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Men's Pool A
IIHF Men's World Hockey Championships
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World Championships Photo As he had done in the 1972 Summit Series against Team Canada, Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretiak performed brilliantly at the 1974 Championship in Finland. His netminding heroics helped the USSR win yet another gold medal. Apart from a stunning 7-2 defeat at the hands of Czechoslovakia in the first round, Tretiak allowed just 11 goals in nine other matches. The Czechoslovaks won the silver medal and Sweden the bronze. Soviet winger Boris Mikhailov was the scoring champion and Czechoslovak centre Vaclav Nedomansky, who would leave that summer to play in North America, was named the top forward in the tournament. The top defenceman was Sweden's Lars-Erik Sjoberg, later a star with the Winnipeg Jets and New York Rangers. A drug-testing policy had been introduced by the International Ice Hockey Federation at its Congress in July of 1969 and first implemented at the Winter Olympics in Sapporo in 1972. Two years later, this drug testing suddenly made headlines at the "A" Pool tournament. Drug testing required that two players were selected at random from each team after each game. A random test on the first day of the competition showed that Ulf Nilsson of Sweden had used ephedrine, which is on the IOC's list of banned substances. As a result, Poland was awarded a victory in a game they lost 4-1. This "win" ultimately allowed Poland to remain in Pool A. Later in the tournament, it was discovered the Finland's goalie Stig Wetzell had also taken ephedrine and the host nation's 5-2 upset of Czechoslovakia was reversed.
1974 Helsinki Summary
Click on a team below to see its roster and stats.
Rank Country Games Wins Losses Ties Points GDF GF GA
1 USSR 10 9 1 0 18      
2 Czechoslovakia 10 7 3 0 14      
3 Sweden 10 5 4 1 11      
4 Finland 10 4 4 2 10      
5 Poland 10 1 7 2 4      
6 East Germany 10 1 8 1 3      

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