was broken.
2.
USSR: Nikolai Putshkov, Grigori Mktyrjan; Dimitri Ukolov, Iva Tregubov, Alfred
Kutshevski, Nikolai Sologubov, Pavel Zibutovitsh; Aleksei Guryshev(7), Viktor
Shuvalov, Valentin Kuzin, Juri Krilov, Aleksander Uvarov, Nikolai Hlystov,
Jevgeni Babitsh, Mihail Bytshkov, Vselodov Bobrov, Aleksander Komarov. (8 7 0 1
39-14)
3. Czechoslovakia: Jiri Ganzl, Jan Endek; Karel Gut, Stanislav Basilek, Jan Lidral, Jan Kasper, Vaclav Bubnik; Vlastimil Bubnik(17), Vladimir Zabrodsky, Slavomir Barton, Vaclav Pentucek, Oldrich Sedlak, Vlastimil Hajsman, Bronislav Danda, Miroslav Reiman, Jiri Sekyra, Mihail Vidlak. (8 5 1 2 63-22).
9. Finland: Esko Niemi,
Unto Wiitala; Panu Ignatius, Teppo
Rastio, Matti Lampainen, Matti Rintakoski, Esko Tie; Yrjö Hakala(5), Esko
Rekomaa, Aarno Hiekkaranta, Erkki Hytönen, Rainer Lindström, Teuvo Takala,
Seppo Liitsola, Lenni Lainesalo, Christian Rapp, Matti Sundelin. (8 1 0 7 16-72).
The
lucky beginners of this Olympic tournament were again the Sovjets, winning
Canada 2-0. The Allan Cup triumph of the Kitchener-Waterloo Flying Dutchmen
wasn’t being followed even by a silver-medal. The defenceman of their southern
neighbour called John Mayasich scored a hat-trick, thus the US winning 4-1. So,
the home-country of modern ice hockey faced the bronze-podium for the very
first time. One thing with them, though, was the inexperience of playing in an
out-door arena, since even the top amateur teams had been playing in full-roof
arenas since the 1930’s. In the qualification round the team was shining more
than the sun, though. Winning a good-ole’ top European hockey country, Austria,
relatively easy: 23-0. But the next generation of this bronze-team was to make
it better; the son of the goalie Denis Brodeur – called Martin – took back the
Canadian Olympic glory a bit later...
The
Swedish had built their great out-door arena, Johanneshov, but here they failed
all the expectations. The Sovjets had built their own “arena” too; the local
enthusiasts had built a small piece of artificial ice to a local children’s park
in Moscow. The size of it was 12 x 12 meters, being covered with a military
tent in summer, thus the ice didn’t melt. After this tournament the times they
were a-changing... Finland had still its yes-or-no season going on with the
Olympic participation. But there was a kind of Finnish playing a role in the
tournament, the US-Finnish-root-goalie Willard Ikola being rewarded as the best
goalie of the tournament...
2.
USA: Willard Ikola, Don Rigazio; Rick Rodenheiser, Daniel McKinnon, Edward
Sampson, John Matchefs, Richard Meredith, Richard Dougherty, Kenneth Purpur,
John Mayasich(7+3), Bill Cleary, Wellington Burnett, Wendell Anderson, Eugene
Campbell, Gordon Christian, Welden Olson, John Petroske. (7 5 0 2 33 -16)
3.
Canada: Denis Brodeur, Keith Woodall; Floyd Martin, Howard Lee, Arthur Hurst,
John McKenzie, James Logan(7+5), Paul Knox(7+5), Donald Rope, Byrle Klinck,
William Colvin, Gerald Theberge, Alfred Horne, Charles Brooker, George Scholes,
Robert White, Kenneth Laufman. (8 6 0 2 56-12).
The
tournament lacked the north-American flavour. Obviously Canada and the US were
not the only countries boycotting the tournament for the incidents in Hungary.
But they may have had doubts about the neutrality of the arranging local
officials too. This was the chance for Japan for the first performance in pool
A. They said “Very good” eighteen times to the Swedish players. The game being
won by Sweden with 18-0
Finland
attended the tournament, after the local premier league had ended two days
earlier. Still their performance was the best so far. The team won all the
others, except the medal winning teams. They played well against the
Czechoslovakians, losing only 0-3. This can be considered the real beginning of
Finnish World Championship hockey, since from now on the team participated to
every tournament. At times with special tricks, though. This also meant, that
Finland was less or more the sixth best hockey country in the world.
2.
