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401px-1998 Winter Olympics logo

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 Flag of Finland Finland 5 4 6 10 8
2 Saku Koivu Flag of Finland Finland 6 2 8 10 4
3 Pavel Bure Flag of Russia Russia 6 9 0 9 2
4 Alexander Koreshkov Flag of Kazakhstan Kazakhstan 7 3 6 9 2
5 Philippe Bozon Flag of France France 4 5 2 7 4
6 K. Shafranov Flag of Kazakhstan Kazakhstan 7 4 3 7 6
7 Dominic Lavoie Flag of Austria Austria 4 5 1 6 8
8 Jere Lehtinen Flag of Finland Finland 6 4 2 6 2
9 Alexei Yashin Flag of Russia Russia 6 3 3 6 0
10 Serge Poudrier Flag of France France 6 2 4 6 4
11 Sergei Fedorov Flag of Russia 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
98Olyprog

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: Flag of Canada 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: Flag of the United States 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: Flag of Canada 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: Flag of Canada 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: Flag of Finland 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: Flag of Switzerland 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: Flag of the United States 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: Flag of Finland 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: Flag of Canada 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: Flag of Canada 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: Flag of Canada 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: Flag of Switzerland 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: Flag of Switzerland 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: Flag of the United States 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: Flag of Finland 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: Flag of Canada 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
Nagano 1998-Russia vs Czech Republic

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: Flag of Canada 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[]

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1998 Olympics. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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