1998 Olympics

The 1998 Winter Olympics were held in Nagano, Japan.

Venues

Games were played at The Big Hat and Aqua Wing Arena.

Men's tournament

1998 was the first year that the modern NHL took a break to allow its players to participate in the Olympics, allowing the United States and Canada to field teams with professionals of top calibre, as the European teams had been doing since the IIHF first allowed professionals into the Olympics.

Both Canada and the United States were heavily favoured; they had previously faced off in the final of the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. The United States left the tournament being remembered as the ugly Americans. After a below-expectations performance in the tournament which included only one win, several American players trashed their hotel rooms (the US squad did not stay in the Olympic village), and they left without apologizing. The Canadian team, despite a strong start in the round robin, failed to play well after losing their semifinal match, and disappointed Canadians who wished for Wayne Gretzky to get an Olympic medal, playing a lacklustre bronze medal game.

Memorably, during the shootout in their semifinal match against the Czech Republic, Canadian coach Marc Crawford opted to have defenseman Ray Bourque shoot in the shootout instead of NHL legends Wayne Gretzky and Steve Yzerman. Hockey commentators alternatively criticized Crawford's decision (Bourque, like the other four Canadian shooters, failed to score) and praised it on the grounds that Bourque was one of hockey's most accurate shooters at the time and Gretzky had always been surprisingly mediocre on breakaways. Thanks to the goaltending of Dominik Hašek who was considered the best goaltender throughout Olympic play, the Czech Republic won the shootout and went on to win the semi-final en route to winning the gold medal.

Japanese fans were disappointed when their adopted hero, Paul Kariya, a Canadian of Japanese heritage and one of Team Canada's best stars, failed to make the games due to a vicious crosscheck by Gary Suter during regular season NHL play. The Canadian media has accused Suter and other American players of deliberately attempting to injure Canadian players in the final NHL games leading up to the Olympics. The Japanese shifted their attentions to a Canadian player of Japanese extraction, Vicky Sunohara, and were pleased with a vicarious silver medal from Canada's women's team.

The format of the men's tournament was also criticized because the National Hockey League clubs would not release their players for the preliminary round. This severely hampered the campaigns of Germany and Slovakia, both of whom failed to qualify for the final group stage. Also the final group stage was criticized as being meaningless since all of the teams qualified for the quarter-finals.

The format was eventually changed for the 2006 tournament in an effort to address these criticisms.

US men's hotel vandalism

An unknown number of players on the U.S. men's hockey team trashed their rooms at their hotel on February 19 morning, after they were eliminated from the Olympic tournament by losing to the Czech Republic 4-1 about 10 hours earlier. Ten chairs were broken, and three fire extinguishers were emptied inside three apartments. Six of the chairs and one of the fire extinguishers were then thrown from the fifth floor into the courtyard below. One door was dented, as were several walls. Floors and beds were also damaged. No one was injured by the vandalism. No one has ever confessed and no one has ever been punished.

United States captain Chris Chelios was at a restaurant when the rooms were damaged. He wrote a $3000 check for damages and apologized for his teammates, allowing those responsible to remain anonymous.

"Maybe what they're talking about are the chairs." Jeremy Roenick said. "The chairs and furniture that we had were definitely not made for NHL players. The chairs would fall apart right there, just sitting on them. We went through nine chairs with five guys in the apartment. It was ridiculous."

"That wasn't anything," thundered U.S. assistant coach Lou Vairo. "Who hasn't broken a few chairs? I bet you guys (the media) have busted some furniture when you see the wife's credit card bill at the end of the month."

"This wasn't vandalism or wanton destruction of property," Bob Goodenow said. "This wasn't nearly as bad as people are making it out to be. I saw it. Some folding chairs got broken. They were weak and break when you lean back on them. The fire extinguisher, there's no excuse for that. There's no excuse for any of it. I'm not condoning it, but it wasn't as bad as it appears."

Preliminaries

Group A

Top team (shaded) advanced to the final round.

Team	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Kazakhstan	3	2	0	1	14	11	5
Slovakia	3	1	1	1	9	9	3
Italy	3	1	2	0	11	11	2
Austria	3	0	1	2	9	12	2

• February 7

Kazakhstan	5:3	Italy
Slovakia	2:2	Austria

• February 8

Slovakia	4:3	Italy
Kazakhstan	5:5	Austria

• February 10

Italy	5:2	Austria
Kazakhstan	4:3	Slovakia

Group B

Top team (shaded) advanced to the final round.

