Waking up at dawn: Remembering the 1985 World Hockey Championship

The sun was just coming up. I had set an alarm, but woke up ahead of it. I was so excited my body would not let me miss it.

Team Canada, against all odds, had advanced to the gold medal game of the 1985 World Hockey championship in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and I had to see it.

I was reminded of that game, 38 years ago, when the current rendition of Team Canada played for gold in the 2023 World Hockey Championship.

The team
Team Canada was coached by Doug Carpenter, who was the coach of the New Jersey Devils. The team was made up of players from teams that either did not make the Stanley Cup playoffs, or were eliminated in the first round.

So there was a healthy helping of players from the league’s doormats of 1985 – the Devils; Los Angeles Kings; Vancouver Canucks; Pittsburgh Penguins; and Hartford Whalers.

The roster was John Anderson; Kevin Dineen; Ron Francis; Doug Halward; Steve Konroyd; Grant Ledyard; Mario Lemieux; Doug Lidster; Brian MacLellan; Jamie Macoun; Don Maloney; Kirk Muller; Larry Murphy; Bernie Nicholls; Pat Riggin; Stan Smyl; Scott Stevens; Tony Tanti; Dave Taylor; Rick Vaive; Rick Walmsley; Steve Weeks; Ian Wood; and Steve Yzerman.

Obviously, there are some hall of famers on the roster, but it was early in their careers, before they led their teams to greatness. The two obvious examples are Yzerman, who was in his second season, and Lemieux who was a rookie.

Yet, in a tournament, anything can happen. You just have to beat a team once to win the gold. Sometimes you don’t even have to beat the best team, if someone else does it for you first.

The thing was, Canada never sent its best players to the World Hockey Championship, and it showed. We hadn’t won it since 1961 and didn’t even send a team from 1970 to 1976.

This team didn’t look like it would be much different.

Moreover, there was little hype or fanfare, just as had been the case since Canada started sending teams again in 1977.

That would change.

Round robin
Canada was in Group A, which consisted of the top seven teams in the world. They would play each other once each with the top four teams advancing to the final round where the teams would again play each other once. The team with the best record took gold, the second best took silver, and so on.

Canada opened with a 9-1 win over East Germany on April 17 then shut out West Germany 5-0 on April 18.

After a day off, disaster struck in Canada’s third game, as they lost by a score of 4-3 to the Americans. It was the first time ever that Canada had lost to the United States. Hard to believe now, isn’t it?

With a record of 2-1, the tough games were still ahead for the Canadians.

The next day, April 21, Canada beat Finland 5-2, then played to a 4-4 draw with host Czechoslovakia on April 23.

Up next was the best team on the planet, the Soviet Union, who Canada would face off against on April 25. No one really expected Canada to win, but the Soviets humiliated the Canadians by a score of 9-1. They were serving notice they were the best, and no one should even think they could be beaten.

That left the Swedes, who had finished second in the 1984 Canada Cup the year before. It was roundly observed the Swedes were under-achieving, so when Canada beat them by a 6-3 score on April 27, no one was surprised.

The results left Canada in third place, behind the first place Soviets, second place Americans and ahead of the Czechs.

Still, anything can happen in the final round.

Upset special
The final round opened against the Americans, who had dealt Canada a serious blow in the round robin. However, Canada recovered, defeating Team USA by a score of 3-2 on April 29.

So far so good.

Looming up ahead were the Soviets, who must have looked 10-feet tall. Canada had not defeated the Soviet Union in the World Championships since 1961. The teams were set to meet two days later, on May 1, giving the Canadians plenty of time to think – and plan.

It was the first time the Soviets did not have goaltender Vladislav Tretiak in their net since 1969, either. The truth was, I saw him play, and he was losing a step so a change was not completely unexpected.

Canada came to play. In the midst of the research for this, I found the game on YouTube, and have watched the first 12 minutes or so. They did not look like a team smarting from a 9-1 shellacking. Instead, they are strong on the puck, backchecked well, and Pat Riggin was solid in net.

Mario Lemieux, 19 at the time, opened the scoring at 16:48 of the first period, then five minutes later Stan Smyl scored on a rebound. Lemieux made it 3-0 in the second period, and Riggin slammed the door shut after that. Vlictor Krutov did score on the power play midway through the third period, but it was too little too late.

It was Canada’s first victory over the Soviets in 24 years at the world championships.

Coupled with the other results in the round, the game between Canada and Czechoslovakia would now determine the gold medal winner.

Gold medal game
It was not an actual gold medal game per se, but it did determine who won the gold.

I had heard on the school bus on the way home that Canada had upset the Soviets and were playing for gold, so I determined to watch the game against Czechoslovakia.

When I did tune in to Channel 13 that morning, there was no actual game on the screen yet. Because no one expected Canada to make the gold medal game, there was no one at the game. Ron Reusch was on screen in a studio somewhere, and he explained he was going to call the game by watching a feed CTV somehow picked up from Europe.

That feed was as good as any other international game of the time.

I was more nervous than I expected, when the game faced off.

The Czechs opened the scoring on a goal by Jiri Sejba, but Steve Yzerman tied it 1-1, only to have Sejba score again. This time Rick Vaive tied the score 2-2, as the teams went back and forth. Sejba would then give the Czechs a 3-2 lead at 13:00 of the second period with a power play goal, leaving the score 3-2 going into the second intermission.

Darius Rusnak upped the Czech lead to 4-2 with a power play goal in the third period. Canada never gave up, as Scott Stevens scored to cut the Czech lead to 4-3.

With 96 seconds left, Coach Carpenter pulled Riggin for an extra attacker but Jiri Lala scored into an empty net giving Czechoslovakia the 5-3 win and the gold medal.

Canada did not settle for silver. In this case, they earned it.

I was spent. When I got on the school bus it felt like I had already had a full day – which in some senses was true.

The tournament wrap
Mario Lemieux led Canada in scoring with four goals and six assists in nine games. It would be the only time he played for Canada in the World Hockey Championship. Rick Vaive was the top goal scorer with six goals in 10 games, to go with two assists.

Pat Riggin and Steve Weeks essentially split the goaltending duties, with Weeks playing in five games and Riggin playing in four. However, Riggin seemed to assume the number one spot, because he played against both the Soviets and Czechs in the final round. Rick Walmsley also saw duty in two games. He allowed a total of 11 goals, so he must have played against the Soviets in that 9-1 blowout.

It was telling that no one from Team Canada won an award or was on any tournament all-star teams, illustrating they really did come out of nowhere.

Parting thoughts
It would be another nine years before Canada won their next World Hockey Championship.

The fact they came so close in 1985 was a testament to coaching and the players coming together. I wanted them to win so badly because the tournament really was an un-level playing field. The Soviets were essentially an all-star team that played year round. They trained together, played together and developed into a well-oiled machine.

The International Ice Hockey Federation chose to have their world championship at a time when the best Canadians and many of the best Americans, Swedes, and Finns were playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs and were unavailable for the world championships.

It was not a travesty like the Olympics and their charade of amateur status was, but it still made me cheer that much harder for Team Canada.

That has all changed now. The world has opened up and every country has the same challenges assembling a team for the world championships.

However, when the playing field is level you can see the result.

Canada won the 2023 World Hockey Championship.