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Men's Pool A
IIHF Men's World Hockey Championships
World Championships Artifact
World Championships Photo The Soviet Union waltzed through the tournament undefeated to capture the gold medal, including a convincing 13-1 victory over silver-medalist Sweden. Canada, coached by Don Cherry, barely made it into the final round and finished fourth. The Canadian squad included winger Guy Lafleur and defenceman Larry Robinson from the Montreal Canadiens. Both joined the national squad after their team's surprise first round Stanley Cup playoff loss. Lafleur was still suffering from jet lag when Canada faced a far inferior squad from the Netherlands early in the tournament. He had his head down when he was injured by an open ice hit by defenceman Rick Van Gogh, a transplanted Canadian playing defence for the Netherlands. Canada won the game easily 8-1, but Lafleur was never the same and finished the tournament with only one goal in seven games. Many critics questioned Cherry's use of the Montreal star against a weak opponent so soon after he had rushed over to Europe. While Robinson was selected best defenceman in the tournament, the other two major awards for best goalie and forward went to Vladislav Tretiak and Alexander Maltsev, respectively, of the Soviet Union. The surprise scoring champion was West Germany's Holger Meitinger, who took full advantage of his country's participation in the relegation pool to record eight goals and 20 points in eight games.
1981 Stockholm, Goteborg Summary
Click on a team below to see its roster and stats.
Rank Country Games Wins Losses Ties Points GDF GF GA
1 USSR 8 6 0 2 14      
2 Sweden 8 5 2 1 11      
3 Czechoslovakia 8 4 2 2 10      
4 Canada 8 2 5 1 5      
5 USA 8 4 3 1 9      
6 Finland 8 3 3 2 8      
7 West Germany 8 3 4 1 7      
8 Netherlands 8 0 8 0 0      

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