1984 Olympic Hockey, Canada vs. Austria

The previous time Canada met Austria in Olympic hockey  was in 1956 at Cortina, Italy. Canada won 23-0. So an 8-1 defeat was marked improvement for the Austrians. Canada improved to a 2-0 record in the 1984 Olympic hockey tournament with the decisive victory.

Kirk Muller with a pair of goals as well as markers from Dave Donnely and Pat Flatley had Canada up 4-0 by the halfway point of the match. Coach Dave King replaced goaltender Mario Gosselin after stopping all 11 shots he face through two periods if only to rest hime. The first shot directed Darren Eliot's way by Eddy Lebler bulged the twine to make it 6-1 Canada 20 seconds into the third, but that was as close as it got.

Next up for Canada would be the Finns. Austrian coach Gregory Holst, whose team lost their opener of the tournament 4-3 to Finland said, "There's a great difference between the Finns and the Canadians. The Finn don't bodycheck, but they are very fast skaters. They play a very complicated system. The Canadians play a simpler system with more bodychecking, simple but very good. I think Canada has a very good chance to win against Finland."

Donnelly expressed how the Canadians were coming together as a team,"During the course of the year, we just got the feeling that we were playing for another rocky club. It wasn't until we came to Sarajevo that things really came together for us. The Olympic spirit hit. It finally dawned on us that we were playing for our country.

Canadian assistant coach Jean Perron said after the game that Gosselin would start in goal against Finland as well as all other games unless he "gets shelled".

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WHA Ottawa Civics, The Two Week Franchise

Image
Tom Earl, Daryl Maggs, Mark Lomenda, Gary MacGregor, Garry Swain "Please let the fans make up their own minds," Henry Feller told a press gathering. "Let them decide if they want pro hockey here. We have to average 7,000 or 8,000 in the remaining 19 home games for a break-even point." Feller was a director of the Founders Club who had interest in buying the WHA's Denver Spurs club. Ivan Mullinex, owner of the Spurs had brought his team to Ottawa in an attempt to drum up interest and save his investment. The date was January 2, 1976 and Mullinex was in debt to a Denver bank to the tune of $1 million dollars. This same day, the newly christened Civics lost their first game under the new moniker by a score of 2-1 at Cincinnati. Star of the team, Ralph Backstrom said after the game, "Our first official notice of the move hit us when we entered the Cincinnati rink and the names on the big scoreboard read: Stingers and Civics. Until that moment we were un
Read more

Team Canada 1972, What Might have Been

Image
Guy Lafleur, if he had played in the 72 Summit Series "No way. Can you imagine what our fans would say if we allowed Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito to play for Canada in that series and either...suffered an injury that might prevent them from playing with us for a year or more?" This was the concern of Weston Adams Jr, president of the Boston Bruins as quoted on April 20, 1972. After being speculated and discussed since February 1972 at the Olympics in Sapporo Japan, the series was set to go. Early on however, controversy stirred as to who exactly would be representing Canada. Bruins GM, Milt Schmidt agreed with his boss saying, "My only interest would be to see the Russians play the Bruins for the world championship...or whatever team wins the Stanley Cup." In the Vancouver Sun a few days later, the legendary Jim Coleman responds to the American naysayers suggesting that Team Canada should be made up strictly of players from Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal
Read more

Ron Hextall and the stolen Conn Smythe Trophy

Image
Ron Hextall did not deserve the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1987....there, I said it. I recently caught game seven of the '87 finals on ESPN Classic, where the Oilers beat the Flyers 3-1. Hextall was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy to the disdain and boos of the Northlands Coliseum. Hextall was (and remains) the fourth player to win the trophy in a losing cause. Even as a teenager following these playoffs as they happened, I thought this was an injustice. Upon further inspection, I believe he only won because he was a rookie, and was the "sexy" pick as opposed to the proper pick. When looking at his numbers, it's hard to figure why he won. Hextall finished with 15 wins, 11 losses and a GAA of 2.77. Oilers, Grant Fuhr went 14 and 5 with an average of 2.46. I realize that stats cannot tell the whole story, but even if we dig further the award doesn't seem justified. His .908 Save Pct was the same as Fuhr's and tied for third behind Ken Wregget and Kelly Hrudey. Also,
Read more