Competition
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 4 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.
During the gold medal ceremony, one of Sweden´s most famous moments in hockey history took place. The soviets had not prepared the Swedish anthem, and thus it was not played. To compensate for this, the Swedish players decided to sing the anthem by themselves. However, few players knew the anthem by heart so they decided to play a little prank on the Soviets and chose instead to sing famous Swedish drinking song "Helan Går". Swedish captain Lasse Björn later jokingly told the story of Marshall Zhukov standing at attention for a simple Swedish drinking song.
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.
Tournament awards
- Best players selected by the directorate:
References
- Complete results
- Duplacey, James (1998). Total Hockey: The official encyclopedia of the National Hockey League. Total Sports. pp. 498–528. ISBN 0-8362-7114-9.
- Podnieks, Andrew (2010). IIHF Media Guide & Record Book 2011. Moydart Press. p. 135.
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- Medals were awarded to the best European participants of the World Championships or Olympic Games (marked in italics).
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