The men's tournament marked the second Olympic Games where the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

took a break to allow all its players the opportunity to play. The break lasted for 12 days, from February 14 to February 25.

Summary

Fourteen countries played in the tournament. Six hockey powers (

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

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, ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

) were automatically admitted to the final eight. The other eight countries (

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, and

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

) played in a preliminary round in two pools. The winners of those pools,

and

, advanced to the final round with the six hockey powers. The biggest surprise of the tournament was Belarus, 0–3–0 in Group D play, knocking off 3–0–0 Sweden in quarterfinal play. After that upset, the Swedish media held their players responsible for the loss, even going as far to publish their NHL salaries. The players responded by not returning to Sweden during the NHL break, although that was unlikely since the Olympics were held in the same continent as their NHL teams and play resumed soon after the Olympics ended. Another major surprise was the silver-medal finish of Team USA, which was not considered a contender as it was steeped heavily in over-30 veterans. Although it retained most of the players from the 1998 team which had performed below expectations, this time it was coached by Herb Brooks, who had been responsible for the " Miracle on Ice" over the Soviet Union during the 1980 Winter Olympics. Despite being close to the ends of their NHL careers, Mike Richter and Phil Housley put up phenomenal performances.

Brett Hull Brett Andrew Hull (born August 9, 1964) is a Canadians, Canadian–Americans, American former ice hockey player and general manager, and currently an executive vice president of the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL). He played f ...

, John LeClair, and Mike Modano formed the "Divine Line" which led the tournament in scoring. USA and Russia played to a 2–2 tie in their group game, drawing some comparisons to the famous 1980 Miracle game. Ending up, USA finished second behind Sweden in the round robin results. USA and Russia met again in the semi-finals of the tournament. The USA's victory over Russia came coincidentally on the 22-year anniversary of the " Miracle on Ice", the upset of the Soviet Union team, at Lake Placid in 1980 (also a Friday). The Americans stormed out to a 3–0 lead for the first two periods, before withstanding a two-goal rally from the Russians to advance. Russian coach Slava Fetisov, one of the stars for the 1980 Soviet squad, complained about the selection of NHL referees to officiate Olympic matches (a stipulation by the NHL if most Olympic players are NHLers) and charged that officials were trying to fix a Canada-USA final for North American audiences. However, Russian goalie Nikolai Khabibulin thought that the refereeing was fair, having faced 38 shots in the first two periods and 49 overall. Canada had a lackluster start, losing 5–2 to Sweden, only managing to defeat Germany by a score of 3–2, and drawing with the Czech Republic. These performances prompted an emotional response from Team Canada manager Wayne Gretzky, in particular the referee's failure to call a clear hit from behind on Canada's Theoren Fleury in the game against the Czech Republic. However, Canada improved in the elimination round, defeating Finland 2–1, and easily sweeping surprise semi-finalist Belarus 7–1. Canada and the US faced off in the final. For both nations, the gold-medal game came coincidentally on the anniversary of each nation's last gold medal in men's Olympic hockey. Canada last won 50 years previously at the 1952 Winter Olympics when they tied the US 3–3 (Olympic ice hockey previously only had a round-robin portion). The US won their last gold medal when they defeated Finland two days after "The Miracle on Ice" in 1980. Both games, coincidentally, were played on a Sunday. The Canada-USA final was tied at 2–2, however Canada then scored three goals to win 5–2. It was only the second time and first in 70 years that the US men's hockey team lost an Olympic game on home soil. The first loss came against Canada (a 2–1 OT loss) in their first game at the

1932 Winter Olympics The 1932 Winter Olympics, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Lake Placid 1932, were a winter multi-sport event in the United States, held in Lake Placid, New York, United States. The games opened on February 4 ...

