 The 1987 World Championships in Vienna were over @-@ shadowed by several controversies . At the beginning of the tournament , the roster of the West German team included Miroslav <unk> , a Polish @-@ German forward who had previously played for Poland at the 1977 World Under @-@ 20 Championship . <unk> became a naturalized citizen of West Germany and played in the first three games , scoring a goal in a 3 – 1 win over Finland . Following the game , Finland launched a protest , demanding that the result be over @-@ turned because the Germans had used an ineligible player . At the time , players were not allowed to switch nationalities under any circumstances and the IIHF agreed to overturn the result and award the two points to Finland . This angered German officials , who filed a protest in an Austrian court . The court agreed with the Germans , overturning the IIHF decision and allowing them to keep their points . The result affected the final standings because had the IIHF 's decision stood , Finland would have advanced to the medal round instead of Sweden . However , the Finns finished out of the medal round , and Sweden won their first gold medal since 1962 . The tournament format also became controversial because the Soviet Union finished undefeated but the Swedish team , which had lost three games in the preliminary round , won on goal differential because of a 9 – 0 win over Canada . 
