1982 World Ice Hockey Championships

Updated on Oct 24, 2023

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Host country Finland Teams 8 Runner-up Czechoslovakia		Dates 15–29 April Venue(s) 2 (in 2 host cities)
Champions Soviet Union (18th title)

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. 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. 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, 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 his only appearance at the World Championships, but the Soviet Union's Viktor Shalimov was selected as the "Best Forward" of the tournament.

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

The United States was relegated to Group B.

World Championship Group B (Austria)

Played in Klagenfurt 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.

East Germany was promoted to Group A, and both China and the Netherlands were relegated.