The men's tournament in ice hockey at the 2006 Winter Olympics was held in Turin, Italy, from 15 to 26 February. Twelve teams competed, with Sweden winning the gold medal, Finland winning silver, and the Czech Republic winning bronze. It was the third Olympic tournament to feature National Hockey League (NHL) players and the tenth best-on-best hockey tournament in history. United States defenseman Chris Chelios set a standard for longest time between his first Olympic ice hockey tournament and his last—he had competed twenty-two years earlier at the 1984 Olympics.[1] The old record was set by Swiss hockey player Bibi Torriani. who had played twenty years after his debut (1928 and 1948).
The tournament format was changed from the 1998 and 2002 tournaments to a format similar to the 1992 and 1994 tournaments. The number of teams was reduced from 14 to 12, which were split into two groups in the preliminary stage (which followed a round robin format). Each team played the other teams in their group once. The top four teams from each group advanced to the quarter-finals.
The tournament is also notable for the lacklustre performance of defending champion Canada, which lost two group stage games (including a shock defeat to Switzerland) before being eliminated by Russia in the quarter-finals. There were allegations that Sweden intentionally lost their final group game against Slovakia to set up a quarterfinal against Switzerland.
In the semi-finals, Sweden defeated the Czech Republic 7–3, and Finland beat Russia 4–0. Sweden won its second ice hockey gold, and first in a best-on-best competition, over Finland 3–2 and the Czech Republic won the bronze medal. Three months later, Sweden won the 2006 World Championships and became the first team to win the Olympic and World Championship gold in the same year.[2]
b Prague and Ostrava were the sites for 2004 IIHF World Championship; at the conclusion of the tournament the ranking were finalized with regards to the qualification slots.
Allegations have surfaced of Sweden throwing the game against Slovakia so the Swedes would face Switzerland in the quarterfinals instead of Canada or the Czech Republic. Shortly before the game, Sweden coach Bengt-Åke Gustafsson was reported to have publicly contemplated tanking in order to avoid those teams, saying about Canada and the Czechs, "One is cholera, the other the plague."[3] During the game itself, one reportedly suspect sequence came when Sweden had an extended five-on-three powerplay with five NHL stars on the ice—Peter Forsberg, Mats Sundin, Daniel Alfredsson, Nicklas Lidström and Fredrik Modin—and failed to put a shot on net. Sports Illustrated writer Michael Farber would say about this particular powerplay, "If the Swedes had passed the puck any more, their next opponent would have been the Washington Generals." "[They] were even afraid to shoot!", Russian coach Vladimir Krikunov said.
As part of a subsequent interview about the championship over five years later, Forsberg was interpreted to insinuate that Sweden lost their preliminary round game against Slovakia on purpose, so as to draw Switzerland as their quarterfinal opponent, rather than Canada or the Czech Republic. Swedish forward Henrik Sedin, who played alongside Forsberg on the 2006 team denied the notion while adding that Forsberg's comments in the interview were misconstrued.[4][5]
Team USA was the oldest team in the tournament, averaging 31 years and 8 months. Team Germany was the youngest team in the tournament, averaging 26 years and 7 months. Gold medalists team Sweden averaged 29 years and 7 months. Tournament average was 29 years and 2 months.[6]
Scoring leaders
List shows the top ten skaters sorted by points, then goals.
TOI = Time on Ice (minutes:seconds); SA = Shots against; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage; SO = Shutouts Source: IIHF
^Szemberg, Szymon; Podnieks, Andrew (2008). IIHF Top 100 Hockey Stories of All Time. Bolton, Ontario, Canada: Fenn Publishing. p. 120. ISBN978-1-55168-358-4.
