Ice hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympics – Men's tournament

The men's ice hockey tournament at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, was the 19th Olympic Championship. The Czech Republic, which emerged from the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, won its first gold medal, becoming the seventh nation to win Olympic ice hockey gold. The tournament, held from February 7 to February 22, was played at the Big Hat and Aqua Wing arenas.

This was the first Olympics in which the National Hockey League (NHL) took a break (17 days, from February 8 to February 24) allowing national teams to include NHL players from each country. Unlike basketball's Dream Team in 1992, where the players stayed in a hotel in Barcelona due to security concerns, NHL players stayed in the Olympic Village due to improved security measures.

The favored Canadian team, despite a strong start in the round robin, lost their semifinal match against the Czech Republic in a shootout. Finland then beat Canada in the bronze medal game 3–2. In the final, the Czech Republic defeated Russia 1–0 to win the gold medal, with goaltender Dominik Hašek producing a memorable performance throughout the tournament.

Rosters

Qualification

Preliminary round All times are local (UTC+9).

Group A

Group B

Consolation round

13th place match

11th place match

9th place match

First round

Group C

Group D

Final round

Quarterfinals

Semi-finals

Bronze medal game

Gold medal game

Statistics

Average age Team Canada was the oldest team in the tournament, with an average age of 30 years. Team Kazakhstan was the youngest, averaging 26 years and 11 months. The gold medal-winning Czech Republic team averaged 27 years and 2 months. The tournament average was 28 years and 1 month.

Leading scorers RankPlayer 1546108 2628104 369092 473692 545274 674376 745168 864262 963360 1062464 1161568

Medal-winning rosters Josef Beránek Jan Čaloun Roman Čechmánek Jiří Dopita Roman Hamrlík Dominik Hašek Milan Hejduk Milan Hnilička Jaromír Jágr František Kučera Robert Lang David Moravec Pavel Patera Libor Procházka Martin Procházka Robert Reichel Martin Ručinský Vladimír Růžička-C Jiří Šlégr Richard Šmehlík Jaroslav Špaček Martin Straka Petr Svoboda Pavel Bure-C Valeri Bure Oleg Chevtsov Sergei Fedorov Sergei Gonchar Alexei Gusarov Valeri Kamensky Darius Kasparaitis Andrei Kovalenko Igor Kravchuk Sergei Krivokrasov Boris Mironov Dmitri Mironov Alexei Morozov Sergei Nemchinov Mikhail Shtalenkov German Titov Andrei Trefilov Alexei Yashin Dmitri Yushkevich Valeri Zelepukin Alexei Zhitnik Alexei Zhamnov Aki-Petteri Berg Tuomas Grönman Raimo Helminen Sami Kapanen Saku Koivu-C Jari Kurri Janne Laukkanen Jere Lehtinen Juha Lind Jyrki Lumme Jarmo Myllys Mika Nieminen Janne Niinimaa Teppo Numminen Ville Peltonen Kimmo Rintanen Teemu Selänne Ari Sulander Jukka Tammi Esa Tikkanen Kimmo Timonen Antti Törmänen Juha Ylönen Source: Gold – Silver – Bronze –

Controversy Several of general manager Bobby Clarke's selections for Team Canada were controversial. 24-year-old Eric Lindros was named captain over longtime leaders such as Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman and Ray Bourque (Clarke at the time was general manager of Lindros's NHL team, the Philadelphia Flyers). Rob Zamuner was a surprise pick for the team, while Mark Messier, Adam Oates, Ron Francis, Doug Gilmour and Scott Niedermayer were omitted. Japanese fans were disappointed when their adopted hero, Paul Kariya, a Canadian of Japanese heritage and one of Canada's best players, failed to make the Games due to a head injury sustained from a crosscheck by Gary Suter during regular season NHL play.

Memorably, during the shootout in their semifinal match against the Czech Republic, Canadian coach Marc Crawford opted to have defenceman Ray Bourque shoot in the shootout instead of high-scoring forwards Wayne Gretzky and Steve Yzerman. Hockey commentators alternatively criticized Crawford's decision (Bourque, like the other four Canadian shooters, failed to score) or praised it on the grounds that Bourque was one of hockey's most accurate shooters at the time and Gretzky had always been surprisingly mediocre on breakaways. Canada lost the shootout not scoring once.

Swedish player Ulf Samuelsson was discovered to have applied for American citizenship by reporters. Under Swedish law at the time, when one acquires a foreign passport, their citizenship is annulled. Samuelsson was ejected after having played the first game against Belarus, although Sweden kept their points from the win. The Czech National Olympic Committee felt that Sweden should lose the points and filed a protest with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which was rejected., Story #72–Reporter's scoop reveals that Samuelsson is not a Swede in Nagano-98.

The United States team, loaded with 17 NHL stars, was eliminated in the first game of the knockout round, and responded by trashing their rooms in the Olympic Village. Three apartments were vandalized, ten chairs were broken and three fire extinguishers were emptied. Six of those chairs and one fire extinguisher were thrown down five stories into a courtyard.

Final rankings Team 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th These standings are presented as the IIHF has them,IIHF Media Guide and Record Book (2011) p. 118 however both the NHL and IOC maintain that all quarterfinal losers are ranked equal at 5th.National Hockey League Official Guide and Record Book (2002) p.13LA84 foundation Official Report of the XVIII Olympic Winter Games p.168

Ice hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympics – Men's tournament

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