USSR: Nikolai Putshkov, Jevgeni Jerkin; Nikolai Sologubov, Ivan Tregubov,
Gendrich Sidorenkov, Pavel Zibutovitsh, Vitali Kostarev; Konstantin
Loktev(11+7), Aleksei Guryshev, Venjamin Aleksandrov, Aleksander Tsherepanov,
Nikolai Hlystov, Jevgeni Babitsh, Vselodov Bobrov, Aleksander Uvarov, Vladimir
Grebennikov. (7 6 1 0 77-9)
3. Czechoslovakia: Karel Straka, Jiri Kulicek; Karel Gut, Frantisek Tikal, Stanislav Sventek, Stanislav Bacilek, Jan Kasper; Miroslav Vlach(9+2), Slavomir Barton, Vilem Vaclav, Miroslav Binc, Vaclav Pantucek, Jiri Pokorny, Miroslav Cacek, Frantisek Vanek, Ladislav Grabovski, Bohumil Prowek. (7 5 1 1 66-9).
4. Finland: Esko Niemi,
UntoWiitala; Mauno Nurmi, Matti Lampainen, Olli Knuutinen, Erkki Koiso, Aki
Salonen; Yrjö Hakala(5+5), Teppo Rastio, Jorma Salmi, Voitto Soini, Matti
Sundelin, Erkki Hytönen, Risto Aaltonen, Esko Luostarinen, Raimo Kilpiö, Pertti
Nieminen. (7 4 0 3 28-33).
The
Whitby team based its play on harsh checking against the Sovjets, thus winning
them by 4-2. As well as the bronze-medal-goers from Sweden by 10-2. Sorry to
say, this was peanuts to the freezing frenzy against the Finnish team: being
beaten by 0-24. Without the Finnish team the Canadians very likely wouldn’t
have been the top-four scorers. By coincidence the Finnish stars had a rest in
this game. Though in return the other north-American team really had to fight against
the Finns, the US winning only 4-2. The Finns won the shots-on-goal-stats by
40-13. So, despite the fierce Maple Leaf performance, the first Finnish
artificial ice-rink, opened two years earlier in Tampere, province of Häme,
started to reward itself. One can see the steps forward against the other big
hockey countries: though the Sovjets won 10-0, the Swedes won only 5-2 and the
Czechs 5-1. So the figures had become tolerable in a short time, something else
than the big defeats called “Canada-Häme figures” in Finland. The latter one
from the superiority of the cities of Tampere and Hämeenlinna of the time.
The
Finnish hockey veterans have reminiscent of this Canada team players as robust
and big guys, who never smiled. But time makes its tricks. You can say, that
Connie Broden & Co. smiled at least on one occasion: after scoring a goal.
2.
USSR: Nikolai Putshkov, Jevgeni Jerkin; Iva Tregubov, Dimitri Ukolov, Gendrich
Sidorenkov, Nikolai Sologubov, Alfred Kuzevski; Venjamin Aleksandrov(4+10), Konstantin
Loktev, Vladimir Elizarov, Juri Kopilov, Aleksander Tsherepanov, Juri Krilov,
Juri Krylov, Juri Pantjuhov, Nikolai Hlestov, Aleksei Guryshev, Valentin
Bistrov. (7 6 0 1 24-15)
3. Sweden: Thord Flodqvist, Rune Gudmundsson; Roland Stolz, Lasse Björn, Hans Svedberg, Vilgot Larsson, Gert Blomé; Sven Johansson(7+7), Carl-Göran Öberg, Nisse Nilsson, Ronald Pettersson, Sigurd Bröms, Göte Westerlund, Lars-Erik Lundvall, Erling Lindström, Hans Öberg, Karl-Sören Hedlund. (7 5 0 2 46-22).
6. Finland: Esko Niemi,
Juhani Lahtinen; Matti Lampainen, Erkki Koiso, Mauno Nurmi, Pasi Vuorinen; Raimo Kilpiö(2+1), Heino Pulli, Teppo Rastio,
Yrjö Hakala, Pertti Nieminen, Eino Pollari, Jorma Salmi, Voitto Soini, Esko
Luostarinen, Kari Aro, Erkki Hytönen. (7 1 1 5 9-51).
Prague
Now
something really significant in Finnish hockey took place! For the very first
time a major hockey country lost a point to the team. And in a really
magnificent way; when the scores were against Finland 1-4, they finally gained
a tie by 4-4. This happened in a qualification game. For some reason one can
easily imagine, that the opponent was the neighbouring country called Sweden.
After the game the notorius future showed its signs as well; Finland lost the
last game against Italy 1-2. Luckily Finland had already ensured its way to the
final series, where the most significant achievement was a narrow loss of 1-2
against Sweden. But some Finnish people might have felt happy, because Sweden
ended up fourth.
Canada
was represented by their amateur champion again, this time the club team was
called Belleville McFarlands. Like the national teams of the time, this team
had a lot of both will-be and has-been players of the NHL. The most famous
player of this team was later playing for, for example, the Montreal Canadiens
and St. Louis Blues. He was called Red Berenson and he had his 19th
birthday just before the World Championship. This team was probably one of the
prime examples of the dual attitiude to the Canadian teams of the time; on one
hand the IIHF people have named them as The Flying McFarlands, on the other
hand they have been named as skillers and killers in the same sentence. The
worst break worth mentioning being the penalty of 18 minutes by Al Dewsbury in
a qualification game against Czechoslovakia. The Canadian players have a
remiscent of wearing their hockey gear in a hotel, right before a buss-ride to
the arena. This was in the qualification stage...