Team	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Belarus	3	2	0	1	14	4	5
Germany	3	2	1	0	7	9	4
France	3	1	2	0	5	8	2
Japan	3	0	2	1	5	10	1

• February 7

Belarus	4:0	France
Japan	1:3	Germany

• February 9

Japan	2:5	France
Belarus	8:2	Germany

• February 10

Germany	2:0	France
Japan	2:2	Belarus

Consolation round

13th place match

• February 11

Japan

4:3

Austria

11th place match

• February 11

France

5:1

Italy

9th place match

• February 11

Germany

4:2

Slovakia

Final round

Group A

Team	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Canada	3	3	0	0	12	3	6
Sweden	3	2	1	0	11	7	4
United States	3	1	2	0	8	10	2
Belarus	3	0	3	0	4	15	0

• February 13

Canada	5:0	Belarus
Sweden	4:2	United States

• February 14

United States	5:2	Belarus
Canada	3:2	Sweden

• February 16

Sweden	5:2	Belarus
Canada	4:1	United States

Group B

Team	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Russia	3	3	0	0	15	6	6
Czech Republic	3	2	1	0	12	4	4
Finland	3	1	2	0	11	9	2
Kazakhstan	3	0	3	0	6	25	0

• February 13

Russia	9:2	Kazakhstan
Czech Republic	3:0	Finland

• February 15

Czech Republic	8:2	Kazakhstan
Russia	4:3	Finland

• February 16

Finland	8:2	Kazakhstan
Russia	2:1	Czech Republic

Medal round

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Gold medal game

C1

Canada

4

D4

Kazakhstan

1

C1

Canada

1

D2

Czech Republic

2

D2

Czech Republic

4

C3

United States

1

D1

Czech Republic

1

C3

Russia

0

C2

Sweden

1

D3

Finland

2

D3

Finland

4

Bronze medal game

D1

Russia

7

D1

Russia

4

D3

Finland

3

C4

Belarus

1

C1

Canada

2

Quarter-finals

• February 18

Canada	4:1	Kazakhstan
Czech Republic	4:1	United States
Sweden	1:2	Finland
Russia	4:1	Belarus

Semi-finals

• February 20

Canada	1:2	Czech Republic
Finland	4:7	Russia

Bronze medal game

• February 21

Finland

3:2

Canada

Gold medal game

• February 21

Czech Republic

1:0

Russia

Leading scorers

Rk	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1	Teemu Selänne Finland	5	4	6	10	8
2	Saku Koivu Finland	6	2	8	10	4
3	Pavel Bure Russia	6	9	0	9	2
4	Alexander Koreshkov Kazakhstan	7	3	6	9	2
5	Philippe Bozon France	4	5	2	7	4
6	K. Shafranov Kazakhstan	7	4	3	7	6
7	Dominic Lavoie Austria	4	5	1	6	8
8	Jere Lehtinen Finland	6	4	2	6	2
9	Alexei Yashin Russia	6	3	3	6	0
10	Serge Poudrier France	6	2	4	6	4
11	Sergei Fedorov Russia	6	1	5	6	8

Medal-winning rosters

Gold:	Silver:	Bronze:
Czech Republic Josef Beránek Jan Caloun Roman Čechmánek Jiří Dopita Roman Hamrlík Dominik Hašek Milan Hejduk Milan Hnilicka Jaromír Jágr František Kučera Robert Lang David Moravec Pavel Patera Libor Procházka Martin Procházka Robert Reichel Martin Rucinsky Vladimír Růžička -C Jiří Šlégr Richard Šmehlík Martin Straka Jaroslav Špacek Petr Svoboda	Russia Pavel Bure-C Valeri Bure Mikhail Shtalenkov Alexei Gusarov Alexei Yashin Dmitri Yushkevich Alexei Zhamnov Alexei Zhitnik Valeri Kamensky Darius Kasparaitis Andrei Kovalenko Igor Kravchuk Sergei Krivokrasov Boris Mironov Dmitri Mironov Aleksey Morozov Sergei Nemchinov German Titov Andrei Trefilov Oleg Shevtsov Sergei Gonchar Sergei Fedorov Valeri Zelepukin	Finland Teemu Selänne Aki Berg Tuomas Grönman Raimo Helminen Sami Kapanen Saku Koivu-C Jari Kurri Janne Laukkanen Jere Lehtinen Juha Lind Jyrki Lumme Jarmo Myllys Mika Nieminen Janne Niinimaa Teppo Numminen Ville Peltonen Kimmo Rintanen Ari Sulander Jukka Tammi Esa Tikkanen Kimmo Timonen Antti Törmänen Juha Ylönen

