Two goals inside of 24 seconds from VALERY KHARLAMOV (left) and ALEXANDER YAKUSHEV (right) with under five minutes remaining lifted the USSR to a dramatic 4-3 decision over Czechoslovakia on the final day at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria.

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As classic a de facto Gold Medal Match as Olympic history has to offer…

Ever since half a million soldiers from the armies of the SOVIET UNION and other Warsaw Pact nations invaded CZECHOSLOVAKIA back in 1968, international sporting events between the two nations had soared to new heights for intensity as well as competitiveness — especially in ice hockey. 

Even before the decisive final twenty minutes at the finale of the 1976 Winter Olympic tournament, one cannot say that Czechoslovakia did not have ample opportunity to defeat the Soviet Union and deliver a powerful message of symbolic revenge in the final game at Innsbruck.

At the clash of Eastern-bloc arch-rivals and contemporary international ice hockey powerhouses in the Austria Alps, the USSR were shooting for a fourth consecutive set of gold medals at the Winter Games; Czechoslovakia were coveting the first Olympic title in their nation’s history.

The Czechoslovaks, in fact, were already leading 2-0 thru centers MILAN NOVY (6) and IVAN HLINKA (10) midway through the second period when a glorious chance arrived. A pair of Soviets in the box gave Czechoslovakia a 5-on-3 power play which, however, went by the boards thanks to the noteable efforts of USSR center VLADIMIR SHADRIN (19) as well as defensemen YURI LIAPKIN (5) and GENNADY TSYGANKOV (7) on the penalty-kill.

Having earned the reprieve, the Soviets thereafter responded with goals from Shadrin and fellow centerman VLADIMIR PETROV (16) to knot the match and leave all to play for in the third period.

Czechoslovakia’s JIRI HOLOCEK (2) and the USSR’s VLADISLAV TRETIAK (20) each managed to keep all pucks out over the first half of the last period.

It is at this point that the uninterupted footage presented by WORLD HOCKEY begins, with roughly ten minutes left in the third at the OLYMPIA EISHALLE in Innsbruck and the score level at USSR 2 – CSSR 2 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMtNnAGQowc&feature=PlayList&p=39223EECA14DEC79&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=4

Roughly a 1:20 into the clip, the Czechoslovak captain and center of a doping scandal at Innsbruck, FRANTISEK POSPISIL (7), collects a Soviet clearance in his own end and skates the puck well behind his own net before embarking on a mid-ice rush. At the red line, the defenseman squares the puck for his streaking SONP Kladno teammate EDUARD NOVAK (22).

Once inside the Soviet zone and seemingly surrounded, the 29-year-old right wing quickly fires a wrist-shot that appears to take a deflection off of defenseman ALEANDER GUSEV (2) and fool Tretiak in the USSR goal. An indelible, if premature, celebration from Novak ensues. The Czechoslovaks are now nine minutes less two seconds from the Olympic gold medal.

A few minutes later, Czechoslovak will critically fail to widen their lead again, however. At the 4:35 mark of the clip, the veteran Olympian JIRI HOLIK (20) circles his own cage and heads down the right on a rink-length rush before deftly dishing the disc to BOHUSLAV STASTNY (12). Although at first apparently beaten, Tretiak is able to thwart the Tesla Pardubice wing with a last-ditch dive and literally save the game for the USSR.

For soon, the Soviet Union will strike back after the go-ahead goal-scorer Novak is sent to the penalty box with less than six minutes to play for a foul on BORIS MIKHAILOV (13) along the left wing boards.

The Czechoslovaks do not appear to be in such bad shape on the penalty-kill until Tysgankov pulls a smart move in front of his pursuer Novy’s bench and sends the speeding VIKTOR SHALIMOV (9) the puck. A procession of drop passes among Spartak players produces a goal-mouth scramble. Finally, Shalimov is able to poke the puck across to ALEXANDER YAKUSHEV (15) on the right and, in an instant, the game is tied.