The
celebrating Maple Leaf players lost their final game against Czechoslovakia, their
home arena was now full-covered. It was named as the Prague Winter Palace,
having a capacity of 15,000 spectators. Their win meant same points with the
American team and winning a bronze-medal by better goals-for-and-against. One
could easily imagine a bit the same kind of neigbouring rivalry between the
Canadians and the Americans to the one with the Swedish and the Finnish...
2.
USSR: Nikolai Putshkov, Jevgeni Jerkin; Nikolai Sologubov, Ivan Tregubov, Nikolai
Snetkov, Dimitri Ukolov, Gendrich Sidorenkov; Konstantin Loktev, Venjamin
Aleksandrov, Juri Pantjuhov, Juri Krylov, Aleksei Guryshev, Viktor Prjasnikov,
Igor Dekonski, Jevgeni Groshev(6+4), Viktor Jakusev, Juri Baulin. (8 7 0 1
44-15).
3. Czechoslovakia: Vladimir Nardchal, Jiri Kulicek; Karel Gut, Frantisek Tikal, Rudolf Potsch, Jan Kasper, Stanislav Bacilek; Jan Starsi, Karol Fako, Miroslav Vlach, Jaroslav Volf, Josef Golonka(7+4), Jaroslav Jirik, Bohumil Prosek, Frantisek Vanek, Josef Cerny. (8 5 0 3 46-22).
6. Finland: Esko Niemi,
Juhani Lahtinen; Matti Haapaniemi, Erkki Koiso, Matti Lampainen, Kalevi
Numminen, Aaro Nurminen; Raimo Kilpiö(5+3), Teppo Rastio, Jorma Salmi, Yrjö
Hakala, Juhani Wahlsten, Jouni Seistamo, Heino Pulli, Pertti Nieminen, Esko
Luostarinen, Unto Nevalainen. (8
1 1 6 20-44).
The medals:
Canada 6-1-1
USSR 2-4-0
Sweden 2-1-3
USA 0-3-0
(West-)Germany 0-1-0
Switzerland 0-0-3
Czechoslovakia 0-0-3
This
was the decade, that a full-roof arena became a standard on IIHF pool A-level
tournament. When Finland reached the Canadian level in the tournaments, the
last Maple Leaf amateur national team made history. Sadly by scoring less goals
than allowing ones, while becoming the fourth team of the tournament. The
national club teams before them had been allowed a lot of allowances... When
the Sovjets finally became the new wave on the World and the Olympic
tournaments, Tampere was still a forerunner of the Finnish facilities with its
first-ever national full-covered hockey arena. A metropol in a Finnish scale, Helsinki,
behaved in a Wall Street manner, buying the stars of the other Finnish hockey
cities. Thus filling the lack of quality of contemporary Helsinki players,
playing in their Sagrada Familia –phase built hockey arena. To some extent the
thing still goes on in Helsinki...
The Olympic/WC
The
arena in this tournament was named the Blythe Arena. This arena started the
series of Olympic and World Championship held in full-covered arenas by
coincidence. Because the weather suddenly turned warmer, this open-air arena
was hastedly covered as a whole, with a transparent curtain at the open end. On
these conditions Finland got its gretest-ever win in the international
tournaments, winning Australia 19-2 and for the first time the Finns had more
goals scored than allowed. Though one has to mention the great-victory to have
taken place on a training-spot like outdoor-rink... When the Finnish Olympic
Committee didn’t want to send a hockey team in the first place, their mind
changed, when the audience had collected the necessary money. So, the team
entered so late, that it became impossible to qualify to the pool A. But since
this tournament there hasn’t been a pool B tournament for Finland!
When
the US was hosting the Games the previous time, they had achieved a silver-medal
with an unknown college-team. I a tournament with four teams. This time the
level of the tournament was more demanding, but the US got a gold-medal with an
unknown college-team. Canada was represented by Kitchener-Waterloo Flying
Dutchmen again, because the coach Bobby Bauer wanted to make up his “flaw” of
1956.
(7 7 0 0 48-17)
2.
