THN Archive: Canada Won Its First WJC Gold Medal in 1982 Led by Former Blackhawk Troy Murray

Minus Connor Bedard, there's no gold-medal repeat for Canada at this year's IIHF World Junior Championship.

But  former Blackhawks center Troy Murray played a key role in Canada winning its first WJC on Jan. 2, 1982. Murray, now a TV and radio analyst in Chicago, was the captain of a Canadian squad that took the championship in a tournament decided in a smallish rink in Rochester, Minnesota.

Previously, Canada had sent the reigning Memorial Cup champ team to the WJC. The results weren't great.

In 1982, a team of top players from the three major junior leagues, along with some eligible Canadians playing NCAA hockey, was assembled. Murray was skating in his second season at the University of North Dakota in 1981-82.

Murray, who grew up around Edmonton, had been drafted by Chicago in the third round, 57th overall in 1980. He debuted with the Blackhawks on April 4, 1982 after the college season, then skated in seven playoff games that spring at age 19.

Murray played nine more seasons with Chicago before being traded to Winnipeg.

He was best known for centering the hard-forechecking "Clydesdale" line with Eddie Olczyk and Curt Fraser on the wings. The trio clicked on the short 185-foot Chicago Stadium ice surface, with Murray recording a career-high 45 goals and 99 points in 1985-86. He also won the Selke Trophy that season with a plus-32 rating and five short-handed goals as a top penalty killer.

No TV Cameras, Hype or Anthem for Canada

Canada's 1982 WJC team was coached by the legendary David King and loaded with other players who went on to solid NHL careers.  James Patrick, Gary Nylund, Scott Arniel, Mike Moller, Gord Kluzak, Randy Moller, Marc Habscheid, Garth Butcher and others were on the squad.

WJC games that year were held across Minnesota, Ontario and Manitoba. Only one of Canada's, against the Soviets in Winnipeg, was televised.

The event was purely a round-robin with no medal round. Canada needed a win or tie against Czechoslovakia in its final game to finish with the best record and take the gold.

Canada came back for a 3-3 tie at the Graham Rink in Rochester to finish at 6-0-1, ahead of the Czechs at 5-1-1, to win it.

There were medals and a trophy, but no national anthem recording available after the win. The Canadians locked arms and sang "O Canada" a capella... the best they could.

Their rendition was sensationally real, and more than good-enough despite being a bit unpolished.

See former Minneapolis Star-Tribune sports writer John Gilbert's summary of the rustic WJC from a Jan. 15, 1982 edition of the hockey news below.

BTW: The Graham Arena has since been expanded into a complex with four rinks.

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CANADA WINS WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP GOLD

By John Gilbert

ROCHESTER. Minn. — “O’ Canada” never sounded sweeter than when 20 teenaged Canadians stood on the ice at tiny Graham Arena in Rochester, Minn., on the night after New Year’s Day, 1982, and hollered out an a capella version for all the world to hear.

They were lined up along the blueline, having just clinched the gold medal of the International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Junior Championships with a dramatic 3-3 tie against Czechoslovakia, and they were impatient.

They waited only briefly for the playing of their anthem, then they realized that nobody in the Southern Minnesota town had arranged the traditional post-game recording. So they swung into action, locked together arms-around-shoulders like a 20-player chain. They may have only occasionally approached the right notes, but the song couldn’t have sounded sweeter to anyone who has agonized over Canada’s recent international hockey fortunes.

It was the first time since the Trail Smoke Eaters senior team of 1961 that any Canadian team had won any gold medal in any international amateur hockey tournament. And the fact that it was a junior team made it all the sweeter.

Coach Dave King, whose only failure in preparation was that he didn’t give his players voice lessions, did an incredible job of organizing and disciplining his team in the week prior to the tournament.

The event was staged in the United States for the first time in its six-year history. Minnesota was the host, but tournament organizers spread out the games to outlying towns, such as Duluth, International Falls, Rochester, Brainerd, Virginia, New Ulm and Mankato.

Showing amazing generosity, the organizers also allowed Canada to open the tournament by hosting some games. The Canadian team faced three of the top contenders, Finland, Sweden and the Soviet Union, all in Winnipeg, benefitting considerably from the home-ice advantage.

Canada beat Finland 5-1 and rallied to overcome Sweden 3-2 while the Russians thrashed West Germany 12-3 and lost to arch-rival Czechoslovakia 3-2 in Duluth. After performing before 2,500 in Duluth, the Russians were taken by bus, with an overnight stay in International Falls, to Winnipeg, where 11,000 Canadian loyalist fans and a national television audience awaited them.

Canada routed the Russians 7-0, with a four-goal third period. The Czechs, meanwhile, had beaten the U.S. 6-4 and Finland 5-1 in addition to the conquest of the Soviets.

In the fourth round, Canada survived a 2-0 first-period deficit and a strong finish to subdue the U.S. 5-4 while Sweden stunned Czechoslovakia 6-4 with a five-goal second period. That left Canada 4-0, with Sweden and the Czechs each 3-1 as main contenders.

