Category Archives: Olympic Games

🇨🇿 🇷🇺 IHLC Classics: The 1998 Olympic Gold Medal Game

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From time to time, TheIHLC.com will feature detailed recaps and boxscores of some of the most legendary games in international hockey history, considered to be “IHLC Classics.” Today, in honour of Czech Independence Day this Wednesday, we look back at the Czech’s first Olympic title, shocking the world at the first “open” Olympics for NHL players.

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🇨🇿 Czechia 1-0 Russia 🇷🇺
Olympic Gold Medal Game
Nagano Wakasato Tamokuteki Sports Arena, Nagano 🇯🇵
Sunday, 22 February 1998

Although the Czech Republic could not have won gold at the 1998 Olympics without goalie Dominik Hašek, it was Petr Svoboda of the Czech Republic who was the final hero of the tournament, the first Olympics which included full participation of NHL players.

Hašek had led the team to the Gold medal game by stopping all five Canadian players in a semi-finals shootout win, but it was Svoboda who scored the lone goal in the final game of the Olympics against Russia.
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🇨🇦 Simon Gagné Announces Retirement At Age 35

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After a fourteen year professional career, highlighted by a Stanley Cup in 2012 and Olympic Gold in 2002, Canadian winger Simon Gagné today announced his retirement from hockey, after playing just 23 games with Boston in the 2014-15 NHL season.
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🇨🇦 Hefford, Apps & Ward All Retire From Canadian Women’s National Team

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A trio of star players for the Canadian women’s team announced today they are all retiring, with forwards Jayna Hefford and Gillian Apps, along with defender Catherine Ward, hanging up their skates for the 2015-16 season.
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🇺🇸 Molly Schaus Retires From Blades, USWNT

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Molly Schaus, a mainstay both in the Massachusetts women’s hockey scene and in net for Team USA, today announced her retirement from professional hockey, following an illustrious career at the peak of the American women’s team’s rise to prominence.
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🇨🇳 Beijing Announced As Host Of 2022 Winter Olympics

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After a two-city race between Asian powers to host the XXIV Olympiad, it was today announced in Kuala Lumpur that Beijing, China will host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, after defeating Almaty, Kazakhstan by a vote of 44-40.
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🇺🇸 🇷🇺 IHLC Classics: The Forgotten Miracle

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From time to time, TheIHLC.com will feature detailed recaps and boxscores of some of the most legendary games in international hockey history, considered to be “IHLC Classics.” Today, in honour of the United States’ 239th birthday, we look back at the first ever American Olympic Gold Medal in ice hockey, the original “Miracle on Ice” against the more powerful Soviet Union.

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🇺🇸 United States 3-2 Soviet Union 🇷🇺
Olympic Medal Round
Blyth Memorial Ice Arena, Olympic Valley 🇺🇸
Saturday, 27 February 1960

There was no colour television coverage, no announcer using a catch-phrase like “miracle on ice,” no celebration of the extraordinary over and above a remarkable gold medal. But make no mistake—when the United States won Olympic gold in 1960 in Olympic Valley, California, it was a much greater miracle than the one that occurred in Lake Placid 20 years later. In 1980, it was one game—a 4-3 win over the Soviet Union—that defined the American victory. In 1960, the U.S. had to defeat the top four teams in the world to win gold.
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🇨🇦 Martin St-Louis Retires From NHL At Age 40

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After a sixteen year career that many anticipated would never materialize, Martin St-Louis, the diminutive but highly skillful forward who was undrafted but ended up with 1,032 points in 1,134 career NHL games with Calgary, Tampa Bay and New York, has retired from the Rangers at age 40.
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Hockey Hall Of Fame Announces 2015 Class

