The world juniors provides annual highlights of the best younger hockey players on the planet, but in this story from THN's exclusive Archive, we chronicled the infamous "Punch-Up In Piestany" incident from the 1987 WJC tourney.
The IIHF’s World Junior Championship is in full swing, and it’s always nice at this time of year to go back through The Hockey News’ 76-year archive and compare and contrast the type of WJC stories we’ve published. In this feature story from THN’s Jan. 16, 1987 edition (Vol. 40, Issue 16), we chronicled one of the most infamous WJC tournaments in its history – the “Punch-Up In Piestany” in 1987.
(And don’t forget – for full access to THN’s exclusive 76-year Archive, you can subscribe to the magazine.)
The Piestany, Czechoslovakia incident, which took place in the gold medal game of the 1987 WJC tournament, saw the Canadian and Soviet Union teams break into a crazed brawl in the second period. The game was called off, with Canada leading the Soviets 4-2; after order was restored, the IIIHF’s directors met and voted 8-1 to expel both countries from the tourney.
Team Finland wound up getting the gold medal in the tournament, but all most people remember of it was the ugly specter of violent reactions from both teams.
IIHF referee Hans Ronning of Norway tried in vain to prevent the melee, and tournament organizers turned off the arena lights, but they could not prevent the tensions from boiling over.
“(The Canadians) were provoked into fighting by the Russians and suddenly a Russian guy got out on the ice,” Ronning said. “You can blame the teams, blame the coaches and you have to blame the referee as well. I blame myself as much as the teams, but then again, what can I do? Twenty people from each team come on the ice and start to hit each other. I would need a machine gun to get rid of them.”
Team Canada coach Bert Templeton defended his players’ actions in the brawl.
“Whatever the people of Canada think (about the brawl), it was never our intention,” Templeton said. “Ninety-nine percent of the pre-game talk to the boys was that we knew they would try to provoke us and that we’ve got to stop retaliating. That’s fully what we intended to do. I’m not ashamed of Bert Templeton. I’m not ashamed of any of the hockey players.
“All I hope is that the people who would have been on the bandwagon jumping up and down if we had won the gold medal don’t turn cold and start pointing the fingers now because they’ll look like very small people in my eyes and look like very small people in a lot of people’s eyes.”
BLACK DAY IN JANUARY
Vol. 40 No. 16, Jan. 16, 1987
By THN Staff
Turn out the lights, the party’s over.
As far as the participation of Canada and the Soviet Union at the 1987 World Junior Championships in Czechoslovakia was concerned, that was both literally and figuratively correct on Jan. 4.
International hockey suffered what may be its blackest day ever when the tourney’s final game between the Soviet Union and Canada was called after a wild brawl broke out at 13:53 of the second period.
Canada, assured of a medal but needing a victory margin of at least five goals to win gold, was comfortably ahead 4-2.
“I’ve seen some wild stuff before,” said Hockey Canada’s Alan Eagleson, who watched the game on television from his home in Toronto. “There was fighting between the Soviets and Americans in the 1985 World Championships and there was the Soviets and the Czechs in 1978. But nothing that compares with what happened in the junior tournament.”
Canada needed only a win to get the silver, while the Soviets, 2-3-1 in their worst junior effort ever, were destined for a sixth-place showing.
Now, owing to the wild bench-clearing brawl that saw almost every player on the ice trade punches, there’s no record of either team having participated in the tournament.
Immediately following the brawl – highlighted by referee Hans Ronning of Norway and the two linesmen retreating to their dressing room and tournament organizers turning off the lights in a vain attempt to restore order – the International Ice Hockey Federation directors met for 35 minutes and voted 8-1 in favor of expelling both Canada and the Soviet Union from the tourney.
The lone vote against expulsion came from Team Canada director of operations Dennis MacDonald, who later admitted on Canadian national television that “deep in my heart I felt the same way (as the other directors).”
The wild ending to the tournament almost completely obscured other aspects of the event, most notably:
• A strong 5-1-1 gold-medal showing by Finland, which suffered through only a 5-0 defeat at the hands of Sweden and a 6-6 tie with Team Canada.
• A plethora of upsets, both large (Team USA, 4-3-0, beating Czechoslovakia 8-2 and the Soviets 4-2) and small (Poland whipping Switzerland 8-3 in a game that relegated the Swiss to next year’s ‘B’ pool tourney).
• Silver and bronze medals, tainted somewhat by Canada’s expulsion, for the Czechoslovaks (5-2-0) and Swedes (4-2-1), respectively. The Swedes, incidentally, recorded shutouts in three of their four victories.
• An absolutely miserable performance by the Soviets, pre-tournament favorites to win the gold medal. Not only was their play sloppy, chippy and uninspired, Anatoli Tarasov, the godfather of Soviet hockey, said coach Vladimir Vasiliev’s squad was the worst prepared junior team his nation had ever sent. Much was also made of Vasiliev not allowing his players post-game meals and breakfasts after some losses.
Certainly, all that was overshadowed by the fisticuffs, which result in immediate expulsion under IIHF regulations.
“As soon as I saw the benches empty and the players start fighting,” said Eagleson, “I knew that was it. The game was over.
“(IIHF president Dr. Gunther Sabetzki) is very anti-fighting and you get in that directorate meeting and all the guys who have a vote have a vested interest in the outcome of the tournament. How do you think Finland, Czechoslovakia and Sweden were going to vote? With Canada out, their positions would be improved or solidified.”
The game, which Canada was threatening to run away with when the fighting broke out, was a vicious affair. There were numerous post-whistle scuffles as well as considerable verbal baiting and physical jousting.
Until Team Canada’s Everett Sanipass decked a Soviet, which was returned in kind by a Soviet to a Team Canada player, the Canadians had done a relatively good job of turning the other cheek.
When several fights broke out at that point amongst the players on the ice, Soviet forward Evgeny Davydov was identified by referee Ronning as the first player off the bench. He entered the fracas and the entire Canadian bench was in hot pursuit.
“They were provoked into fighting by the Russians and suddenly a Russian guy got out on the ice,” said Ronning, who was blamed for letting the game get out of control in the first place.
“Maybe I’m finished as a referee in international hockey. You can blame the teams, blame the coaches and you have to blame the referee as well. I blame myself as much as the teams, but then again, what can I do? Twenty people from each team come on the ice and start to hit each other. I would need a machine gun to get rid of them.”
Ronning’s comments were no consolation to the disconsolate Canadians.
“(Team Canada coach Bert Templeton) was trying to hold us back on the bench but he can’t hold back 15 guys,” said Canadian forward Scott Metcalfe. “By the time we hit the ice they already had four guys on the ice. The Russians had nothing to lose and we have everything to lose.”
Templeton said he thought the brawl was orchestrated by Soviet coach Vasiliev.
“He actually opened the door (for the Soviets to leave the bench), but it’s over,” said the head coach of the North Bay Centennials of the Ontario League. “In retrospect, my biggest disappointment is for the boys.
“Whatever the people of Canada think (about the brawl), it was never our intention. Ninety-nine percent of the pre-game talk to the boys was that we knew they would try to provoke us and that we’ve got to stop retaliating. That’s fully what we intended to do. I’m not ashamed of Bert Templeton. I’m not ashamed of any of the hockey players.
“All I hope is that the people who would have been on the bandwagon jumping up and down if we had won the gold medal don’t turn cold and start pointing the fingers now because they’ll look like very small people in my eyes and look like very small people in a lot of people’s eyes.”
Sabetzki, at the IIHF office in Vienna the day after the tournament, was unavailable for comment.
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