Next for Canada was an easy 11-3 romp over West Germany and an 11-1 coaster against Switzerland. Meanwhile, Finland came back from its two opening setbacks to Canada and the Czechs, shocking Sweden 9-6 and then clearly outplaying the Soviet Union 6-3 to gain a 4-2 record. The Finns’ final 8-4 victory over the game but outmanned U.S. was not even required to secure the bronze medal, because Sweden had collapsed 7-2 against the Soviets to assure Finland of third place. Finnish linemates Raimo Summanen (seven goals, 16 points), Petri Skirko (eight goals, 15 points) and Risto Jalo (seven goals, 15 points) wound up 1-2-3 in tournament scoring.

The intrigue of the tournament was that Canada, known mostly for its chippy play in junior hockey, was not counted on as a threat to win the tournament, having never done better than a silver and a bronze in five previous events. Last year they finished seventh.

Traditional Canadian teams bristled with future NHL stars, but fell victim to their own individualistic tendencies. The 1978 team, for example, included Wayne Gretzky, Craig Hartsburg, Tony McKegney, Steve Tambelini, Stan Smyl, Rob Ramage, Ryan Walter, Bobby Smith, Willie Huber, Mike Gartner, Wayne Babych, Brad Marsh, Rick Vaive, Rick Paterson, Curt Fraser, Pat Riggin and Brad McCrimmon.

That powerhouse on paper proved only a paper tiger, finishing third to the USSR and Sweden.

So what was different about this team? After all, this one started amid controversy when the management and coaching staff started selecting players through the CAHA without going through the junior leagues. The two factions had a brief war, then came together.

In what proved a monumental show of good judgement, Dave King was retained as coach. A thoughtful, 34-year-old student of the game, King was Canadian college Coach of the Year at the University of Saskatchewan last year.

“From the beginning,” said manager Sherry Bassin, “Dave King said all of us — players and management — would put our egos on the shelf.”

King replaced egos with tactics. Against the highly skilled Europeans he used two forechecks, one of pressure and one of containment, depending on puck control.

“I just treated everybody as equals,” said King. “No special privileges. I told all of them that they were dominant players on their own teams, but just one of 20 on this one. I told them that individual play will kill us against European teams, and the logic just seemed to catch on.

“I’ve studied the Europeans, and they know us so well. They know they can agitate us and get easy penalties, then kill us on the power play.”

Some people were upset that the deciding game would be held in Rochester’s Graham Arena, which is only 186 feet long instead of 200. But going into the tournament, nobody expected the gold medal to come down to that game between Canada and the Czechs. At 6-0, Canada needed only a tie for the gold, while the Czechs, at 5-1, needed to win.

The game was a brilliant showcase for hockey of any kind, particularly junior hockey, and particularly King’s principles. The Czechs outshot Canada 13-5 in the first period, but it was 1-1. A rare cheapshot, when Marc Habscheid charged Czech goalie Vaclav Furbacher after he had cleared the puck behind the net, gave the Czechs a power play opportunity and a goal.

Paul Boutillier got it back with a fortunate goal. He scored with a hard shot from the slot, but before his shot the goal cage had become dislodged from its erratic mooring and was several inches off its proposed spot before the puck went in. One-one.

The Czechs poured even more pressure on in the second period, with a 16-5 edge in shots, but Mike Moffat, the top save-percentage goalie in the entire tournament, kicked out all but one. Rostislav Vlach knocked in a second rebound, and Canada argued that play should have been stopped for Moe Lemay, who had fallen injured near the bench, and they also claimed the Czechs had one too many skaters on the ice at the time of the goal.

Through those two periods, it appeared the Czechs had too many men on the ice all the time. But during the second intermission, King drew on a psycholgical card he had hidden under the table.

Bassin walked into the dressing room before Canada returned to the ice and pulled from his pocket a gold medal. An actual one, that he had obtained, obviously, from a friendly tournament official.

“Somebody dropped one of these,” joked Bassin later, “and I happened to find it. I let the players touch it, but not hold it.”

Thus inspired, the Canadians tore out onto the cozy ice sheet and got goals from Habscheid, on a second rebound try from behind the net that glanced in off a defenseman, and from Mike Moller, the top Canadian scorer for the tournement with five goals and 14 points, on Todd Strueby’s passout from behind the net.

Canada, outshot for the game 41-29, mastered 19 shots in that rally. But the Czechs came back, once behind 3-2. Moffat stopped Jiri Dudacek on one shot, then Jaroslav Hauer picked off a careless breakout try by Habscheid and rifled a shot off the post. At 15:30, Dudacek carried up the left side and blew a spectacular slapshot past Moffat from 40 feet for the 3-3 tie. The Czechs pulled Furbacher with 17 seconds left, but Moffat came up with three dazzling saves and the tie was held.

And so it was all of that effort, to restore Canadian hockey pride that went into that swaying, gleeful rendition of O’ Canada. No official recording could have matched it and few Canadian teams have approached this one’s harmony.