Canada: Don Head, Harold Hurley: Harry Sinden, Joh Douglas, Darryl Sly, Maurice
Benoit, George Samolenko, Bob Attersley,
Fred Etcher(9+12), Cliff Pennington, Bob Forhan, Robert McKnight, Floyd
Martin, Kenneth Laufman, Don Rope, James Connelly, Bob Rousseau. (7 6 0 1
55-15)
3. USSR: Nikolai Putshkov, Jevgeni Jerkin; Nikolai Sologubov, Juri Baulin, Nikolai Karpov, Gendrich Sidorenkov, Alfred Kutschevski, Venjamin Aleksandrov(7+5), Aleksander Almetov, Konstantin Loktev, Mihail Bytshkov, Vladimir Grebennikov, Juri Tsitsinov, Jevgeni Groshev, Viktor Jakushev, Viktor Prjasnikov. (7 4 1 2 40-23)
7. Finland: Juhani
Lahtinen, Esko Niemi; Kalevi Numminen, Yrjö Hakala, Matti Lampainen, Erkki
Koiso; Raimo Kilpiö(9+3), Jouni Seistamo, Heino Pulli, Pertti Nieminen, Esko
Luostarinen, Teppo Rastio, Juhani Wahlsten, Voitto Soini, Jorma Salmi, Kalevi
Rassa, Seppo Vainio. (6 3 1 2
51-23).
Canada
was represented by the defeated Allan Cup final team, the Trail Smoke Eaters.
Them being the last Canadian club team to get the IIHF World Championship
title. Only Czechoslovakia could give them any resistence, leading the game til
the fifteenth minute of the third period. Then Hugh McIntyre skated through the
whole ice to score 1-1. The Sovjets were clearly defeated by the Canadians,
5-1. Seth Martin was rewarded as the best goali of the tournament,
once-an-NHL-goalie Claud Cyr was rewarded as a stand-by-goaltender. The Czechs
made sure again, that the Sovjets were “only” a bronze-medal team. The USSR
showed its fair play by hurting Jan Starsi so, that he was unable to play.
After he had scored the first two goals of the game. The Sovjets did even lead
2-4, but finally “dropped” by losing 4-6. These were the last games on an
outdoor-rink. The innovative Swiss organisers did freeze a local swimming pool.
Thus the teams looking more like tourists than tourists themselves; the ice
being too bright they had to play with their sunglasses on. The arena in Geneva
the rink had perspex boards.
The
politics took its toe too in this tournament. Since the western German players
refused to play against the Easter Germany because of their flag, the game was
judged to Eastern Germany by 5-0. According the legislation of the Federal
Republic of Germany the harp and the hammer on the eastern-German flag was
desecrating the flag. One can only wonder, what would be the result with the
modern fan-flags?
2.
Czechoslovakia: Josef Mikolas, Vladimir Nardchal; Jan Kasper, Stanislav
Sventek, Frantisek Gregor, Rudolf Potsch, Jaromir Bünter; Vlastimil
Bubnik(5+4), Miroslav Vlach, Jiri Dolana, Jan Starsi, Vaclav Pantucek, Josef
Cerny, Bohumil Prosek, Ludek Bukac, Frantisek Vanek, Zdenek Kepak. (7 6 1 0
33-9).
3. USSR: Vladimir Tshninov, Viktor Konovalenko; Gendrich Sidorenkov, Ivan Tregubov, Aleksander Ragulin, Nikolai Sologubov; Boris Majorov(7+10), Vjatseslav Starsinov, Konstantin Loktev, Venjamin Aleksandrov, Nikolai Snetkov, Aleksander Almetov, Jevgeni Majorov, Viktor Jakushev, Viktor Tshiplakov, Vladimir Jursinov. (7 5 0 2 51-20).
7. Finland: Juhani
Lahtinen, Isto Virtanen; Kalevi Numminen, Jorma Suokko, Matti Haapaniemi, Erkki
Koiso, Mauno Nurmi; Raimo Kilpiö(5+1), Teppo Rastio, Anssi Salonen, Pertti
Nieminen, Esko Luostarinen, Jouni Seistamo, Timo Ahlqvist, Pentti Hyytiäinen,
Seppo Vainio, Jorma Rikala. (7
1 1 5 19-43).
Sweden
won tournament in their own style. The Allan Cup winner Galt Terriers
–naturally the Team Canada – showed their fair play by naming the new World
Champions as “The Cry-Babies”. For the United States this domestic tournament
was a last World Championship –medal tournament for some time. The tournament
played in The Boradmoor World arena meant permanently an era of full-roof
arenas in the international tournaments. Colorado Springs was a great winter
sports resort. Thayer Tutt happened to own the hotel accomodating the teams. He
also happened to be one of the leading figures in the IIHF at the time.
Despite
being defeated by the Great Britain, Finland was clearly the fourth best team
in the tournament. Earning the first-ever international medal for the country,
a European Championship silver medal. And the Norwegians got the European
Championship bronze. After this tournament Finland really started to look for
the REAL medal...
2.
Kanada: Harold Hurley, John Zofiak; Harry Smith, Ted Maki, Jack Douglas, Bill
Mitchell, Bob Robertson; Jackie McLeod(5+7), Joe Malloy, Floyd Martin, Bill
Wylie, Robert McKnight, Tod Sloan, Bobby Brown, Joe Hogan, Bob Mader, Don Rope.
