and experts agree he would have been a star in the NHL. The same can be said for Soviet goaltender Vladislav Tretiak. In fact, this was basically the same Soviet Team that played a Canadian team composed of NHL All Stars in the 1972 Summit Series that Canada narrowly won, 4–3–1. After qualifying for Group A by beating Switzerland 5–3, the U.S. lost as expected to Sweden, 5–1. Then they pulled off the upset of the tournament when they beat Czechoslovakia, 5–1. This surprising result was nearly as astonishing as the wins over the Soviets in 1960 and 1980. After losing as expected to the Soviet Union, the young Americans upset Finland. In the final games of the competition, the U.S. beat Poland while Finland beat Sweden and the Soviets beat the Czechs (in the game that decided the gold medal); those results boosted the U.S. from 4th to 2nd for an unexpected silver medal. Medalists First round Fourteen nations qualified, but East Germany, Romania and France all chose not to travel for primarily financial reasons. The remaining eleven nations were seeded according to their placement in the 1971 World Championships with first place (USSR) and the five winners to play in Group A to for 1st–6th places. The five losers played in Group B for 7th–11th places. 1971 ranking appears in parentheses. 3 February Japan (11th) 2–8 Czechoslovakia (2nd) Sweden (3rd) 8–1 Yugoslavia (12th) 4 February USA (6th) 5–3 Switzerland (7th) Poland (8th) 4–0 West Germany (5th) Finland (4th) 13–1 Norway (10th) Final round First place team wins gold, second silver and third bronze. 5 February Sweden 5–1 USA Czechoslovakia 14–1 Poland USSR 9–3 Finland 7 February USSR 3–3 Sweden USA 5–1 Czechoslovakia Finland 5–1 Poland 8 February Czechoslovakia 7–1 Finland 9 February Sweden 5–3 Poland USSR 7–2 USA 10 February USSR 9–3 Poland Czechoslovakia 2–1 Sweden USA 4–1 Finland 12 February USA 6–1 Poland 13 February Finland 4–3 Sweden USSR 5–2 Czechoslovakia Consolation Round Teams, which lost their games in the qualification round, played in this group. 6 February Norway 5–2 Yugoslavia West Germany 5–0 Switzerland 7 February Japan 3–3 Switzerland West Germany 6–2 Yugoslavia 9 February Japan 3–2 Yugoslavia West Germany 5–1 Norway 10 February Japan 4–5 Norway Switzerland 3–3 Yugoslavia 12 February Japan 7–6 West Germany Norway 5–3 Switzerland Statistics Average age Gold medalists team USSR was the oldest team in the tournament, averaging 26 years