Considering the earlier victory at Innsbruck Czechoslovakia were made to forfeit on account of Pospisil’s failed drug test following the Poland match, a draw was enough to do the deal for the Soviets in their last match.

Within a scant 24 seconds, however, the result was rendered beyond doubt for the finale at Innsbruck.

Petrov controls an offensive zone face-off and immediately slips the puck past defenseman JIRI BUBLA (19) to a wide-open VALERY KHARLAMOV (17) in front of the Czechoslovak goal. With Holocek now caught out of position, the whole of the net is at the CSKA Moscow left wing’s mercy. Kharlamov makes no mistake as the USSR surge suddenly ahead.

Four minutes minus one second still remain to be contested but it is almost immediately evident that the Czechoslovaks’ spirit has been effectively eliminated by the Soviets’ lightning-quick consecutive goals.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EdVRAJUv7aU&feature=PlayList&p=CC82D1F23532925D&index=14

The Soviets begin to practice some possession hockey in earnest and, thus, severely crimp Czechoslovakia’s chances for the two goals the blue helmets now require to take the gold medal.

In fact, it is the Soviets who have all the best opportunities the rest of the way; a single long wrist shot from Novak easily swept aside by Tretiak with under a minute to go summarized Czechoslovakia’s  most dangerous counterattack.

After the CSKA Moscow puck tamer turned away a desperation drive from outside the blueline by OLDRICH MACHAC (4) in the waning moments, the USSR’s run of Olympic supremacy since 1964 remained in tact.

For the fifth time in six appearances at the Winter Games, the Soviet Union are Olympic ice hockey champions.

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Additional highlight footage from the 1976 de facto Gold Medal Match at the Olympia Eishalle in Innsbruck.

The slow-motion shots of the third Soviet goal provides a different angle for the viewing connoisseur.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=X2c0fLOOSYE&feature=related

The uninhibited frustration to be found on the faces of the Czechoslovaks at their bench following Yakushev’s tying goal is rather insightful, as well.

Left : Czechoslovakia center MILAN NOVY

Right : Soviet Union center VLADMIR SHADRIN

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So as to better facilitate enjoyment of the footage from the classic confrontation that comprised the de facto Gold Medal Match for the 1976 Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria — the numerical rosters for the two competing nations of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union :

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SOVIET UNION — coaches — Boris KULAGIN and Konstantin LOKTEV

•   1 — G —– Alexander SIDELNIKOV – Soviet Wings — (did not play)
•   2 — D —– Alexander GUSEV — CSKA Moscow
•   3 — D —– Vladimir LUTCHENKO — CSKA Moscow
•   4 — D —– Sergei BABINOV — Soviet Wings
•   5 — D —– Yuri LIAPKIN — Spartak Moscow
•   6 — D —– Valery VASILIEV — Dynamo Moscow
•   7 — D —– Gennady TSYGANKOV — CSKA Moscow
•   8 — LW — Sergei KAPUSTIN — Soviet Wings
•   9 — RW — Viktor SHALIMOV — Spartak Moscow
• 10 — RW — Alexander MALTSEV — Dynamo Moscow
• 11 — LW — Boris ALEXANDROV — CSKA Moscow — (did not play)
• 13 — RW — Boris MIKHAILOV — CSKA Moscow
• 15 — LW —- Alexander YAKUSHEV — Spartak Moscow
• 16 — C —— Vladimir PETROV — CSKA Moscow
• 17 — LW —- Valery KHARLAMOV — CSKA Moscow
• 19 — C —— Vladimir SHADRIN — Spartak Moscow
• 20 — G —— Vladislav TRETIAK — CSKA Moscow
• 22 — C —— Viktor ZHLUKTOV — CSKA Moscow 

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CZECHOSLOVAKIA — coaches — Karel GUT and Jan STARSI

