1957 Ice Hockey World Championships

1957 edition of the IIHF World Ice Hockey Championship 1957 Soviet Union 1955 24 February – 5 March 8 Luzhniki Palace of Sports ih Sweden 2 USSR 1955 Czechoslovakia Finland 28 300 223700 URS 1955 Konstantin Loktev (18 points) 1956 1958 The 1957 Ice Hockey World Championships were held between 24 February and 5 March 1957 at the Palace of Sports of the Central Lenin Stadium in Moscow, USSR. right|thumb|200px|Trophy awarded for the 1957 World Championships This was the last World Championships played on natural ice; and were the first World Championships held in the Soviet Union and they are remembered for the political circumstances surrounding the games. Hungary had been recently occupied by the Soviet Army (to suppress a revolution in October and November 1956), and as a result, the United States and Canada boycotted the World Championships in protest. Joining them were Norway, West Germany, Italy and Switzerland. East Germany participated at the top level for the first time. Competition thumb|left|Sven Johansson of Sweden scores a goal against East Germany. Sweden won the match 11–1. With the boycott, the home team USSR was heavily favoured to win the tournament, but Sweden surprised the world by pulling off an upset. The first step was taken in their third game, when they beat Czechoslovakia 2–0. This important victory was saved by the head of Leksands IF defenseman Vilgot Larsson. He literally headed the puck away from the Swedish net to save a goal, and in the days before mandatory helmets, received several stitches for his heroics. In the final game, Sweden opened with two goals, but the dynamic Soviets responded with four goals of their own. Down by two in the third period, goals by Eilert Määttä and Erling Lindström tied the game, and the goaltending of Thord Flodqvist and play of Sven "Tumba" Johansson guaranteed the final draw. The USSR had previously only tied Czechoslovakia, so all Sweden needed was one point, or a tie, for gold. Karel Straka of Czechoslovakia was named best goaltender. Nikolaï Sologubov of the USSR was best defenceman, and Sven "Tumba" Johansson of Sweden was best forward. Konstantin Loktev of the USSR led all scorers with 18 points (on 11 goals and 7 assists), followed by Nils Nilsson and Ronald Pettersson of Sweden, both with 16 points. Vsevolod Bobrov of the USSR led all scorers with 13 goals. Japan competed for the first time since 1930, and finished last with one point in the standings. The Soviets did not have the Swedish national anthem ready for the gold medal ceremony. To compensate for this, the Swedish players decided to sing the anthem over the stadium's PA system. However, few players knew the anthem by heart so they decided to play a little prank on the Soviets and instead sang the Swedish drinking song "Helan Går".https://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2011/10/02/sven_tumba_ice_hockey_star_and_golf_pioneer_in_sweden/ Sven Tumba, ice hockey star and golf pioneer in Sweden Boston.com 2 October 2011 Nordstrom Louise Swedish captain Lasse Björn later recalled the story of Marshal Zhukov, the Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union, standing to attention for a simple Swedish drinking song.https://hockeysverige.se/2018/12/16/var-med-och-vann-sveriges-forsta-vm-guld-old-school-hockey-lasse-bjorn Var med och vann Sveriges första VM-guld – Old School Hockey Lasse Björn - Hockeysverige – Mer av sporten du älskar Standings main WDL 2 y SWE SWE URS URS 1955 TCH TCH FIN FIN DDR DDR 1949 POL POL AUT AUT JPN Japan 6 1 0 62 11 5 2 0 77 9 5 1 1 66 9 4 0 3 28 33 3 0 4 23 48 2 0 5 25 45 0 1 6 8 61 0 1 6 11 84 gold 1ST silver 2ND peru 3RD complete Final round #eeeeee 24 February FIN 5–3 POL #ffffff 24 February URS 1955 16–0 JPN #eeeeee 24 February SWE 11–1 DDR 1949 #ffffff 24 February TCH 9–0 AUT #eeeeee 25 February URS 1955 11–1 FIN #ffffff 25 February TCH 15–1 DDR 1949 #eeeeee 25 February SWE 8–3 POL #ffffff 26 February AUT 3–3 JPN #eeeeee 27 February SWE 2–0 TCH #ffffff 27 February POL 8–3 JPN #eeeeee 27 February URS 1955 22–1 AUT #ffffff 27 February FIN 5–3 DDR 1949 #eeeeee 28 February TCH 3–0 FIN #ffffff 28 February URS 1955 10–1 POL #eeeeee 1 March SWE 10–0 AUT #ffffff 1 March DDR 1949 9–2 JPN #eeeeee 2 March FIN 9–2 AUT #ffffff 2 March URS 1955 2–2 TCH #eeeeee 2 March DDR 1949 6–2 POL #ffffff 2 March SWE 18–0 JPN #eeeeee 3 March POL 5–1 AUT #ffffff 4 March TCH 25–1 JPN #eeeeee 4 March SWE 9–3 FIN #ffffff 4 March GDR 1949 0–12 URS 1955 #eeeeee 5 March GDR 1949 3–1 AUT #ffffff 5 March FIN 5–2 JPN #eeeeee 5 March TCH 12–3 POL #ffffff 5 March URS 1955 4–4 SWE Attendance record The final game (USSR versus Sweden for the championship) was played on the football field of the Grand Sports Arena of the Luzhniki Stadium. It is reputed that over 50,000 fans (or 55,000, depending on sources) saw the game, the most ever for an international hockey game. This stood as the world record until 6 October 2001, when 74,544 fans saw Michigan State University and the University of Michigan play an American NCAA Hockey game outdoors at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan. European Championship medal table Games played against Japan did not count for the purposes of determining the European champion. Since six of the seven European participants defeated Japan, and since the only opponent that did not defeat Japan (Austria) also lost to each of their European opponents, finishing order for the European championship table was the same as it was for the main championship table. SWE URS 1955 TCH4 FIN5 DDR 19496 POL7 AUT Tournament awards Best players selected by the directorate: Best Goaltender: TCH Karel Straka Best Defenceman: URS 1955 Nikolaï Sologubov Best Forward: SWE Sven Tumba Citations References Complete results Duplacey James Total Hockey: The official encyclopedia of the National Hockey League 1998 Total Sports 0-8362-7114-9 498–528 registration https://archive.org/details/totalhockeyoffic0000unse/page/498 Podnieks Andrew IIHF Media Guide & Record Book 2011 2010 Moydart Press 135 Michigan at Michigan State (NCAA)6 October 2001 Ice hockey game attendance record 55,000 1957 Category:IIHF Men's World Ice Hockey Championships World Championships World Ice Hockey Championships Ice Hockey World Championships Ice Hockey World Championships Category:1956–57 in Soviet ice hockey Category:Sports competitions in Moscow Ice Hockey World Championships