1972 Olympics

At the 1972 Winter Olympics held in Sapporo, Japan, one ice hockey event was held: men's ice hockey. Games were held at the Makomanai Ice Arena and at the Tsukisamu Indoor Skating Rink.

Qualification matches
Winners (in bold) as well as the gold medalist at the previous Olympics (USSR) qualify for the Group A to play for 1st-6th places. Other teams played in Group B for 7th-11th places.


 * February 3
 * Japan 2-8 Czechoslovakia
 * Sweden 8-1 Yugoslavia


 * February 4
 * USA 5-3 Switzerland
 * Poland 4-0 West Germany
 * Finland 13-1 Norway

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


 * February 5
 * Sweden 5-1 USA
 * Czechoslovakia 14-1 Poland
 * USSR 9-3 Finland


 * February 7
 * USSR 3-3 Sweden
 * USA 5-1 Czechoslovakia
 * Finland 5-1 Poland


 * February 8
 * Czechoslovakia 7-1 Finland


 * February 9
 * Sweden 5-3 Poland
 * USSR 7-2 USA


 * February 10
 * USSR 9-3 Poland
 * Czechoslovakia 2-1 Sweden
 * USA 4-1 Finland


 * February 12
 * USA 6-1 Poland


 * February 13
 * Finland 4-3 Sweden
 * USSR 5-2 Czechoslovakia

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


 * February 6
 * Norway 5-2 Yugoslavia
 * West Germany 5-0 Switzerland


 * February 7
 * Japan 3-3 Switzerland
 * West Germany 6-2 Yugoslavia


 * February 9
 * Japan 3-2 Yugoslavia
 * West Germany 5-1 Norway


 * February 10
 * Japan 4-5 Norway
 * Switzerland 3-3 Yugoslavia


 * February 12
 * Japan 7-6 West Germany
 * Norway 5-3 Switzerland



Final Ranking

 * 1) USSR
 * 2) United States
 * 3) Czechoslovakia
 * 4) Sweden
 * 5) Finland
 * 6) Poland
 * 7) West Germany
 * 8) Norway
 * 9) Japan
 * 10) Switzerland
 * 11) Yugoslavia