Final rankings

1. Czech Republic
2. Russia
3. Finland
4. Canada
5. Sweden
6. United States
7. Belarus
8. Kazakhstan
9. Germany
10. Slovakia
11. France
12. Italy
13. Japan
14. Austria

Women's hockey program

Women's tournament

1998 was the first year that featured women in ice hockey competition. It was greatly anticipated that the women's gold medal match would feature Canada versus the United States. Canada was favored to come out on top as they had having won all the competitions in previous years in women's hockey, and the United States perpetually finishing second, while no other national teams could match their level of play. However, the United States beat Canada in the final and became the first country to win gold in women's ice hockey at the Olympics.

1st and 2nd place (shaded gold) advanced to gold medal game.
3rd and 4th place (shaded green) advanced to bronze medal game.

Team	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
United States	5	5	0	0	33	7	10
Canada	5	4	1	0	28	12	8
Finland	5	3	2	0	27	10	6
China	5	2	3	0	10	15	4
Sweden	5	1	4	0	10	21	2
Japan	5	0	5	0	2	45	0

Preliminary round

8 February
	Sweden	0 – 6	Finland		Aqua Wing (2,208)
		First period			Ref: Marina Zenk
			P. Vaarakallio (S. Huotari) 8:35
			J. Ikonen (M. Selin) (pp) 15:17
		Second period
			T. Reima (S. Fisk) 2:35
			R. Nieminen (T. Reima) 14:07
		Third period
			S. Krooks 15:11
			J. Ikonen 18:20

8 February
	Canada	13 – 0	Japan		Aqua Wing (4,597)
		First period			Ref: Victoria Renfer-Kale
	D. Goyette (H. Wickenheiser) 5:46
	G. Heaney 15:42
	J. Diduck (S. Wilson, C. Campbell) 17:05
		Second period
	D. Goyette (S. Wilson, T. Brisson) 4:23
	T. Brisson (H. Wickenheiser) 8:12
	C. Campbell (J. Diduck) 11:22
	S. Wilson (D. Goyette) 15:43
	B. Kellar (V. Sunohara) 16:14
	H. Wickenheiser (S. Wilson) (pp) 18:08
		Third period
	J. Diduck (C. Campbell) 13:52
	F. St-Louis (G. Heaney, B. Kellar) (pp) 15:26
	D. Goyette 16:21
	F. Smith (F. St-Louis) (pp) 18:06

8 February
	China	0 – 5	United States		Aqua Wing (3,255)
		First period			Ref: Laurie Taylor-Boulton
			C. Granato (G. Ulion, J. Schmidgall) (pp) 7:39
			K. Bye (T. Mounsey) (pp) 19:17
		Second period
			T. Mounsey (K. King) 14:53
		Third period
			J. Schmidgall (K. Bye) 11:05
			C. Granato (K. King) 16:20

9 February
	Finland	11 – 1	Japan		Aqua Wing (4,972)
		First period			Ref: Laurie Taylor-Boulton
	S. Lankosaari (K. Riipi, S. Krooks) 3:54
	K. Riipi (S. Lankosaari) 18:45
		Second period
	T. Reima (S. Fisk, K. Hänninen) 7:22
	K. Hänninen (pp) 13:29
	K. Hänninen (R. Nieminen, J. Ikonen) (pp) 18:23
		Third period
	K. Rantamäki 5:43
			Hatanaka A. (Fujiwara S., Yoshimi N.) (pp) 8:28
	R. Nieminen (K. Lehto) 9:06
	S. Krooks 9:52
	K. Hänninen (R. Nieminen) (pp) 10:42
	K. Lehto (R. Nieminen) 12:55
	R. Nieminen (S. Fisk, M. Lehtimäki) 14:40

9 February
	United States	7 – 1	Sweden		Aqua Wing (3,607)
		First period			Ref: Manuela Groeger
			P. Morelius (T. Sjölander, E. Holst) (pp) 10:02
	L. Baker (S. Merz) 16:27
		Second period
	K. Bye (S. Merz, T. Mounsey) (pp) 12:39
	K. King (A. Blahoski) 14:36
	S. Merz 16:20
	K. Bye (sh) 18:39
		Third period
	G. Ulion (C. Granato) (pp) 14:28
	S. Looney (sh) 15:30