(7 6 0 1 58-12).
3. USA: Mike Larson, Jim Logue; John Mayasich, Brian McKay, Tom Martin, Gordie Tuttle; Paul Coppo(9+7), Dick Roberge, Reggie Meserve, Jackie Poole, Oskar Mahle, Don Hall, Roger Christian, Bill Christian, Herb Brooks, Ken Johansson, Bill Daley. (5 0 2 54-23).
4. Suomi: Juhani Lahtinen,
Risto Kaitala; Kalevi Numminen, Jarmo Wasama, Jorma Suokko, Matti Lampainen;
Heino Pulli(8+3), Seppo Nikkilä, Mauno Nurmi, Teppo Rastio, Jouni Seistamo,
Matti Keinonen, Rauno Lehtiö, Juhani Wahlsten, Pertti Nieminen, Pentti
Hyytiäinen, Kari Aro. (7 3 0 4
32-42).
This
tournament was also beginning of the Swedish IIHF tournaments under a full-roof
arena! The phase of building being like Rome – not built in one day. First the
Johanneshov arena was built as an open-door rink, the real indoor-arena in
Sweden being built in Linköping in 1958, before Stockholm. Johanneshov being
covered by November 1962. The same arena being qualified to an IIHF tournament
even in 1981. The “Tre Kronor” won the Sovjets 2-1, but... this time there was
no Swedish style; the Sovjets winning Canada 4-2 and thereby getting enough
goals for-and-against. This meant a string of “only” nine years of Sovjet
domination of the international hockey.
Team
Finland showed by its performances, that maybe the sixth place in World Hockey
the previous year was a coincidence. Though “The Lions” won the USA for the
first time on the IIHF tournament, the modest numbers being 11-3. Then came the
Germans; Finland was leading 3-2, ending up finally to 4-4. Against the Eastern
Germany the Finns played a total shut-out. But to the wrong end, the
East-Germans winning 1-0. Then came the mathematics with goals-for-and-against,
bringing Finland the fifth place. So the Finns reached their position with
Swedish style...
2.
Sweden: Kjell Svensson, Lennart Häggroth; Roland Stolz, Nils Johansson,
Bert-Ola Nordlander, Gert Blomé, Bertil Karlsson; Sven Johansson(6+6), Ulf
Sterner, Karl-Göran Öberg, Uno Öhrlund, Hans Mildh, Ronald Pettersson, Eilert
Määttä, Nisse Nilsson, Lars-Erik Lundvall, Per-Olof Herdin. (7 6 0 1 44-10).
3. Czechoslovakia: Vlado Dzurilla, Josef Mikolas; Frantisek Tikal, Rudolf Potsch, Stanislav Sventek, Jan Kasper, Frantisek Gregor; Jiri Dolana(8+2), Jaroslav Jirik, Miroslav Vlach, Frantisek Vanek, Josef Cerny, Jaroslav Valter, Jan Starsi, Vlastimil Bubnik, Ludek Bukac, Stanislav Pryl. (7 5 1 1 41-16).
5. Finland: Juhani
Lahtinen, Urpo Ylönen; Kalevi Numminen, Jarmo Wasama, Matti Lampainen, Rauno
Lehtiö, Jorma Suokko, Ilkka Mesikämmen; Matti Keinonen(6+3), Raimo Kilpiö,
Heino Pulli, Matti Reunamäki, Pentti Hyytiäinen, Jouni Seistamo, Esko
Luostarinen, Pentti Rautalin. (7
1 1 5 20-35).
Historically
Canada gave up their national club team tradition. Though the assembled team
was signed in to Winnipeg University. One of the players, Rod Seiling, had
already got a little experience from the NHL. This time he wasn’t treated like
Jim Thorpe, though. The Maple Leaf team became fourth, quite good, but not good
enough for the fatherland of modern ice-hockey. The IIHF made its own decisions
for the first time, anyway... by counting only the games of the four best and
thus getting a shared bronze-medal for Canada and Czechoslovakia in the IIHF
World Championship standings.
The
Sovjet Union continued its triumph being the number one team with 14 points.
Sweden, Czechoslovakia and Canada reaching 10 points. Canada could have been
the Olympic gold-medal winner, if they had scored some more goals against the
Sovjets... Meanwhile Finland ended up to 4 points with the US and the
Western-Germany. Also this time the Finns were a bit lucky with
goals-for-against...
2.
Sweden: Kjell Svensson, Lennart Häggroth; Gert Blomé, Roland Stolz, Bert-Ola
Nordlander, Nils Johansson; Sven Johansson(8+3), Ulf Sterner, Anders Andersson,
Ronald Pettersson, Eilert Määttä, Lars-Erik Lundvall, Uno Öhrlund, Nils
Nilsson, Karl-Göran Öberg, Lennart Johansson, Hans Mildh. (8 6 0 2 59-18).