•   2 — G —– Jiri HOLOCEK — Sparta Prague
•   4 — D —– Oldrich MACHAC — ZKL Brno
•   5 — D —– Milan CHALUPA — Dukla Jihlava
•   6 — C —– Milan NOVY — SONP Kladno
•   7 — D —– Frantisek POSPISIL — SONP Kladno
•   8 — G —– Jiri CRHA — Tesla Pardubice — (did not play)
•   9 — D —– Miroslav DVORAK — Motor Ceske Budejovice
• 10 — C —– Ivan HLINKA — CHZ Litvinov
• 11 — LW — Josef AUGUSTA — Dukla Jihlava
• 12 — LW — Bohuslav STASTNY — Tesla Pardubice
• 17 — D —— Milan KAJKL — Skoda Plzen
• 19 — D —— Jiri BUBLA — CHZ Litivinov
• 20 — RW — Jiri HOLIK — Dukla Jihlava
• 21 — C —— Jiri NOVAK — Tesla Pardubice
• 22 — RW — Eduard NOVAK — SONP Kladno
• 23 — LW — Jaroslav POUZAR — Motor Ceske Budejovice
• 25 — RW — Vladimir MARTINEC — Tesla Pardubice
• 26 — LW — Bohuslav EBERMANN — Skoda Plzen

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Readers will note the USSR squad is comprised of skaters exclusively from the four Moscow-based clubs in the Soviet elite league whereas Czechoslovakia have eight different clubs represented from their top domestic circuit.

BORIS ALEXANDROV, who did not take a single shift for the Soviet Union in the Innsbruck finale versus Czechoslovakia, was the only ice hockey player from Kazakhstan to ever appear for the USSR at the Winter Olympic Games.

JIRI HOLIK appeared at no fewer than 17 major international tournaments for Czechoslovakia over the course of his career. Holik skated a total of 319 games, a national record, for Czechoslovakia in all international competitions.

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Despite his team’s disappointing 4-3 loss to the Soviet Union in the final match at the 1976 Innsbruck Games, the veteran Czechoslovakia forward JIRI HOLIK still had cause to feel like an Olympic champion.

In fact, the 31-year-old Dukla Jihlava winger had just accomplished what no other player in history ever had — a fourth medal for ice hockey at the Winter Olympic Games.

Interesting enough, Holik made his Olympic debut for Czechoslovakia in 1964 in the Austrian city of Innsbruck and, ultimately, ended his career at the Winter Games in 1976 in the very same arena at the foot of the Tyrolean Alps.

Holik, after two seasons in West Germany for SB Rosenheim, also completed his playing career in Austria with AT Stadlau Wien (Vienna) in 1981.

In a bit of irony, Holik’s opposite number in the de facto Gold Medal Match at Innsbruck in 1976, USSR goaltender VLADISLAV TRETIAK, became the next player to pocket a fourth Olympic medal at the 1984 Sarajevo Games in Yugoslavia.

Defenseman IGOR KRAVCHUK, who competed for the Soviet Union, Unified Team as well as Russia at the Winter Games, is the only other player to have ever totaled four medals for ice hockey at the Olympics.

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Several skaters from both squads at the de facto Gold Medal Match of the 1976 Innsbruck Games eventually headed west to play some more hockey at the tail end of their careers.

The authorities in Czechoslovakia, who had been allowing aging players to compete in Western Europe since the late 1960s, adopted a new transfer policy involving the professional National Hockey League in the summer of 1981.

Thus, former Czechoslovak national team players IVAN HLINKA and JIRI BUBLA joined the Vancouver Canucks hockey club who skated their way to the 1982 Stanley Cup finals before bowing to the-then two-time defending NHL champion, the New York Islanders. 

The following season, the 1982-83 schedule, MIROSLAV DVORAK put on the shirt of the Philadelphia Flyers, Jarosloav POUZAR checked in present for the Edmonton Oilers and MILAN NOVY went to the Washington Capitals.

Later, MILAN CHALUPA, after a total of three Winter Olympic Games for Czechoslovakia had a short cup of coffee for the Detroit Red Wings in 1984-85.