9 February
	Canada	2 – 0	China		Aqua Wing (2,713)
		First period			Ref: Sandra Dombrowski
		no scoring
		Second period
	D. Goyette (H. Wickenheiser) 4:38
	V. Sunohara (G. Heaney) (pp) 15:38
		Third period
		no scoring

11 February
	Sweden	3 – 5	Canada		Aqua Wing (5,429)
		First period			Ref: Victoria Renfer-Kale
			D. Goyette 9:30
			K. Nystrom (N. Drolet) 10:06
		Second period
			N. Drolet (B. Kellar) (pp) 6:23
	M. Rooth (L. Almblad) 8:38
			T. Brisson (sh) 15:05
	P. Burholm (E. Holst) (pp) 18:11
		Third period
			D. Goyette (H. Wickenheiser, S. Wilson) 0:34
	T. Månsson (T. Sjölander) 2:11

11 February
	Japan	1 – 6	China		Aqua Wing (5,863)
		First period			Ref: Manuela Groeger
		no scoring
		Second period
			Yang X. (Li X., Liu H.) 12:21
			Guo W. (Yang Q.) 12:35
			Zhang L. (Lu Y.) 13:45
		Third period
	Sato M. (Obikawa M.) (pp) 2:25
			Guo W. (Gong M.) (pp) 6:31
			Sang H. (Xu L.) 12:24
			Guo W. (Liu H.) 15:19

11 February
	United States	4 – 2	Finland		Aqua Wing (3,688)
		First period			Ref: Marina Zenk
	V. Movsessian (K. King) 2:48
			K. Hänninen (K. Lehto, R. Nieminen) (pp) 18:09
		Second period
	K. Bye (J. Schmidgall) 1:22
			R. Nieminen (sh) 5:27
	T. Mounsey (K. Bye, S. Merz) (pp) 6:49
	G. Ulion (K. Bye) 16:56
		Third period
		no scoring

12 February
	China	3 – 1	Sweden		Aqua Wing (3,670)
		First period			Ref: Marina Zenk
		no scoring
		Second period
			T. Sjölander (L. Almblad) 11:10
		Third period
	Zhang L. (Yang X., Liu H.) 6:42
	Liu H. (Wang W.) 10:38
	Yang X. (Zhang L., Guo W.) 18:08

12 February
	United States	10 – 0	Japan		Aqua Wing (5,015)
		First period			Ref: Laurie Taylor-Boulton
	S. Looney 3:55
	A. Mleczko (S. Merz) 9:08
	S. Whyte (C. Granato) 13:32
	S. Looney (G. Ulion, J. Schmidgall) (pp) 14:14
	A. Mleczko (L. Brown-Miller, S. Looney) 14:36
		Second period
	K. King (L. Baker, C. Bailey) 9:18
	K. King (A. Blahoski, L. Baker) 19:34
		Third period
	L. Baker (C. Granato) (pp) 5:37
	K. Bye (T. Mounsey, G. Ulion) (pp) 11:46
	K. King (L. Baker) 13:03

12 February
	Finland	2 – 4	Canada		Aqua Wing (3,133)
		First period			Ref: Sandra Dombrowski
			T. Brisson (V. Sunohara) (pp) 12:45
			G. Heaney (N. Drolet) (pp) 16:50
		Second period
			T. Brisson (F. St-Louis) 8:53
	P. Vaarakallio (S. Fisk) 13:25
			D. Goyette (G. Heaney, J. Diduck) 16:26
		Third period
	K. Rantamäki (P. Vaarakallio) 13:32

14 February
	Japan	0 – 5	Sweden		Aqua Wing (6,009)
		First period			Ref: Sandra Dombrowski
			G. Andersson (pp) 10:58
			E. Holst (J. Elfsberg) 18:33
		Second period
			M. Gustafsson (Å. Elfving) 5:34
			M. Rooth (G. Andersson, E. Holst) (pp) 11:15
		Third period
			E. Holst (M. Rooth) 19:18

14 February
	Finland	6 – 1	China		Aqua Wing (5,638)
		First period			Ref: Victoria Renfer-Kale
	J. Ikonen 1:08
	M. Lehtimäki (K. Hänninen) 9:56
		Second period
	S. Fisk (M. Lehtimäki) 4:37
			Liu H. (Wang W.) 4:50
	R. Nieminen (sh) 7:57
		Third period
	M. Lehtimäki (K. Hänninen) 4:20
	R. Nieminen 17:09

