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1998 Winter Olympics
Men's Ice Hockey
Tournament details
Host country Flag of Japan Japan
Dates 7–22 February
Teams 14
Venue(s) Big Hat, Aqua Wing Arena (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions   Czech Republic (1st title)
Runner-up   Russia
Third place   Finland
Fourth place  Canada
Tournament statistics
Matches played 35
Goals scored 210 (6 per match)
Scoring leader(s) Flag of Finland Teemu Selänne
(10 points)
1994
2002

The men's ice hockey tournament at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, was the 19th Olympic Championship. The Czech Republic, which emerged from the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, won its first winter gold medal, becoming only the seventh nation to win Olympic ice hockey gold. The tournament, held from February 7 to February 22, was played at the Big Hat and Aqua Wing arenas.

This was the first Olympics in which the National Hockey League (NHL) took a break (17 days, from February 8 to February 24) allowing national teams to include NHL players from each country.[1] Unlike basketball's Dream Team, where the players stayed in a five-star hotel in Barcelona, NHL players were required to stay in the Olympic Village like other athletes.[2]

The Canadian team, despite a strong start in the round robin, lost their semifinal match against the Czech Republic in a shootout, and played a lackluster bronze medal game, disappointing Canadians who wished for Wayne Gretzky to get an Olympic medal. In the final match, the Czech Republic shut-out Russia to win the gold medal.

Qualification[]

Preliminary round[]

Group A[]

Top team (shaded) advanced to the first round.

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

All times are local (UTC+9).

7 February 1998
16:00
Italy  3–5
(3–1, 0–1, 0–3)
 Kazakhstan The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 8,634
7 February 1998
16:00
Austria  2–2
(1–0, 1–2, 0–0)
 Slovakia Aqua Wing Arena, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 4,315
8 February 1998
14:00
Austria  5–5
(2–2, 2–1, 1–2)
 Kazakhstan The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,410
8 February 1998
18:00
Slovakia  4–3
(1–2, 3–1, 0–0)
 Italy The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 8,620
10 February 1998
14:00
Slovakia  3–4
(1–1, 1–0, 1–3)
 Kazakhstan Aqua Wing Arena, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 3,659
10 February 1998
18:00
Italy  5–2
(2–0, 2–0, 1–2)
 Austria The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 8,473

Group B[]

Top team (shaded) advanced to the first round.

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

All times are local (UTC+9).

7 February 1998 France  0–4
(0–1, 0–1, 0–2)
 Belarus Aqua Wing Arena, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 3,419
7 February 1998 Germany  3–1
(0–0, 1–0, 2–1)
 Japan The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,861
9 February 1998 Germany  2–8
(0–2, 2–3, 0–3)
 Belarus The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 8,063
9 February 1998 Japan  2–5
(2–1, 0–1, 0–3)
 France The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,930
10 February 1998 Japan  2–2
(1–1, 1–1, 0–0)
 Belarus The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 3,659
10 February 1998 France  0–2
(0–0, 0–1, 0–1)
 Germany Aqua Wing Arena, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 3,916

Consolation round[]

13th place match[]

All times are local (UTC+9).

12 February 1998 Japan  4 – 3 (SO)
(1–2, 1–0, 1–1, 0–0, 1–0)
 Austria The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,495

11th place match[]

All times are local (UTC+9).

12 February 1998 France  5–1
(1–0, 0–0, 4–1)
 Italy The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 8,854

9th place match[]

All times are local (UTC+9).

12 February 1998 Germany  4–2
(0–1, 1–1, 3–0)
 Slovakia The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 8,670

First round[]

Group C[]

Team GP W L T GF GA GD Pts
 Russia 3 3 0 0 15 6 +9 6
 Czech Republic 3 2 1 0 12 4 +8 4
 Finland 3 1 2 0 11 9 +2 2
 Kazakhstan 3 0 3 0 6 25 −19 0

All times are local (UTC+9).

13 February 1998
14:45
Czech Republic  3–0
(0–0, 1–0, 2–0)
 Finland Aqua Wing Arena, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 5,050
13 February 1998
18:45
Russia  9–2
(2–1, 5–0, 2–1)
 Kazakhstan Aqua Wing Arena, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 3,752
15 February 1998
13:45
Russia  4–3
(1–2, 2–1, 1–0)
 Finland The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,894
15 February 1998
18:45
Czech Republic  8–2
(1–0, 3–2, 4–0)
 Kazakhstan The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,975
16 February 1998
15:45
Finland  8–2
(3–1, 1–0, 4–1)
 Kazakhstan Aqua Wing Arena, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 5,544
16 February 1998
18:45
Czech Republic  1–2
(0–0, 1–0, 0–2)
 Russia The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,847

Group D[]

Team GP W L T GF GA GD Pts
 Canada 3 3 0 0 12 3 +9 6
 Sweden 3 2 1 0 11 7 +4 4
 United States of America 3 1 2 0 8 10 −2 2
 Belarus 3 0 3 0 4 15 −11 0

All times are local (UTC+9).

