As part of our continuous improvement to always refine the International Hockey Lineal Championship, we came across an improper lineage in the 1992 season that has now been corrected, impacting in particular lineage during the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France.

While making updates to reflect that the 1991-92 former Soviet team, between playing as the Unified Team at the 1992 Olympics and as Russia afterwards, was to be correctly labeled as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), it came to our attention that the CIS’s only pre-Olympic tournament was at the Coupe Nissan in Switzerland in February 1992, just over a month after the collapse of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991.

The IHLC records had shown that the CIS team had competed at the 1992 version of the Sweden Hockey Games, winning matches over Czechoslovakia and Canada before dropping their finale on 02 February 1992 to hosts Sweden, who would bring the IHLC to France in the lead-up to the 1992 Albertville Olympics. From there, they would drop a pre-tournament exhibition game to the United States, who would defeat Italy, Germany, Finland, Poland, Sweden again and France during the tournament, before losing to the Unified Team in the Semifinals on 21 February, part of the current IHLC lineage.

However, after confirming that the CIS squad sent to the Sweden Hockey Games was in fact the “B” squad for the team, with the “A” squad going to Switzerland instead, this then means that any games featuring the CIS are not counted as IHLC matches, and it would in fact be Canada who would bring the IHLC to the 1992 Olympics, winning from Czechoslovakia in their finale on 02 February 1992. From here, Canada would post wins over France, Switzerland, Norway and Czechoslovakia before falling to the Unified Team in their group finale, who would dispatch Finland in the Quarterfinals before rejoining the original lineage.

While this does not impact any overall standings in the all-time IHLC Rankings, it does give Canada a significant bump (with an additional five wins), while the United States falls with a loss of six victories. The corrected IHLC lineage, with the CIS not competing at the 1992 Sweden Hockey Games, is as follows:

🇨🇿 CZECHOSLOVAKIA – 34th reign, 1 win (continued from 21 Dec 1991)
969. 🇨🇿 TCH 3-2 SWE 🇸🇪 – 31 Jan 1992 – SHG – Stockholm 🇸🇪

🇨🇦 CANADA – 35th reign, 5 wins
970. 🇨🇦 CAN 3-1 TCH 🇨🇿 – 02 Feb 1992 – SHG – Stockholm 🇸🇪
971. 🇨🇦 CAN 3-2 FRA 🇫🇷 – 08 Feb 1992 – OG – Méribel 🇫🇷
972. 🇨🇦 CAN 6-1 SUI 🇨🇭 – 10 Feb 1992 – OG – Méribel 🇫🇷
973. 🇨🇦 CAN 10-0 NOR 🇳🇴 – 12 Feb 1992 – OG – Méribel 🇫🇷
974. 🇨🇦 CAN 5-1 TCH 🇨🇿 – 14 Feb 1992 – OG – Méribel 🇫🇷

🇷🇺 RUSSIA – 35th reign, 2 wins (continues until 06 May 1992)
975. 🇷🇺 EUN 5-4 CAN 🇨🇦 – 16 Feb 1992 – OG – Méribel 🇫🇷
976. 🇷🇺 EUN 6-1 FIN 🇫🇮 – 19 Feb 1992 – OG – Méribel 🇫🇷

All relevant pages have been reflected to correct proper win and head-to-head records accordingly, so all current pages are now accurate and up to date. Our apologies for the oversight!

Photo Credit: Canadian Olympic Committee