All were preceded by the backup goalkeeper for Czechoslovakia at Innsbruck, however. Tesla Pardubice netminder JIRI CRHA had defected the Iron Curtain following the 1978-79 and turned up in goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs in February of 1980. Then 29, Crha became the first Czechoslovak to ever bolt the domestic league and jump directly to an NHL club.

Crha and Chalupa were later long-time teammates for EHC Freiburg in West Germany.

The Czechoslovak Ice Hockey Federation had, after the 1969-70 season, discontinued the practice of allowing NHL participation to Czechoslovak players. JAROSLAV JIRIK had been the lone player sent to the St. Louis Blues for a single year, most of which was spent in the minors with the Kansas City Blues of the Central Hockey League.

Clearly, the Crha Case was of at least some influence to the the Czechoslovak authorities.

As for the rest of the silver medalists at Innsbruck, almost all spent were permitted to play at least a little in Western Europe eventually.

FRANTISEK POSPISIL, defenseman and captain of the Czechoslovakia national team, representing the title-winning host nation at the medal ceremonies for the 1972 IIHF World Championships in Prague.

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One of the most curious episodes in the history of ice hockey at the Winter Olympics coincided with the 1976 Innsbruck Games in Austria.

Following the third leg of the final round-robin the 31-year-old Czechoslovak captain, FRANTISEK POSPISIL, was among the players chosen at random to provide a sample to International Olympic Committee officials for anti-doping tests.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA, expected to challenge the Soviet Union for supremacy in the Tyrolean Alps, had just defeated their Warsaw Pact allies and northern neighbors POLAND 7-1 to remain unbeaten and untied. Pospisil, appearing at his third Winter Olympic Games, scored no goals in the match but did provide one assist.

The team physician of the Czechoslovak ice hockey squad, DR. OTTO TREFNY, immediately admitted that Pospisil had been given codeine to combat a viral infection. An outbreak of influenza had descended upon the Olympic village in Innsbruck and several of the Czechoslovak puck men had been affected. Later, it was disclosed that morphine, in addition to codeine, had been found in Pospisil’s sample, as well.

The International Ice Hockey Federation had formulated an anti-doping policy in the summer of 1969 and a drug-testing policy was initially implemented at the 1972 Winter Olympic Games in Sapporo, Japan. Two years later, at the 1974 World Championships in Helsinki, the IIHF had its first doping cases to contend with. Both center ULF NILSSON of Sweden and goalie STIG WETZELL of Finland had tested positive for the banned substance of ephedrine over the course of the tournament.

At Helsinki, the IIHF penalties were severe as both players upon failure were immediately expelled from competition and suspended from international play for eighteen months. The matches affected by the positive drug test results — Sweden’s 4-1 victory over Poland and host nation Finland’s 5-2 upset of Czechoslovakia — were overturned. In each instance, a 5-0 defeat for the offending player’s team went into the record books.

At the 1976 Winter Olympic Games, however, Pospisil’s failed drug test was, indeed, handled differently by the IIHF and IOC officials in Innsbruck.

The player Pospisil was allowed to continue to compete in the ice hockey tournament. The team doctor Trefny was, initially, banned from the Olympics for life. Czechoslovakia was stripped of its 7-1 win over Poland and instead assigned a 1-0 defeat; the Poles, significantly, were not given the corresponding victory in the standings at Innsbruck.

“The flu epidemic cannot be used as an excuse for breaking the rules,” announced PRINCE ALEXANDRE DE MERODE, the president of the IOC’s medical committee.

“Instead of punishing people who have taken medicine against the flu, the commission should have taken steps to stop the flu,” responded the coach of the Czechoslovakia ice hockey team, KAREL GUT.

Apparently unaffected by the Pospisil affair, the Czechoslovaks defeated their neighbors from West Germany 7-4 in the fourth round to set a winner-take-all showdown with their Eastern-bloc arch-rival, the Soviet Union.

VACLAV NEDOMANSKY (14) signals a goal for Czechoslovakia, left, and skates for the Toronto Toros in the WHA, right.

