Soviet Union national ice hockey team

The Soviet national ice hockey team was the national hockey team of the Soviet Union. The team won nearly every world championship and Olympic tournament between 1954 and 1991 and never failed to medal in any International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) tournament they competed in.

Contents

• Stats
• Summit Series record
• Challenge Cup and Rendez vous vs NHL All Stars
• Notable players
• Notable coaches
• Popular culture
• References

After 1991, the Soviet team competed as the Unified Team at the 1992 Winter Olympics and as the Commonwealth of Independent States at the 1992 World Championship. In 1993, it was replaced by national teams for Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine. The IIHF recognized the Russian ice hockey federation as the successor to the Soviet Union hockey federation and passed its ranking on to Russia. The other national hockey teams were considered new and sent to compete in Pool C.

The IIHF Team of the Century included four Soviet-Russian players out of a team of six (with only Canadian centre Wayne Gretzky and Swedish defenceman Borje Salming being the non-Soviet players to make the team). Goalie Vladislav Tretiak, defenseman Vyacheslav Fetisov and forwards Valeri Kharlamov and Sergei Makarov who played for the Soviet teams in the 1970s and the 1980s were voted on to the IIHF Centennial All-Star Team in a poll conducted by a group of 56 experts from 16 countries.