Ice hockey at the 1928 Winter Olympics

Ice hockey at the 1928 Winter Olympics

Canada's 1928 Olympic Gold Medal team
Tournament details
Host country	Switzerland
Venue(s)	Olympic Ice Rink, St. Moritz (outdoors)
Dates	11–19 February 1928
Teams	11
Final positions
Champions	Canada (3rd title)
Runner-up	Sweden
Third place	Switzerland
Fourth place	Great Britain
Tournament statistics
Games played	18
Goals scored	89 (4.94 per game)
Scoring leader(s)	Dave Trottier 15 points
←  1927 Europeans or 1924 Olympics 1929 Europeans or 1930 Worlds or 1932 Olympics  →

The men's ice hockey tournament at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, was the third Olympic Championship, also serving as the third World Championships and the 13th European Championships. Canada, represented by the University of Toronto Graduates, won its third consecutive gold medal. Highest finishing European team Sweden won the silver medal and its third European Championship. ^[1]

Conn Smythe coached the Graduates to the 1927 Allan Cup championship during the Ontario Hockey Association season, but refused to go to the Olympics due to disagreements on which players were added to the team by the Canadian Olympic Committee. The Graduates went without Smythe, led by team captain Red Porter. ^[2] Canadian Olympic Committee member W. A. Hewitt was opposed to the format of the hockey tournament, which saw the Canadian team receive a bye into the second round. He wanted the team to have more games, rather than be idle for a week. ^[3] Despite the wait to play, the Graduates won all three games by scoring 38 goals and conceding none, to win the gold medal. ^[4]

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Canada  (CAN) Charles Delahaye Frank Fisher Grant Gordon Louis Hudson Norbert Mueller Herbert Plaxton Hugh Plaxton Roger Plaxton John Porter Frank Sullivan Joseph Sullivan Ross Taylor Dave Trottier	Sweden  (SWE) Carl Abrahamsson Emil Bergman Birger Holmqvist Gustaf Johansson Henry Johansson Nils Johansson Ernst Karlberg Erik Larsson Bertil Linde Sigfrid Öberg Wilhelm Petersén Kurt Sucksdorff	Switzerland  (SUI) Giannin Andreossi Mezzi Andreossi Robert Breiter Louis Dufour Charles Fasel Albert Geromini Fritz Kraatz Arnold Martignoni Heini Meng Anton Morosani Luzius Rüedi Richard Torriani

Participating nations

The Polish national team during the Olympics. This marked Poland's debut at Olympic ice hockey.

See also: Ice hockey at the 1928 Winter Olympics – Rosters

A total of 128(*) ice hockey players from eleven nations competed at the St. Moritz Games:

•   Austria  (12)
•   Belgium  (12)
•   Canada  (12)
•   Czechoslovakia  (11)
•   France  (12)
•   Germany  (11)
•   Great Britain  (12)
•   Hungary  (11)
•   Poland  (11)
•   Sweden  (12)
•   Switzerland  (12)

(*) NOTE: Only counts players who participated in at least one game. Not all reserve players are known.

Defending champion Canada, which outscored its opponents 132–3 in the previous competition, was granted a bye to the medal round, after officials realised how superior they were to all of the other teams. ^[5] The other 10 teams were placed in three groups for the first round.

First round

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Great Britain	3	2	0	1	10	6	+4	4	Advanced to Final Round
2	France	3	2	0	1	6	5	+1	4
3	Belgium	3	2	0	1	9	10	−1	4
4	Hungary	3	0	0	3	2	6	−4	0

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: HockeyCanada.ca

Date		Result		P1	P2	P3
11 Feb	Great Britain	7 - 3	Belgium	3 - 1	2 - 0	2 - 2
11 Feb	France	2 - 0	Hungary	0 - 0	2 - 0	0 - 0
12 Feb	France	3 - 2	Great Britain	0 - 1	3 - 1	0 - 0
12 Feb	Belgium	3 - 2	Hungary	0 - 1	3 - 1	0 - 0
13 Feb	Belgium	3 - 1	France	2 - 0	0 - 0	1 - 1
15 Feb	Great Britain	1 - 0	Hungary	1 - 0	0 - 0	0 - 0

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sweden	2	1	1	0	5	2	+3	3	Advanced to Final Round
2	Czechoslovakia	2	1	0	1	3	5	−2	2
3	Poland	2	0	1	1	4	5	−1	1