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There can be little doubt that VACLAV NEDOMANSKY would have been picked to play for Czechoslovakia at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria.

Unfortunately for Czechoslovak coaches KAREL GUT and JAN STARSI, however, the 32-year-old goal-scoring machine had bolted the Eastern bloc in the fall of 1974. The one-time Slovan Bratislava center was now taking his regular shifts for the Toronto Toros in the World Hockey Association. Although the powerful Czechoslovak ice hockey program did enjoy a relatively deep player pool from which to draw talent, Nedomansky’s loss was still significant.

Nedomansky, who had been chosen to the media All-Star squad at three IIHF World Championships, had scored 63 goals in 65 games for Czechoslovakia his last seven major international tournaments before defecting.

To this day Czechoslovakia’s all-time leader with 163 goals (from 220 international matches), Big Ned continued to pile up large numbers of lamp-lighters upon landing in North America.

The Olympic season of 1975-76, Nedomansky scored no fewer than 56 goals in 81 games for the Toros in the WHA. And, for any concerned that scoring came too easy in the old World Hockey Association, Nedomansky thereafter added campaigns of 38 and 35 goals, respectively, for the Detroit Red Wings in the late 1970s despite his ever-increasing age.

It is hard to state with certainty exactly what impact Vaclav Nedomansky would have had for Czechoslovakia at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games. It is easy to conclude Nedomansky would have, in all statistical likelihood, netted at least a few goals for his country had he competed at Innsbruck.

Whether or not Nedomansky would have definitely made a difference for Czechoslovakia in the 1976 Gold Medal Match with Soviet Union will always be open to speculation.

Toronto Maple Leafs' NHL All-Star defenseman BORJE SALMING (5) discusses matters with his older brother, defenseman STIG SALMING (8) of IF Brynas Galve, in preparation for the 1976 Canada Cup.

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In the fall of 1972, defenseman THOMMIE BERGMAN earned a place in the Detroit Red Wings line-up and, in doing so, became the first Swedish player to ever skate regularly in the National Hockey League.

The 25-year-old from HC Vastra Frolunda in Gothenburg was just the first of what would be the new wave beginning in the mid-1970s of Scandanavian players to sign with professional NHL clubs and their rivals, those of the World Hockey Association.

Eight members of Sweden’s entry at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo signed pro contracts in North America within the four-year period leading up to the Innsbruck Games of 1976.

What’s more, the professional clubs were signing other Swedes, as well, most notably young defenseman BORJE SALMING. At the conclusion of the 1974-75 schedule, Salming started a streak of six seasons where the Swede was chosen for either the First or Second Team NHL All-Star Team. Salming endured much intentional physical abuse along the way and is credited with effectively opening the door for other Swedish players in the NHL.

The Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association went out of their way to sign Scandanavian players. Winnipeg inked four Swedes and two Finns for the 1974-75 campaign and then acquired Bergman from Detroit in the NHL during the season. The following year, an Olympic one at that, the Jets added still another pair of Swedes and proceeded to claim the WHA championship powered by the line of BOBBY HULL, ULF NILSSON and ANDERS HEDBERG.

By the start of the 1975-76 season, a dozen former Sweden national team players were under agreement with NHL or WHA clubs and would, therefore, be both unavailable as well as ineligible for the Innsbruck Games to be held in Austria that winter.

TORD LUNDSTROM, who had returned to IF Brynas Galve in Sweden after a year with the Detroit Red Wings and the experimental London Lions in England, was also banned from Olympic competition.

Of course, another former London Lion, ULF STERNER, had long ago attained personna-non-grata status at the Olympics. Sterner was the first Swede to skate in the NHL after playing four games for the New York Rangers during the 1964-65 season. The by-then 34-year-old former captain of Tre Kronor was now playing second division hockey in Sweden for HC Backen and no longer was considered for the national team, however.