in Lake Placid. TV ratings for Canada vs USA gold medal matchup were the highest in Olympic history to that time. In the United States, NBC's live coverage of the gold medal hockey game drew a 10.7 rating, the highest-rated hockey game, Olympic or NHL, since the 1980 Winter Olympics and was the largest network hockey audience in the U.S. in 22 years. In Canada, the CBC said that the game drew 10.6 million viewers, making the game was the most-watched CBC Sports program. As the final seconds ticked away, veteran CBC Sports commentator Bob Cole called: "Now after 50 years, it's time for Canada to stand up and cheer. Stand up and cheer everybody! The Olympics Salt Lake City, 2002, men's ice hockey, gold medal: Canada!" The CBC also said that the 10.6 million viewers broke the previous record of 4.957 million viewers for Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals, another moment Cole himself called: "Here comes the faceoff and blare it Manhattan! The New York Rangers have done it here on a hot June night in New York! The Rangers are Stanley Cup Champions!" During the final, the legend of the lucky loonie was born when Canadian icemaker Trent Evans buried a one dollar coin (Loonie) under centre ice and both the Canadian men's and women's teams won gold. Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan became the second and third players to win the Olympic Gold Medal in hockey (with Team Canada) and the

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup () is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ic ...

(with the

Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the East ...

) in the same year, the first to win an Olympic Gold and Stanley Cup was Ken Morrow in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

. Chris Chelios and

became the second and third players to win Olympic Silver Medal in hockey (with Team USA) and Stanley Cup in the same year ( Sergei Fedorov was the first in 1998). The format of the tournament was the same one used in the 1998 tournament in Nagano. It was controversial because the

clubs would not release their players for the preliminary round. This severely hampered the campaigns of

and

, although the former country managed 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 changed for the 2006 tournament in an effort to address these criticisms.

Qualifying

The final standings at the end of the 1999 IIHF World Championship were used to determine the path to the Olympic tournament. The top six places were given direct entry to the first round, places seven and eight were given direct entry to the preliminary round, and all other participants were seeded in qualifying tournaments to fill the remaining six spots.
This chart
shows the seeding path for all nations, in detail.

Preliminary round

Group A

Top team (shaded) advanced to the first round.

All times are local ( UTC-7).

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Group B

Top team (shaded) advanced to the first round.

All times are local ( UTC-7).

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Consolation round

13th place game

11th place game

9th place game

First round

Group C

All times are local ( UTC-7).

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Group D

All times are local ( UTC-7).

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Final round

Quarter-finals

All times are local ( UTC-7).

Semi-finals

All times are local ( UTC-7).

Bronze medal game

All times are local ( UTC-7).

Gold medal game

All times are local ( UTC-7).

Final rankings

These standings are presented as the IIHF has them, however both the NHL and IOC maintain that all quarterfinal losers are ranked equal at 5th.

Statistics

Average age

Team USA was the oldest team in the tournament, averaging 31 years and 10 months. Team Slovakia was the youngest team in the tournament, averaging 26 years and 10 months. Gold medalists team Canada averaged 30 years and 3 months. Tournament average was 28 years and 9 months.

Scoring leaders

List shows the top ten skaters sorted by points, then goals. ''GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus–minus; PIM = Penalties in minutes; POS = Position''
Source
IIHF.com

Leading goaltenders

Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, are included in this list. ''TOI = Time on ice (minutes:seconds); GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; SA = Shots against; Sv% = Save percentage; SO =

Shutout In team sports, a shutout (North American English, US) or clean sheet (Commonwealth English, UK) is a game in which the losing team fails to score. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketba ...

s''
Source
IIHF.com

Awards

*Media All-Stars ** Goaltender: Mike Richter ** Defencemen: Brian Leetch, Chris Chelios ** Forwards: John LeClair, Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin *Most Valuable Player: Joe Sakic *Best players selected by the directorate: **Best Goaltender: Nikolai Khabibulin **Best

Defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the l ...

: Chris Chelios **Best Forward: Joe Sakic

References

External links

Official results for men's tournament

Official structure and seeding for men's qualification and Olympic tournament

Salt Lake City 2002 – Results – Ice hockey – Men
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ice Hockey At The 2002 Winter Olympics Match Stats (Men) Men's Men's events at the 2002 Winter Olympics