The 1982

Ice Hockey World Championships The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), first officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics. The IIHF was created in 1908 while the I ...

took place in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

from the 15 April to the 29 April. The games were played in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

and

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

with eight teams playing a single round-robin, followed by the top four teams playing each other once more. This was the 48th World Championships, and also the 59th

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

. The Soviet Union became World Champions for the 18th time, and also won their 21st European Championship. The tournament is notable since Canada, reinforced by

Wayne Gretzky Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...

after the

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. Th ...

were shockingly knocked out of the Stanley Cup playoffs by

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, would have won the silver medal if the Soviet team had beaten Czechoslovakia in the final game. However, the teams played to a scoreless tie, knocking the Canadians down to the bronze; this led to speculation that the Soviets and Czechs had played to a draw on purpose.Summary
/ref> Gretzky did score more points than any other player in the tournament (14), in his only appearance at the World Championships, but the Soviet Union's Viktor Shalimov was selected as "Best Forward". Other notable events include the Czechs' loss to West Germany for the first time in forty-five years, since being beaten in triple overtime to then-Nazi Germany in 1937. The Italians (with a squad boasting seventeen

Italian Canadians Italian Canadians or Italo-Canadians (; ) are Canadian-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who migrated to Canada as part of the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Canada. Accordin ...

), beat the Americans and became the first promoted team to survive relegation since the tournament expanded to eight teams in 1959. The tourney was a disaster for the Americans; just two years after winning gold at the

1980 Winter Olympics The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from February 13 to 24, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York, United States. Lake Placid was elected ...

, they lost every game but one, a tie with West Germany on the final day. The U.S. was thus relegated to Group B for 1983 (they won that tourney and were promoted in 1984 to the top group, where they have been ever since). Organization of the tournament was overseen by

Kalervo Kummola Kalervo Juhani Kummola (born 21 November 1945) is a Finnish ice hockey executive, businessman, and politician. He co-founded the hockey club Kiekko-67 at age 21, was later marketing director for HC TPS, HC Turun Palloseura, and chief executive o ...

, the chief executive officer of

SM-liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mest ...

World Championship Group A (Finland)

First round

''The United States was relegated to Group B.''

Final round

World Championship Group B (Austria)

Played in Klagenfurt, Austria from March 18–27. Like the finals of Group A, the Group B tournament also ended in controversy. After the Chinese had defeated the Dutch (relegating them), China would also avoid relegation -- unless Romania and Switzerland played to a tie. They did just that (3-3) on March 27, in a match derided as a "scandalous parody" by some observers; Romania thus finished with three head-to-head points, Switzerland two, and China one, relegating the Chinese. ''

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

was promoted to Group A, and both China and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

were relegated.''

World Championship Group C (Spain)

Played in

Jaca Jaca (; in Aragonese language, Aragonese: ''Chaca'' or ''Xaca'') is a city of northeastern Spain in the province of Huesca (province), Huesca, located near the Pyrenees and the border with France. Jaca is an ancient fort on the Aragón (river), ...

March 19–28. ''Both Japan and

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

were promoted to Group B.''

Ranking

Tournament Awards

*Best players selected by the directorate: **Best Goaltender:

Jiří Králík Jiří Králík (born 11 April 1952 in Gottwaldov, Czechoslovakia) is a retired professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the Czechoslovak Extraliga. He played for HC Jihlava. He was a member of the Czechoslovak 1981 Canada Cu ...

**Best Defenceman:

Viacheslav Fetisov Viacheslav Alexandrovich "Slava" Fetisov State Duma, MP (; born 20 April 1958) is a Russian former professional ice hockey defenceman, coach, politician and sports official. He played for HC CSKA Moscow for 13 seasons before joining the National ...

**Best

Forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

: Viktor Shalimov *Media All-Star Team: **Goaltender: Jiří Králík **Defence: Viacheslav Fetisov,

Alexei Kasatonov Alexei Viktorovich Kasatonov (; born 14 October 1959) is a Russian former ice hockey defenceman, who was a long-time member of the Soviet Union national ice hockey team. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2009. Career On the interna ...

**Forwards:

Bill Barber William Charles Barber (born July 11, 1952) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward who played twelve seasons for the Philadelphia Flyers in the National Hockey League (NHL). As part of the famed LCB ( Leach, Clarke, Barber) line, ...

, Sergei Makarov

Final standings

The final standings of the tournament according to

IIHF The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; ; ) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries. The IIHF maintains the IIHF World Ranking based on international ice hockey tourn ...

European championships final standings

The final standings of the

European championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

according to

Scoring leaders

List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals.

Citations

References

Complete results
* * {{IIHF Ice Hockey European Championships IIHF Men's World Ice Hockey Championships

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

World Ice Hockey Championships, 1982 International sports competitions in Helsinki World Ice Hockey 1980s in Helsinki Sports competitions in Tampere World Ice Hockey 1981–82 in Austrian ice hockey 1981–82 in Spanish ice hockey International ice hockey competitions hosted by Austria International ice hockey competitions hosted by Spain Sports competitions in Klagenfurt