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The Hockey Hall Of Fame today announced the newest members that will join as the Class of 2015 in November, another diverse group who are legends in their own right not just professionally, but internationally as well. Nicklas Lidström, Chris Pronger, Sergei Fyodorov, Phil Housley and Angela Ruggiero have combined for over a dozen Olympic, World Championship and World Cup championships between them, in addition to all having held the International Hockey Lineal Championship on many occasions.
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🇫🇮 Kimmo Timonen Retires As Champion From Blackhawks

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As first announced in March, and with his Chicago Blackhawks ending their season with a Stanley Cup victory, Finnish defenceman Kimmo Timonen has retired from his professional career after sixteen NHL seasons with Nashville, Philadelphia and Chicago, and eight Liiga seasons with KalPa, TPS and HIFK, in addition to 20+ years representing the Leijonat internationally.
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🇨🇿 Růžička Resigns From Czech National Team Amidst Scandal

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Embroiled in a scandal over allegedly bribing parents of players to join his pro squad that he both co-owns and coaches, Vladimír Růžička, the star Czech forward turned coach, has stepped down both from his club, HC Slavia Praha, as well as from the Czech national side.
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🇨🇿 Pavel Patera Retires After 24 Year Career

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Czech forward Pavel Patera, who after an illustrious 24 year career all across European leagues, and highlighted by key stints with the Czech national team, has retired at the age of 43 after a final season captaining HC Olomouc.
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World Championship Sets Fields For 2016 Worlds, 2018 Olympics

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With the dust settled over Prague, and Canada returning to North America with World Championship Gold in tow, we can not only look back on a tremendous (and record-breaking) 2015 tournament, but to future tournaments in men’s hockey, particularly next year’s Worlds and the 2018 Olympics.
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🇨🇿 Jágr Retires From Czech National Team…Again

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After a disappointing fourth place finish in front of their home crowd, Czech hockey legend Jaromír Jágr, named tournament MVP of the 2015 World Championships, has said for the second straight season that he is done with the Czech national team.
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🇨🇦 Sidney Crosby Joins Triple Gold Club

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worlds2015-recap
With Team Canada’s victory over Russia to capture the 2015 IIHF World Championship, Canada’s captain, Sidney Crosby, became just the 26th player in international hockey history, and the ninth Canadian, to enter the prestigious Triple Gold Club, adding Gold to his two Stanley Cups and two Olympic Gold Medals.
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First Nine Nations Qualified For 2018 Olympic Men’s Tournament

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Following Belarus‘ failure to finish in the top four at the 2015 World Championships, Slovakia scooped up the ninth and final automatic qualification spot for the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, Korea, joining defending champions Canada, Finland, Sweden, Russia, the United States, Czechia, Switzerland and the host nation Korea.
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🇨🇿 🇩🇪 Czechs Promoted, Germany Relegated For Women’s Worlds

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As a result of their 3-0 win over Denmark, improving them to 4-0 at the Division I Group A tournament in Rouen, France, the Czech women’s team has secured the eighth and final spot at the 2016 Women’s World Championship next spring in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, taking the spot from the German squad that was relegated at this year’s Championship in Malmö, Sweden.
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🇸🇪 Samuel Påhlsson Retires From MODO, Tre Kronor

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Swedish defensive centre Samuel “Sammy” Påhlsson today announced his retirement from professional hockey at the age of 37, after returning to Sweden to captain his first team, MODO, capping a 20 year pro career in Boston, Anaheim, Chicago, Columbus, Vancouver, along with MODO and Frölunda of the Swedish League.
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🇨🇦 Robyn Regehr Set To Retire From NHL

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Canadian defenceman Robyn Regehr, a sixteen-year veteran of the National Hockey League, has announced he will be retiring from the Los Angeles Kings following their disappointing season, just short of his 35th birthday.
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🇨🇿 Jágr To Reportedly Join Czech World Championship Team

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After his Florida Panthers failed to make the NHL playoffs, legendary Czech forward Jaromír Jágr, who claimed he was retired from international competition following last year’s World Championships in Belarus, is now considering rejoining the Czechs for this year’s Worlds, on home ice in his native Prague.
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