Ice hockey at the 1972 Winter Olympics
 |
|
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country |
 Japan
|
| Dates | 3–13 February |
| Teams | 11 |
| Final positions | |
Champions 
|
 Soviet Union (4th title)
|
Runner-up 
|
 United States
|
Third place 
|
 Czechoslovakia
|
| Fourth place |
 Sweden
|
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 30 |
| Goals scored | 235 (7.83 per match) |
| Scoring leader(s) |
Valeri Kharlamov 16 points
|
The men's ice hockey tournament (women's was added in 1998) at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, was the 12th Olympic Championship. Games were held at the Makomanai Ice Arena and at the Tsukisamu Indoor Skating Rink. The Soviet Union won its fourth gold medal. The United States won the silver, while Czechoslovakia won the bronze. Canada, historically the most successful team in the tournament with six titles amongst 10 medals in the 11 Olympic competitions-to-date, failed to send a team to the event for the first time since ice hockey was first competed at the Olympics in 1920, instead competing with and defeating the Soviets in a competition later that year known as the Summit Series. Canada would not send a men's hockey team to the Olympics until 1980.
For the first time since ice hockey was introduced at the Olympic Games in 1920, Canada failed to send a team to the 1972 Olympics after Canadian Minister of Health and Welfare John Munro announced the withdrawal of the team from all international competitions in response to the International Ice Hockey Federation opposition to allowing professional players at international competitions. Canadian officials were frustrated that their best players, competing in the National Hockey League, were prevented from playing while Soviet players, who were "employees" of the industrial or military organizations that fielded "amateur" teams, were allowed to compete. At that point, the Canadian men's ice hockey team was the most successful team in the world, having won six of the eleven tournaments previously competed, with medals in ten of the eleven tournaments (and a controversial post-tournament rule change denying them a perfect eleven medals). Canada would not compete internationally in hockey until 1977, when the IIHF adopted eligibility rules that allowed for professional players to compete. Instead of competing internationally at the Olympics, Canadian officials helped organize a series of games against the Soviet Union in 1972 known as the Summit Series.
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