3.
Czechoslovakia: Vladimir Nardchal, Vlado Dzurilla; Rudolf Potsch, Frantisek
Gregor, Frantisek Tikal, Ladislav Smid, Stanislav Sventek; Jiri Dolana(7+3),
Josef Cerny, Jaroslav Valter, Josef Golonka, Miroslav Vlach, Jiri Holik,
Jaroslav Holik, Vlastimil Bubnik, Jan Klapac, Stanislav Pryl. (8 6 0 2 55-21)
(3. WC: Canada: Seth Martin, Ken Broderick; Henry Akervall, Barry McKenzie, Terry O’Malley, Rod Seiling, Gary Begg, Gary Dineen(3+6), George Swarbrick, Roger Bourbonnais, Terry Clancy, Brian Conacher, Raymond Cadieaux, Paul Conlin, Bob Forhan, Marshall Johnston. (8 6 0 2 46-18)).
6. Finland: Juhani
Lahtinen, Urpo Ylönen; Rauno Lehtiö, Ilkka Mesikämmen, Jorma Suokko, Jarmo
Wasama, Kalevi Numminen; Heino Pulli(5+1), Seppo Nikkilä, Matti Reunamäki,
Raimo Kilpiö, Juhani Wahlsten, Jorma Peltonen, Esko Kaonpää, Esko Luostarinen,
Jouni Seistamo. (8 3 0 5
18-33).
1965
The
tie against Sweden 2-2 is better remembered by Finnish people than the first
one six years earlier. Even... after the game ended one person got a
heart-attack and died. Against the other great hockey nations team Finland lost
their games playing brilliantly. Facing after
that a poor game against the teams of the same level or of lower one.
While reading the statistics, it’s obvious, that most of all the forwards were
too excited about playin in a domestic arena. In this tournament you could also
see the earliest blooming of the GDR-sports culture: after leaving the second
period totally exhausted they played like tigers the third period winning
finally Finland 3-2. This tournament also sealed the Sovjet era in IIHF hockey.
The
most memorable appearance of the north-Americans was made by the American
goalie, Tom Haugh. Though his temperament didn’t help his team any further than
to the sixth place in the final standings. Canada, despite having a lot of top
players too in their team, ended up fourth with a routine-like performance. If
an off-side goal scored by Reijo “Mintsu” Hakanen in Finland-Sweden game would
have been allowed, 3-2 would have meant equal points with the Swedish and the
Canadians. But that didn’t matter then in Finland...
2.
Czechoslovakia: Vlado Dzurilla, Vladimir Nardchal; Frantisek Tikal, Josef Capla,
Rudolf Potsch, Jan Suchy, Jaroslav Meixner; Josef Golonka(6+8), Jaroslav Jirik,
Josef Cerny, Frantisek Sevcik, Vaclav Nedomansky, Stanislav Pryl, Jan Klapac,
Jiri Holik, Jaroslav Holik, Zdenek Kepak. (7 6 0 1 43-10)
3. Sweden: Kjell Svensson, Leif Holmqvist; Lennart Svedberg, Gert Blomé, Roland Stolz, Nils Johansson, Bert-Ola Nordlander; Tord Lundström(6+3), Ronald Pettersson, Nils Nilsson, Eilert Määttä, Sven Tumba, Uno Öhrlund, Anders Andersson, Carl-Göran Öberg, Lars-Åke Sivertsson, Håkan Wickberg. (7 4 1 2 33-17).
7.
Finland; Juhani Lahtinen, Urpo Ylönen; Jarmo Wasama(3+1), Kalevi Numminen,
Lalli Partinen, Lalli Partinen, Ilkka Mesikämmen, Pentti Lindegren; Juhani
Wahlsten, Matti Keinonen, Seppo Nikkilä, Matti Reunamäki, Raimo Kilpiö, Reijo
Hakanen, Lasse Oksanen, Pentti Rautalin, Heino Pulli, Jaakko Honkanen. (7 1 1 5 14-27).
Team
Finland’s Canadian head coach/manager Joe Wirkkunen had it after this
tournament. After working for years with the national team he thought he hadn’t
made any progress. Though he had only started a modern junior coaching in the
country and had brought a long-run thinking into Finnish hockey. He especially
hated the German teams of the time, that always for some reason were
exceptionally good against Finland. He also face the following criticism from
the contemporary press: “we always lose against the big teams with a brilliant
play, and lose against the minor teams with a poor play”. One might think, why
Finland is on top these days. The Finnish contemoporary stars consider
Wirkkunen to have done 85 percent of the top-reaching work, though the other
coach is better remembered.