The rest of the Swedes outside of Sterner were another matter. Sweden’s hockey officials, like those of Canada had been for years, were frustrated by the inability to use their ‘professional’ players. Like the nation that originated the sport of ice hockey, Sweden questioned the purpose of fielding a squad of pucksters for the competition at the ‘amateur-only’ Winter Olympics.

Joining the continued Canadian boycott, Sweden sent no team to the Innsbruck Games in 1976.

Left: ERICH KUHNHACKL, the all-time leading scorer for the West German national team, finished among the points leaders at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck.

Right: Kuhnhackl in action for EC Koeln in the West German Bundesliga. Kuhnhackl joined die Haie (the Sharks) the season following the Innsbruck Games and spent three campaigns in Cologne. 

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To this very day, it is by far the finest moment in all of German hockey history.

The 4-1 victory by West Germany over the United States on the final day of competition at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck. It was an inspirational third period that propelled the West Germans to take the bronze medal in Austria. Three goals from 22 shots in the final frame following a solitary strike from sixteen shots the first two sessions combined had done the trick.

The chief magician for the match was the Czechoslovak-born ERICH KUHNHACKL. The genuine giant of the era who stood 6′6″ not including skates towered over the occasion by scoring the first West German goal and assisting on all three third period goals. RAINER PHILLIP, ALOIS SCHLODER and ERNST KOPF were the noteworthy marksmen to find the net and finish Kuhnhackl’s creations.

Mention must be made, as well, of West German goaltender ANTON KEHLE, who made 35 saves in the match with the United States.

Four points on the final day gave Kuhnhackl 10 points (5 go 5 as) in the five-game final round-robin. Ten points tied the 25-year-old EV Landshut center with three other players from the Soviet Union for the tournament lead. Officially, the USSR’s Vladimir Shadrin finished as the top scorer by virtue of his six goals.

More importantly, West Germany benefited greatly from the tie-breaking rules that were used to determine third place at Innsbruck in 1976. Rather than rely on goal differential from all games, as was traditional, only the results involving the three deadlocked nations – Finland, West Germany and the United States – were factored. The Finns would have cause to feel hard done by.

The West Germans, led by coach XAVIER UNSINN, celebrated third place all the same and accepted the set of bronze medals with glee.

JIRI HOLECEK (2) is easily one of the most accomplished goaltenders in the history of international hockey. Holecek captured three titles ('72, '76, '77) at the annual IIHF World Championships for Czechoslovakia and was chosen to the media All-Star team five times ('71, '72, '73, '76, '78).

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Perhaps Finland had saved some of the spark from their 4-3 upset victory over Sweden on the final day at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo. Or maybe it was MATTI RAUTIANEN’s five goals versus Japan in their qualification game at Innsbruck that had fired up the Finns. Whatever the case, Finland certainly put forth a concentrated effort against powerful Czechoslovakia on the opening day of final round-robin play at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Austria.

Forty-seven shots in all Suomi fired at their opponent’s goal. Unfortunately for the Finns, standing in front of the Czechoslovak net was none other than JIRI HOLECEK. The 31-year-old veteran international was already a three-time winner (’71, ‘73, ‘75) of the IIHF Directorate’s award for Best Goalie at the annual World Championships. PERTTI KOIVULAHTI was the only Finn who would manage to put a puck past the Sparta Prague goaltender.

Holecek handled the other 46 shots effectively as JIRI NOVAK’s two goals helped the Czechoslovaks avert a major disaster derailing their bid to challenge the Soviet Union for gold medal supremacy at Innsbruck.

Holecek handed in a clean sheet for Czechoslovakia’s next match, a 5-0 defeat of the United States, to follow up. That would turn out to be the only shutout registered by any of the six teams in the final round-robin at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games.

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“Holecek is the best goalie in the world – better than (Vladislav) Tretiak, (Ken) Dryden or (Bernie) Parent.” — BOBBY HULL at the 1976 Canada Cup

 JIRI HOLECEK would collect two more Best Goalie awards at the annual IIHF World Championships, in 1976 and 1978, and finished his career with an all-time high of five such selections.