Nagano Olympic Winter Games

XVIII Winter Olympic Games took place from 7 to 22 February 1998 in Nagano, Japan. 72 countries competed in 15 sports. The overall winner was Germany (with 12 gold medals), Norway was on the second place (10 gold medals) and Russia was on the third place (with 9 gold medals).

The most attention was paid to the ice hockey tournament. It was for the first time in the history when players from the National Hockey League (NHL) were allowed to participate in the Olympic tournament (e.g. Wayne Gretzky, Jaromír Jágr, Dominik Hašek, etc.). Because of this fact, the tournament was nicknamed “Tournament of the Century“, and it really was.

Nagano 1998 - Russia vs. Czech Republic Gold Medal Game. (Photo source: Canadaolympic989, License: CC BY-SA 3.0). — Nagano 1998 – Russia vs. Czech Republic Gold Medal Game. (Photo source: Canadaolympic989, License: CC BY-SA 3.0).

System of the Tournament of the Century

Qualification

Switzerland, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan qualified from the regional Pre-Qualification round to the Final Olympic Qualification. Germany, Slovakia, Austria and Norway went straight to the Final Olympic Qualification. The Final Olympic Qualification was played one year before the Olympic Games. Germany, Slovakia, Belarus and Kazakhstan qualified to the main tournament.

Preliminary Round

Preliminary round (part of the Olympic tournament, played from 7 to 10 February 1998) was played by 8 teams divided into two groups and only best team of each group made it to the main phase of the tournament.

Group A: Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Italy and Austria.
Group B: Belarus, Germany, France and Japan.

Kazakhstan and Belarus qualified to the main phase of the Olympic tournament.

Main Phase: First Round

Two teams from the preliminary round and six teams (directly qualified for the main phase) was divided into two groups (Group C and Group D). The only purpose of the first round was to determine pairs for the Quaterfinals (first from Group C played with the last from the Group D, etc.).

Final standing of groups were:

Group C: Canada, Sweden, United States, Belarus.
Group D: Russia, Czech Republic, Finland, Kazakhstan.

After the First round Ulf Samuelsson (Sweden) was disqualified from the Olympic Games. The reason was that he had U.S. passport and according to the Swedish law Ulf Samuelsson’s Swedish citizenship was annulled. According to the IIHF law, Sweden should forfeit its games. This decision was not made and the standings were the same as above.

Main Phase: Quaterfinals

Four pairs played their quaterfinal games on February 18, 1998. Three out of four matches ended with result 4–1. USA, one of the favourite, was surprisingly out.

Canada vs. Kazakthstan 4–1,
Czech Republic vs. United States 4–1,
Sweden vs. Finland 1–2 and
Russia vs. Belarus 4–1.

Main Phase: Semifinals

Russia won 7–4 over Finland and maid its way to the final. Pavel Bure scored incredible 5 goals, something that was never seen in the modern history of the Olympic Games. Watch Pavel Bure, the Russian rocket.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRT8465obtQ

Czech Republic won 2–1 (SO) over Canada and they send home the second main favourite in a row. It was one of the best games in the history of ice hockey. Dominik Hašek (CZE) and Patrick Roy (CAN) were absolutely great and in shootouts Patrick Roy allowed only Robert Reichel (CZE) to score a goal and incredible Dominik Hašek saved all shootouts. Watch shootouts:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqTZwyOs5nQ

Main Phase: Bronze Medal Game

Frustrated Canada was not able to concentrate to the bronze medal game and they lost to the Finland 2–3.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSYXmzwTuiE

Main Phase: Gold Medal Game

On February 22, 1998, Czech Republic faced to the Russia in the gold medal game of the Tournament of the Century. Great team play, Dominik Hašek, coach Ivan Hlinka and Petr Svoboda‘s goal means that Czech Republic, for the first time in the history, won gold medal at the Olympic Games Ice Hockey Tournament.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b6JBCEaXoA

Gold Medal Team:

Goalies: Dominik Hašek, Milan Hnilička, Roman Čechmánek.
Defenceman: František Kučera, Libor Procházka, Jaroslav Špaček, Petr Svoboda, Richard Šmehlík, Roman Hamrlík, Jiří Šlégr.
Forwards: Pavel Patera, Robert Lang, Jan Čaloun, Martin Procházka, Robert Reichel, David Moravec, Milan Hejduk, Martin Ručinský, Martin Straka, Jiří Dopita, Josef Beránek, Jaromír Jágr, Vladimír Růžička.
Coaches: Ivan Hlinka, Slavomír Lener