The 1982 Ice Hockey World Championships

Ice Hockey World Championships

The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation . First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, it is the sport's highest profile annual international tournament. The IIHF was created in 1908 while the European...

took place in Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

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

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

 and Tampere

Tampere

Tampere is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of , growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in...

. Eight teams took part, and each played each other once. The four best teams then played each other once more. This was the 48th World Championships, and also the 59th European Championships of ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

. The Soviet Union became World Champions for the 18th time, and also won their 21st European Championship.

The tournament is notable since Canada, reinforced halfway into the first round by Wayne Gretzky

Wayne Gretzky

Wayne Douglas Gretzky, CC is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. Nicknamed "The Great One", he is generally regarded as the best player in the history of the National Hockey League , and has been called "the greatest hockey player ever" by many sportswriters,...

, would have won the silver, if the Soviet team had won against Czechoslovakia in the final game. However, the teams tied the game 0-0. Gretzky did score more points than any other player in the tournament (14), in this, his only appearance in the World Championships.

Other notable events include: The Czechs lost to the Germans for the first time in forty-five years. The Italians, by beating the Americans, became the first promoted team since the tournament expanded to eight, to survive relegation. And they did so using seventeen Italian Canadians.

First Round

	Team	Games	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points difference	Points
1		7	7	0	0	48 - 16	14
2		7	4	1	2	33 - 14	9
3		7	3	3	1	24 - 22	9
4		7	3	2	2	32 - 22	8
5		7	3	1	3	21 - 31	7
6		7	2	1	4	19 - 30	5
7		7	1	1	5	20 - 44	3
8		7	0	1	6	21 - 39	1

The USA was relegated to Group B.

Final Round

	Team	Games	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points difference	Points
1		10	9	1	0	58 - 20	19
2		10	5	2	3	38 - 20	12
3		10	5	2	3	46 - 30	12
4		10	3	3	4	26 - 35	9

World Championship Group B (Austria)

Played in Klagenfurt

Klagenfurt

-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...

 March 18-27. Like the finals of Group A, Group B ended with controversy. After the Chinese had defeated the Dutch (relegating them), only a tie between Romania and Switzerland would offer China relegation. The "scandalous parody game" ended in a three all tie, with Romania having three head-to-head points, Switzerland two, and China one.

	Team	Games	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points difference	Points
9		7	6	1	0	48 - 25	13
10		7	4	1	2	33 - 26	9
11		7	4	1	2	42 - 23	9
12		7	3	0	4	24 - 43	6
13		7	2	1	4	27 - 30	5
14		7	1	3	3	20 - 27	5
15		7	2	1	4	32 - 47	5
16		7	2	0	5	22 - 27	4

East Germany was promoted to Group A, and both China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 and the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 were relegated.

World Championship Group C (Spain)

Played in Jaca

Jaca

Jaca is a city of northeastern Spain near the border with France, in the midst of the Pyrenees in the province of Huesca...

 march 19-28.

	Team	Games	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points difference	Points
17		7	7	0	0	70 - 14	14
18		7	5	0	2	59 - 22	10
19		7	4	1	2	35 - 20	9
20		7	4	0	3	47 - 30	8
21		7	4	0	3	43 - 29	8
22		7	2	1	4	29 - 30	5
23		7	1	0	6	26 - 50	2
24		7	0	0	7	13 - 127	0

Both Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

were promoted to Group B.

World Championship Medal Table

1982 World Championships	Country
Gold
Silver
Bronze
4
5
6
7
8

European Championship Medal Table

1982 European Championships	Country
Gold
Silver
Bronze
4
4
6