1982 Ice Hockey World Championships

1982 Ice Hockey World Championships

Tournament details
Host country	Finland
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Dates	15–29 April
Teams	8
Final positions
Champions	Soviet Union (18th title)
Runner-up	Czechoslovakia
Third place	Canada
Fourth place	Sweden
Tournament statistics
Games played	34
Goals scored	249 (7.32 per game)
Attendance	193,224 (5,683 per game)
Scoring leader(s)	Wayne Gretzky 14 points
← 1981 1983 →

The 1982 Ice Hockey World Championships took place in Finland from the 15 April to the 29 April. The games were played in Helsinki and Tampere 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 of ice hockey. 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 after the Edmonton Oilers were shockingly knocked out of the Stanley Cup playoffs by 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.^[1][2] 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".^[1]

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.^[1] The Italians (with a squad boasting seventeen Italian Canadians), beat the Americans and became the first promoted team to survive relegation since the tournament expanded to eight teams in 1959.^[1] The tourney was a disaster for the Americans; just two years after winning gold at the 1980 Winter Olympics, 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, the chief executive officer of SM-liiga.^[3]