13 February 1998
14:45
Sweden  4–2
(1–2, 2–0, 1–0)
 United States of America The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,985
13 February 1998
18:45
Canada  5–0
(2–0, 2–0, 1–0)
 Belarus The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,960
14 February 1998
14:45
United States of America  5–2
(2–1, 1–0, 2–1)
 Belarus The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,975
14 February 1998
18:45
Sweden  2–3
(1–0, 0–3, 1–0)
 Canada The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,945
16 February 1998
13:45
Canada  4–1
(1–0, 2–0, 1–1)
 United States of America The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 10,076
16 February 1998
18:45
Sweden  5–2
(2–0, 1–1, 2–1)
 Belarus Aqua Wing Arena, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 4,235

Final round[]

  Quarterfinals Semifinals Gold medal game
                           
  C1   Russia 4  
D4   Belarus 1  
  C1   Russia 7  
  C3   Finland 4  
D2   Sweden 1
  C3   Finland 2  
    C1   Russia 0
  C2   Czech Republic  1
  D1   Canada 4  
C4   Kazakhstan 1  
  D1   Canada 1 Bronze medal game
  C2   Czech Republic  2  
C2   Czech Republic  4 D1   Canada 2
  D3   United States of America 1   C3   Finland 3

Quarter-finals[]

All times are local (UTC+9).

18 February 1998
14:45
Czech Republic  4–1
(0–1, 3–0, 1–0)
 United States of America The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,822
18 February 1998
14:45
Russia  4–1
(1–0, 1–0, 2–1)
 Belarus Aqua Wing Arena, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 4,628
18 February 1998
18:45
Canada  4–1
(2–1, 2–0, 0–0)
 Kazakhstan The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,602
18 February 1998
18:45
Sweden  1–2
(0–0, 0–0, 1–2)
 Finland Aqua Wing Arena, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 5,044

Semi-finals[]

All times are local (UTC+9).

20 February 1998
14:45
Canada  1–2 SO
(0–0, 0–0, 1–1, 0–0)
(SO: 0–1)
 Czech Republic The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,854
20 February 1998
18:45
Russia  7–4
(2–0, 2–3, 3–1)
 Finland The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,640

Bronze medal game[]

All times are local (UTC+9).

21 February 1998
15:15
Canada  2–3
(1–2, 1–0, 0–1)
 Finland 3 The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 9,875

Gold medal game[]

All times are local (UTC+9).

22 February 1998
13:45
2 Russia  0–1
(0–0, 0–0, 0–1)
 Czech Republic 1 The Big Hat, Nagano, Japan
Attendance: 10,010

Statistics[]

Average age[]

Team Canada was the oldest team in the tournament, with an average age of 30 years. Team Kazakhstan was the youngest, averaging 26 years and 11 months. The gold medal-winning Czech Republic team averaged 27 years and 2 months. The tournament average was 28 years and 1 month.[3]

Leading scorers[]

Rank Player 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 Aleksandr Koreshkov  Kazakhstan 7 3 6 9 2
5 Philippe Bozon  France 4 5 2 7 4
6 Konstantin 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 Čaloun
Roman Čechmánek
Jiří Dopita
Roman Hamrlík
Dominik Hašek
Milan Hejduk
Milan Hnilička
Jaromír Jágr
František Kučera
Robert Lang
David Moravec
Pavel Patera
Libor Procházka
Martin Procházka
Robert Reichel
Martin Ručínský
Vladimír Růžička-C
Jiří Šlégr
Richard Šmehlík
Jaroslav Špaček
Martin Straka
Petr Svoboda
 Russia
Pavel Bure-C
Valeri Bure
Oleg Chevtsov
Sergei Fedorov
Sergei Gonchar
Alexei Gusarov
Valeri Kamensky
Darius Kasparaitis
Andrei Kovalenko
Igor Kravchuk
Sergei Krivokrasov
Boris Mironov
Dmitri Mironov
Alexei Morozov
Sergei Nemchinov
Mikhail Shtalenkov
German Titov
Andrei Trefilov
Alexei Yashin
Dmitri Yushkevich
Valeri Zelepukin
Alexei Zhitnik
Alexei Zhamnov
 Finland
Aki-Petteri 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
Teemu Selänne
Ari Sulander
Jukka Tammi
Esa Tikkanen
Kimmo Timonen
Antti Törmänen
Juha Ylönen

Source:

Roster notes[]

Several of general manager Bobby Clarke's selections for Team Canada were controversial. Eric Lindros was named captain over longtime leaders such as Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman, and Ray Bourque (Clarke at the time was general manager of Lindros's NHL team, the Philadelphia Flyers).[4] Rob Zamuner was a surprise pick, while Mark Messier and Scott Niedermayer were omitted.[5] Japanese fans were disappointed when their adopted hero, Paul Kariya, a Canadian of Japanese heritage and one of Canada's best stars, failed to make the Games due to a head injury sustained from a crosscheck by Gary Suter during regular season NHL play.[6][7][8]

Memorably, during the shootout in their semifinal match against the Czech Republic, Canadian coach Marc Crawford opted to have defenceman Ray Bourque shoot in the shootout instead of high-scoring forwards Wayne Gretzky and Steve Yzerman. Hockey commentators alternatively criticized Crawford's decision (Bourque, like the other four Canadian shooters, failed to score) or 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.

Controversy[]

Swedish player Ulf Samuelsson was discovered to have applied for American citizenship. Under Swedish law at the time, when one acquires a foreign passport, their citizenship is annulled. Samuelsson was ejected after having played the first game against Belarus, although Sweden kept their points from the win. The Czech National Olympic Committee felt that Sweden should lose the points and filed a protest with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which was rejected.[9]

The United States team, loaded with 17 NHL stars, was eliminated in the first game of the knockout round, and responded by trashing their rooms in the Olympic Village. Three apartments were vandalized, ten chairs were broken and three fire extinguishers were emptied. Six of those chairs and one fire extinguisher were thrown down five stories into a courtyard.[10][11]

Final rankings[]

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

These standings are presented as the IIHF has them,[12] however both the NHL an IOC maintain that all quarterfinal losers are ranked equal at 5th.[13][14]

References[]

External links[]

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