14 February
	Canada	4 – 7	United States		Aqua Wing (5,872)
		First period			Ref: Manuela Groeger
	L. Dupuis (V. Sunohara) (pp) 3:01
			C. Granato (pp) 19:20
		Second period
		no scoring
		Third period
	L. Dupuis (T. Brisson) (pp) 1:24
	J. Hefford (L. Dupuis) (pp) 5:28
	T. Brisson (S. Wilson, H. Wickenheiser) (pp) 5:53
			L. Baker (K. King) 7:05
			C. Granato (G. Ulion, T. Mounsey) (pp) 10:57
			J. Schmidgall (C. Granato) (pp) 12:25
			T. Dunn (A. Mleczko) 12:48
			L. Brown-Miller (A. Mleczko) 17:06
			L. Baker (en) 18:58

Bronze medal game

17 February
	Finland	4 – 1	China		Big Hat (7,412)
		First period			Ref: Laurie Taylor-Boulton
			Yang X. 9:27
		Second period
	S. Fisk (R. Nieminen, K. Lehto) 3:07
	J. Ikonen (P. Vaarakallio, K. Rantamäki) 7:08
	S. Lankosaari (K. Riipi, S. Krooks) 10:15
		Third period
	R. Nieminen (M. Lehtimäki) (en) 19:52

The mens gold medal game: Russia vs Czech Republic.

Gold medal game

17 February
	United States	3 – 1	Canada		Big Hat (8,626)
		First period			Ref: Marina Zenk
		no scoring
		Second period
	G. Ulion (S. Whyte, S. Merz) (pp) 2:38
		Third period
	S. Looney (S. Whyte, G. Ulion) (pp) 10:57
			D. Goyette (H. Wickenheiser, G. Heaney) (pp) 15:59
	S. Whyte (en) 19:52

Medal-winning rosters

Gold:	Silver:	Bronze:
United States Chris Bailey Laurie Baker Alana Blahoski Lisa Brown-Miller Karyn Bye Colleen Coyne Sara Decosta Tricia Dunn Cammi Granato Katie King Shelley Looney Sue Merz Allison Mleczko Tara Mounsey Vicki Movsessian Angela Ruggiero Jenny Potter Jen Schmidgall Sarah Tueting Gretchen Ulion Sandra Whyte	Canada Jennifer Botterill Thérèse Brisson Cassie Campbell Judy Diduck Nancy Drolet Lori Dupuis Danielle Goyette Geraldine Heaney Jayna Hefford Becky Kellar Katheryn Mccormack Karen Nystrom Lesley Reddon Manon Rhéaume France Saint-Louis Laura Schuler Fiona Smith Vicky Sunohara Hayley Wickenheiser Stacy Wilson	Finland Sari Fisk Kirsi Hänninen Satu Huotari Marianne Ihalainen Johanna Ikonen Sari Krooks Emma Laaksonen Sanna Lankosaari Katja Lehto Marika Lehtimäki Riikka Nieminen Marja-Helena Pälvilä Tuula Puputti Karoliina Rantamäki Tiia Reima Katja Riipi Päivi Salo Maria Selin Liisa-Maria Sneck Petra Vaarakallio

Final rankings

1. United States
2. Canada
3. Finland
4. China
5. Sweden
6. Japan

Rk.	Team	Notes
Gold	United States	Qualified for the 1999 World Championships
Silver	Canada	Qualified for the 1999 World Championships
Bronze	Finland	Qualified for the 1999 World Championships
4.	China	Qualified for the 1999 World Championships
5.	Sweden	Qualified for the 1999 World Championships
6.	Japan	Qualified for the 1999 World Championship Pool B

See Also

• 1998 Austria men's national ice hockey team
• 1998 Belarus men's national ice hockey team
• 1997-98 Canada men's national ice hockey team
• 1998 Canada women's national ice hockey team
• 1998 China women's national ice hockey team
• 1998 Czech Republic men's national ice hockey team
• 1998 Finland men's national ice hockey team
• 1998 Finland women's national ice hockey team
• 1998 France men's national ice hockey team
• 1998 Germany men's national ice hockey team
• 1998 Italy men's national ice hockey team
• 1998 Japan men's national ice hockey team
• 1998 Japan women's national ice hockey team
• 1998 Kazakhstan men's national ice hockey team
• 1998 Russia Men's national ice hockey team
• 1998 Slovakia men's national ice hockey team
• 1998 Sweden men's national ice hockey team
• 1998 Sweden women's national ice hockey team
• 1998 United States men's national ice hockey team
• 1998 United States women's national ice hockey team
• Ice hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympics match stats (women)