Ten quirky facts about Moscow’s Worlds history

Originally written for the IIHF News Release in 2007

By Lucas Aykroyd

Some facts about the four previous IIHF World Championships held in Moscow are common knowledge among hockey fans. Tre Kronor supporters cherish the memory of their team’s 4-4 tie with the Soviet Union at Lenin Stadium on March 5, 1957, because the result gave Sweden its first-ever IIHF gold medal, and the attendance of 55,000 remains the largest in international hockey history. Russian fans can tell you right away who won the tournament scoring title in 1973: IIHF Hall of Famer Vladimir Petrov earned a record-setting 18 goals and 16 assists in 10 games as the USSR marched to the gold medal with a 100-18 goal differential.

But here are 10 lesser-known tidbits about those tournaments:

1. At age 42, Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek is the only active NHLer who played in the last Moscow-based IIHF World Championship in 1986. (Although Hasek posted a 2.12 GAA in nine games, Czechoslovakia placed fifth.) Sweden’s Fredrik Olausson was the last active player from ’86 in a European elite league this season, playing 12 games for Farjestad, but the 41-year-old defenseman retired in December due to illness.

2. West Germany’s Udo Kiessling was the only player who suited up for his national team in Moscow in 1973, 1979, and 1986. While this tough defenseman barely made an impression in the NHL (one game with Minnesota in 1982), the three-time German Player of the Year appeared in 13 World Championships overall.

3. All three American goalies in 1986 would go on to earn Stanley Cup rings, a feat never matched by any other World Championship team’s trio: Tom Barrasso (Pittsburgh, 1991 and 1992), Mike Richter (1994), and Chris Terreri (New Jersey, 1995).

4. 2007 marks the first time ever Poland will not take part in a Moscow-based World Championship.

5. When Sweden won gold in 1957, captain Lars “Lasse” Bjorn was asked to lead his team in a rendition of the national anthem, “Du Gamla, Du Fria.” However, the big blueliner’s mind went blank in front of the huge crowd. The only song he could remember was “Heland Ger” (“Let’s Drink It All”), a popular barroom ditty, so that’s what he sang instead.

6. Another Swedish defenseman from the ’57 team showed his ability to use his head in a crucial 2-0 win over Czechoslovakia on February 27, 1957. Though helmetless like his peers at the time, Leksand’s Vilgot Larsson deliberately blocked a shot with his face. Saving a goal was worth a few stitches.

7. In the days of Communism, capitalist advertising was a novelty for Soviet youths. During the 1973 tournament, some were apparently quite taken by the rinkboard ads for Jockey shorts, Turtle Wax, Gillette razor blades, and other products not sold in the USSR. A group decided to put up imitation ads on the boards of a neighborhood rink in Moscow’s Lomonovsky district, but the authorities quickly took them down.

8. Perhaps no coach has ever been as emotional about losing a bronze medal as Finland’s Rauno Korpi in 1986. After falling 4-3 to Canada and failing to secure what would have been his nation’s first-ever IIHF medal, Korpi could only say, “We lost because Canada scored one more goal than we did,” before bursting into tears. He wept again upon returning to Finland and being confronted by reporters at Helsinki Airport.

9. Superstar center Marcel Dionne was in a foul mood after Canada finished fourth in 1979. He colorfully vented to the Toronto Globe and Mail’s Allen Abel: “Only the media can change things at home. Tell them how the European teams play with so much skill. Tell them how they play without fighting. Make them realize that if a boy cannot skate and shoot, if he can only fight, then he cannot be allowed to be a hockey player. There are so many dumb people running hockey, so dumb, so dumb. Tell them.”

10. The team that gave the champion Soviets the most difficulty in 1979? Unquestionably West Germany. Beating Czechoslovakia 11-1, Sweden 11-3, and Canada 9-2 (among other lopsided scores) came naturally. But it was only 3-2 in round-robin action versus the Germans, who poured off the bench to celebrate their two second-period goals. If Russian forward Yuri Lebedev hadn’t gotten 12 minutes for spearing, the score might not have been so close. German coach Hans Rampf didn’t pull his goalie in search of a late equalizer, however. According to Canadian-born defenseman Bob Murray, Rampf said “it was nice enough to lose 3-2” to such a powerful opponent.