Later
Hala Tivoli arranged a tournament on a little higher level. It was the European
Championship tournament in basket-ball. Finland remained again in the seventh
play in hockey, a little below average. The US team had the same points, but
this time they had the better goals-for-and-against. One thing affecting could
have been, that a Finnish superstar Matti “Mölli” Keinonen had been banned from
playing in the Finnish League. That is, because his home-club Rauman Lukko
disliked his moving to the neighbouring city, and to a Club called Rosenlewin
Urheilijat -38
2.
Czechoslovakia: Vlado Dzurilla, Jiri Holecek; Rudolf Potsch, Frantisek Tikal,
Ladislav Schmid, Jan Suchy, Jaroslav Meixner; Stanislav Pryl(6+4), Vaclav
Nedomansky, Milan Koks, Josef Golonka, Jaroslav Jirik, Jiri Holik, Jan Klapac,
Frantisek Sevcik, Jaroslav Holik, Josef Cerny. (7 6 0 1 32-15).
3.
Canada: Seth Martin, Ken Broderick; Gary Begg, Barry McKenzie, Lorne Davis,
Terry O’Malley, Harvey Schmidt; George Faulkner(6+2), Francis Huck, Roger
Bourbonnais, Marshall Johnston, Raymond Cadieaux, Jackie McLeod, Bill McMillan,
Morris Mott, Paul Conlin, Rick McKay.(7 5 0 2 33-10).
7.
Finland; Juhani Lahtinen, Risto Kaitala; Lalli Partinen, Kalevi Numminen, Ilkka
Mesikämmen, Juha Rantasila, Antti Heikkilä; Reijo Hakanen(4+1), Lasse Oksanen,
Jorma Peltonen, Juhani Jylhä, Esa Isaksson, Raimo Killpiö, Matti Reunamäki,
Matti Keinonen, Jorma Vehmanen, Erkki Mononen. (7 2 0 6 18-43).
On
the pool A level Canada had entered with their best assembled team so far. The
team also included Carl Brewer, he happened to have been a star in the NHL.
After a narrow loss 1-2 against the Sovjets the Canadians had a break against
the Swedes, losing 0-6. So the Swedish style paid again its dues in a form of a
silver-medal. This was the only time for Seth Martin not being rewarded as the best
goalie in an IIHF tournament. He might have been a bit more interested in his
next season in the NHL...
In the vry beginning the
Finnish team got the following attention: A Canadian called Roger Bourbonnais
burnt his fuse to a constant grinning of a certain Matti “Mölli” Keinonen.
Then, when Team Finland really won a legendary hockey country for the first
time, the result effected even to the final standings. A Czechoslovakian loss
1-3 meant them to become the fourth. But again Finland had loaned some Swedish
style. The Czechoslovakian team lost their nerve: their gate to the ice broke
down during the second period and took a long time to be repaired. By
coincidence the coaching Finland had come from Czechoslovakia. Gustav Bubnik
was one of those 1949 Czechoslovakian World Champions being honoured by being
sent to the salt mines.
2.
Sweden: Kjell Svensson, Leif Holmqvist; Roland Stolz, Gert Blomé, Eilert
Määttä, Nils Johansson, Arne Carlsson, Bert-Ola Nordlander; Carl-Göran
Öberg(5+1), Hans Lindberg, Björn Palmqvist, Ulf Sterner, Nils Nilsson,
Lars-Göran Nilsson, Stig-Göran Johansson, Leif Henriksson, Folke Bengstsson,
Ronald Pettersson. (7 4 1 2 31-22)
3. Canada : Seth Martin, Wayne Stephenson; Carl Brewer, Jack Bownass, Terry O’Malley, Gary Begg, Barry McKenzie; Francis Huck(5+6), Adolfo Tambellini, Morris Mott, Bill McMillan, Roger Bourbonnais, Ted Hargreaves, Gary Dineen, Marshall Johnston, Jean Cusson, Raymond Cadieaux. (7 4 1 2 28-15).
6. Finland: Urpo Ylönen,
Juhani Lahtinen; Pekka Kuusisto, Kalevi Numminen, Pekka Marjamäki, Ilkka
Mesikämmen, Raimo Määttänen; Juhani Wahlsten(4+0), Reijo Hakanen, Lasse
Oksanen, Jorma Peltonen, Matti Keinonen, Matti Reunamäki, Kari Johansson, Esa
Peltonen, Raimo Kilpiö, Mattti Harju, Jorma Vehmanen. (2 1 4 14-24).