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: HockeyCanada.ca

Date		Result		P1	P2	P3
11 Feb	Sweden	3 - 0	Czechoslovakia	1 - 0	1 - 0	1 - 0
12 Feb	Sweden	2 - 2	Poland	1 - 0	1 - 2	0 - 0
13 Feb	Czechoslovakia	3 - 2	Poland	1 - 1	1 - 1	1 - 0

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Switzerland	2	1	1	0	5	4	+1	3	Advanced to Final Round
2	Austria	2	0	2	0	4	4	0	2
3	Germany	2	0	1	1	0	1	−1	1

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: HockeyCanada.ca

Date		Result		P1	P2	P3
11 Feb	Switzerland	4 - 4	Austria	2 - 4	1 - 0	1 - 0
11 Feb	Austria	0 - 0	Germany	0 - 0	0 - 0	0 - 0
16 Feb	Switzerland	1 - 0	Germany	1 - 0	0 - 0	0 - 0

Final round

The top teams from each of the three groups were joined by defending champion Canada in the medal round, playing a 3-game round-robin to determine the medal winners.

The match between Canada and Sweden was refereed by Paul Loicq, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation. ^[6]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Canada	3	3	0	0	38	0	+38	6
2	Sweden	3	2	0	1	7	12	−5	4
3	Switzerland	3	1	0	2	4	17	−13	2
4	Great Britain	3	0	0	3	1	21	−20	0

Source: HockeyCanada.ca

Date		Result		P1	P2	P3
17 Feb	Canada	11 - 0	Sweden	4 - 0	4 - 0	3 - 0
17 Feb	Switzerland	4 - 0	Great Britain	0 - 0	2 - 0	2 - 0
18 Feb	Canada	14 - 0	Great Britain	6 - 0	4 - 0	4 - 0
18 Feb	Sweden	4 - 0	Switzerland	1 - 0	0 - 0	3 - 0
19 Feb	Sweden	3 - 1	Great Britain	2 - 1	0 - 0	1 - 0
19 Feb	Canada	13 - 0	Switzerland	2 - 0	6 - 0	5 - 0

Statistics

Average age

Team Hungary was the oldest team in the tournament, averaging 31 years and 6 months. Team Belgium was the youngest team in the tournament, averaging 21 years and 6 months. Gold medalists Canada averaged 24 years and 10 months. Tournament average was 26 years and 9 months. ^[7]

Top scorer

Team	GP	G	A	Pts
Dave Trottier	3	12	3	15

Final ranking

1	Canada  (CAN)
2	Sweden  (SWE)
3	Switzerland  (SUI)
4	Great Britain  (GBR)
5	Austria  (AUT)
5	France  (FRA)
5	Czechoslovakia  (TCH)
8	Belgium  (BEL)
8	Poland  (POL)
8	Germany  (GER)
11	Hungary  (HUN)

The IIHF Guide and Record Book has two different rankings for this tournament. ^[8] The IOC, however, does not rank the teams below 4th ^[9]

European Championship medal table

	Sweden
	Switzerland
	Great Britain
4	Austria
4	France
4	Czechoslovakia
7	Belgium
7	Germany
7	Poland
10	Hungary

References

1. "Ice Hockey at the 1928 St. Moritz Winter Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
2. Podnieks, Andrew (1997), pp. 23–25
3. "Want Canadians To Play Winners". The Kingston Whig-Standard . Kingston, Ontario. 8 February 1928. p. 9.
4. Podnieks, Andrew (1997), pp. 28–29
5. Wallechinsky, David (1984). The Complete Book To The Olympics. England: Penguin Books. p. 564. ISBN   0140066322.
6. "Varsity Grads Defeat Sweden In First Of Final Series For Title". Lethbridge Herald. Lethbridge, Alberta. 17 February 1928. p. 3.
7. "Team Canada - Olympics - Sankt Moritz 1928 - Player Stats". QuantHockey. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
8. IIHF Media Guide and Record Book (2011) pgs. 17 and 104
9. IOC database of results

Sources

• Podnieks, Andrew (1997). Canada's Olympic Hockey Teams: The Complete History 1920–1998. Toronto, Ontario: Doubleday Canada. ISBN   0-385-25688-4.
• 1928 Olympic Games report (digitized copy online)
• International Olympic Committee results database