2006 Winter Olympics – Men's tournament

The men's tournament in ice hockey at the 2006 Winter Olympics was held in Turin, Italy, from 15 to 26 February. Twelve teams competed, with Sweden winning the gold medal, Finland winning silver, and the Czech Republic winning bronze. It was the third Olympic tournament to feature National Hockey League players and the tenth best-on-best hockey tournament in history. Chris Chelios set a standard for longest time between his first Olympic ice hockey tournament and his last—he had competed twenty-two years earlier at the 1984 Olympics. The old record was set by Swiss hockey player Bibi Torriani who had played twenty years after his debut (1928 and 1948).

The format was changed from the 1998 and 2002 tournaments, to a format similar to the 1992 and 1994 tournaments. The number of teams was reduced from 14 to 12. The 12 teams were split into two groups in the preliminary stage, which followed a round-robin format. Each team played the other teams in their group once. The top four teams from each group advanced to the quarter-finals.

The tournament is also notable for the lacklustre performance of the defending champion Canada, which lost two group stage games (including a shock defeat to Switzerland) before being eliminated by Russia in the quarter-finals. As of 2016, this is the only Olympic ice hockey tournament of the 21st century (men's or women's) to not be won by the Canadian team.

Final rankings

The full final rankings for the tournament were:

1. Sweden
2. Finland
3. Czech Republic
4. Russia
5. Slovakia
6. Switzerland
7. Canada
8. United States
9. Kazakhstan
10. Germany
11. Italy
12. Latvia

In a celebration of the gold in Stockholm on 27 February, the Swedish team was seen in front of advertisements for sponsors of the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation, not the ones of the Swedish Olympic Committee. This could have led to Sweden's disqualification, but the Finnish opponents in the final game chose not to report the incident to the IOC.

Qualification

Twelve places were allotted for the men's ice hockey tournament. The first eight were awarded to the top eight teams in the International Ice Hockey Federation ranking following the 2004 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. Those teams were:

1. Canada
2. Sweden
3. Slovakia
4. Czech Republic
5. Finland
6. United States
7. Russia
8. Germany

The teams that automatically qualified include the same "Super Six" teams that were automatically qualified for the final group stage in the two previous tournaments, plus Slovakia and Germany which (IIHF rankings notwithstanding) are often regarded as the seventh and eighth best teams. The ninth place was given to the host nation, Italy. The final three places were allotted through qualification tournaments in which Kazakhstan, Latvia, and Switzerland won places.

Qualification tournaments

The winners of Groups D, E and F advanced to Groups C, B, and A respectively. The winners of Groups A, B, and C qualified for the Olympics.

Group D (Briançon, France, 11–14 November 2004)

• France-x (3–0)
• Romania (2–1)
• Estonia (1–2)
• Bulgaria (0–3)

Group E (Nowy Targ, Poland, 11–14 November 2004)

• Poland-x (3–0)
• Netherlands (2–1)
• Lithuania (1–2)
• Croatia (0–3)

Group F (Stavanger, Norway, 11–14 November 2004)

• Norway-x (2–0–1)
• Hungary (2–0–1)
• China (1–2)
• Serbia and Montenegro (0–3)

Group A (Kloten, Switzerland, 10–13 February 2005)

• Switzerland-x (3–0)
• Norway (2–1)
• Denmark (1–2)
• Japan (0–3)

Group B (Riga, Latvia, 10–13 February 2005)

• Latvia-x (3–0)
• Belarus (2–1)
• Slovenia (1–2)
• Poland (0–3)

Group C (Klagenfurt, Austria, 10–13 February 2005)

• Kazakhstan-x (2–1)
• Austria (1–1-1)
• France (1–1-1)
• Ukraine (1–2)

First round

Twelve participating teams were placed in two groups. After playing a round-robin, the top four teams in each group advanced to the Medal Round while the last two teams competed in the Consolation Round for the 9th to 12th places.

	Team advanced to the Final Round
	Team sent to compete in the Consolation Round

Group A

Table

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Finland	5	5	0	0	19	2	10
Switzerland	5	2	1	2	10	12	6
Canada	5	3	2	0	15	9	6
Czech Republic	5	2	3	0	14	12	4
Germany	5	0	3	2	7	16	2
Italy	5	0	3	2	9	23	2

Results

Team	FIN	SUI	CAN	CZE	GER	ITA
FIN		5–0	2–0	4–2	2–0	6–0
SUI	0–5		2–0	3–2	2–2	3–3
CAN	0–2	0–2		3–2	5–1	7–2
CZE	2–4	2–3	2–3		4–1	4–1
GER	0–2	2–2	1–5	1–4		3–3
ITA	0–6	3–3	2–7	1–4	3–3

Group B

Table

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
Slovakia	5	5	0	0	18	8	10
Russia	5	4	1	0	23	11	8
Sweden	5	3	2	0	15	12	6
United States	5	1	3	1	13	13	3
Kazakhstan	5	1	4	0	9	16	2
Latvia	5	0	4	1	11	29	1

Results

Team	SVK	RUS	SWE	USA	KAZ	LAT
SVK		5–3	3–0	2–1	2–1	6–3
RUS	3–5		5–0	5–4	1–0	9–2
SWE	0–3	0–5		2–1	7–2	6–1
USA	1–2	4–5	1–2		4–1	3–3
KAZ	1–2	0–1	2–7	1–4		5–2
LAT	3–6	2–9	1–6	3–3	2–5

Final round

Quarter finals

Semi finals

Final

22 February 2006

24 February 2006

26 February 2006

A

4th

Czech Republic

3

B

1st

Slovakia

1

Czech Republic

3

Sweden

7

B

3rd

Sweden

6

A

2nd

Switzerland

2

Sweden

3

Finland

2

A

3rd

Canada

0

B

2nd

Russia

2

Russia

0

Finland

4

B

4th

United States

3

Bronze medal match

Czech Republic

3

A

1st

Finland

4

Russia

0

External links

• "Turin 2006". International Olympic Committee. http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Olympic-Games/All-Past-Olympic-Games/Winter/Turin-2006/. 
• "Men's ice hockey". International Olympic Committee. http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Sports/All-Sports/Ice-Hockey/All-Ice-hockey-events/ice-hockey-Men/. 

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