This time Team Finland
didn’t get confused about the perspex boards in the hockey arena called Stade
de Glace. When Team Finland defeated Canada, the result meant The Maple Leaf
team to remain one point behind the second-placed team. Finland won with a
brilliant playing, the result being 5-2, and the Finns had definitely earned
their fifth place. One reason for this performance may very well have been the
new generation in defence. The Swedish showed their style this time by entering
to the game to express sympathy to their
neighbour. When the changing of players was unfinished, they even shouted five
in Finnish: viis, viis... Team Sweden remained one point behind the medals. So,
Finland was finally a true number five team in a tournament and the
goals-for-and-against was on the plus for the first time on the A level. When
one considers the qualification game too... The bravest man in team being
definitely Matti Keinonen. He was the star of the Canada –game and he was the
fourth best scorer as a whole in the team. All this with a fractured ankle.
The
French, known to be modest, built a brilliant arena for the tournament. But
they were very modest in the pool B, becoming the last team in the series. The
result being defeated five times with a humble goals-for-and-against: 9-32. The
proudest French players being peculiarly, always from Quebec overseas...
2.
Czechoslovakia: Vladdo Dzurilla, Vladimir Nardchal; Josef Horesovsky, Jan
Suchy, Karel Masopust, Oldrich Machac, Frantisek Pospisil; Josef Golonka(4+6),
Jan Hrbaty, Vaclav Nedomansky, Jan Havel, Josef Cerny, Frantisek Sevcik, Peter
Reima, Jiri Holik, Jaroslav Jirik, Jiri Kochta, Jan Klapac. (7 5 1 1 33-17).
3. Canada; Ken Broderick, Wayne Stephenson; Marshall Johnston, Barry McKenzie, Brian Glennie, Paul Conlin, Terry O’Malley; Francis Huck(4+5), Morris Mott, Roger Bourbonnais, Raymond Cadieaux, Jack O’Shea, Ted Hargreaves, Gary Dineen, Steven Monteith, Gerry Linder, Bill McMillan, Herb Pinder. (7 5 0 2 28-15).
5. Finland: Urpo Ylönen,
Pentti Koskela; Ilpo Koskela, Paavo Tirkkonen, Seppo Lindström, Lalli Partinen,
Juha Rantasila, Pekka Kuusisto; Lasse Oksanen(5+3), Juhani Wahlsten, Veli-Pekka
Ketola, Matti Keinonen, Matti Harju, Jorma Peltonen, Pekka Leimu, Matti
Reunamäki, Esa Peltonen, Kari Johansson. ( 8 4 1 3 28-25).
This
was the very first tournament, that had North-America totally in a stand-by
position. The Canadian team was this time “only” the fourth in the tournament.
In a nordic country of the time this place would have been highly regarded...
USA being clearly a “just-representing” team. For very obvious reasons the IIHF
North-American hockey faced a series of setbacks the next decade. Finland
became the fifth in this tournament with a routine-like play, Gustav Bubnik
leaving after this as well. But becoming a mythical figure in the reminiscent
of Finnish hockey people...
By
the end of this decade the nature of the Olympic/World Championship tournaments
had changed. The goalie of the decade, Seth Martin, made a break-through of a
goalie-mask in Europe. Though, the Swedish goalies weren’t fans of this model.
Even the Canucks and the Americans started to wear a helmet ever-more often.
And most of all, the Sovjets had created a first truly European style of play…
2.
Sweden: Leif Holmqvist, Gunnar Bäckman; Arne Carlsson, Lennart Svedberg,
Lars-Erik Sjöberg, Bert-Ola Nordlander, Nils Johansson, Kjell-Rune Milton; Ulf
Sterner(5+9), Stig-Göran Johansson, Lars-Göran Nilsson, Stefan Karlsson, Tord Lundström, Roger
Olsson, Håkan Nygren, Björn Palmqvist, Leif Henriksson, Mats Hysing, Dick Yderström.
(10 80 2 45-19).
3. Czechoslovakia: Vlado Dzurilla, Miroslav Lacky; Oldrich Machac, Frantisek Pospisil, Josef Horesovsky, Jan Suchy, Vladimir Bednar; Jaroslav Holik(4+10), Vaclav Nedomansky, Josef Cerny, Jan Hrbaty, Josef Golonka, Frantisek Sevcik, Jiri Holik, Richard Farda, Jan Klapac, Jaroslav Jirik, Jan Havel, Josef Augusta. (10 8 0 2 40-20).
5. Finland: Urpo Ylönen,
Lasse Kiili; Juha Rantasila, Lalli Partinen, Ilpo Koskela, Seppo Lindström,
Pekka Marjamäki; Jorma Peltonen(3+4), Lauri Mononen, Esa Isaksson, Matti
Keinonen, Esa Peltonen, Pekka Leimu, Lasse Oksanen, Juhani Wahlsten, Veli-Pekka
Ketola, Matti Harju, Juhani Jylhä, Kari Johansson. (8 2 0 8
26-52).
Forward: Anatoli Firsov (USSR 1964-69).
The medals:
USSR 7-0-2
Sweden 1-4-1
Canada 1-2-4
USA 1-0-1
Czechoslovakia 0-4-3