# Ice hockey at the 1992 Winter Olympics

The men's ice hockey tournament at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, was the 17th Olympic Championship. All the games were played at the Méribel Ice Palace in Méribel, about 45 km from host city Albertville. The competition, held from 9 to 23 February, was won by the Unified Team in its only appearance. The team was composed of some newly emerged nations from the former Soviet Union, which had dissolved just weeks before the Games began. Canada won the silver medal, its first hockey medal since 1968 and 11th Olympic ice hockey medal.

## Medalists

| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Unified Team (EUN) Sergei Bautin Igor Boldin Nikolai Borschevsky Vyacheslav Butsayev Vyacheslav Bykov Evgeni Davydov Alexei Zhitnik Darius Kasparaitis Nikolai Khabibulin Yuri Khmylev Andrei Khomutov Andrei Kovalenko Alexei Kovalev Igor Kravchuk Vladimir Malakhov Dmitri Mironov Sergei Petrenko Vitali Prokhorov Mikhail Shtalenkov Andrei Trefilov Dmitri Yushkevich Alexei Zhamnov Sergei Zubov | Canada (CAN) Dave Archibald Todd Brost Sean Burke Kevin Dahl Curt Giles David Hannan Gordon Hynes Fabian Joseph Joe Juneau Trevor Kidd Patrick Lebeau Chris Lindberg Eric Lindros Kent Manderville Adrien Plavsic Dan Ratushny Sam Saint-Laurent Brad Schlegel Wallace Schreiber Randy Smith David Tippett Brian Tutt Jason Woolley | Czechoslovakia (TCH) Patrik Augusta Petr Bříza Jaromír Dragan Leo Gudas Miloslav Hořava Petr Hrbek Otakar Janecký Tomáš Jelínek Drahomír Kadlec Kamil Kašťák Robert Lang Igor Liba Ladislav Lubina František Procházka Petr Rosol Bedřich Ščerban Jiří Šlégr Richard Šmehlík Róbert Švehla Oldřich Svoboda Radek Ťoupal Peter Veselovský Richard Žemlička |

## Qualification

The Olympic tournament was to be contested by twelve nations. The top eleven nations from the 1991 World Championships (eight from pool A, top three from pool B) qualified directly, while the twelfth ranked nation had to play off against the winner of that year's pool C.
Poland qualified in final tournament

## 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.

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | United States | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 7 | +11 | 9 | Quarterfinals |
| 2 | Sweden | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 22 | 11 | +11 | 8 | Quarterfinals |
| 3 | Finland | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 22 | 11 | +11 | 7 | Quarterfinals |
| 4 | Germany | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 12 | −1 | 4 | Quarterfinals |
| 5 | Italy | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 18 | 24 | −6 | 2 | consolation round |
| 6 | Poland | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 30 | −26 | 0 | consolation round |
All times are local (UTC+1).

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Canada | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 28 | 9 | +19 | 8 | Quarterfinals |
| 2 | Unified Team | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 32 | 10 | +22 | 8 | Quarterfinals |
| 3 | Czechoslovakia | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 25 | 15 | +10 | 8 | Quarterfinals |
| 4 | France (H) | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 22 | −8 | 4 | Quarterfinals |
| 5 | Switzerland | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 25 | −12 | 2 | consolation round |
| 6 | Norway | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 38 | −31 | 0 | consolation round |
* 1 2 3 Canada 2 Pts, +3GD; United Team 2 Pts 0GD; Czechoslovakia 2 Pts, –3GD
All times are local (UTC+1).

## Consolation round
### Bracket

| 9–12th-place semifinals | 9–12th-place semifinals | 9th-place game | 9th-place game |
| 18 February | 18 February |
| Italy | 3 |
| Italy | 3 | 21 February | 21 February |
| Norway | 5 | 21 February | 21 February |
| Norway | 5 | Norway | 5 |
| 19 February | 19 February | | Norway | 5 |
| 19 February | 19 February | Switzerland | 2 |
| Switzerland | 7 | Switzerland | 2 |
| Poland | 2 | | |
| Poland | 2 | 11th-place game | 11th-place game |
| | | 20 February | 20 February |
| | | Italy | 1 |
| | | Poland | 4 |

### 9th-place game
## Final round
### Bracket

| Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | | Gold-medal game | Gold-medal game |
| February 18 | February 18 | | | |
| Canada (GWS) | 4 | | | |
| Canada (GWS) | 4 | February 21 | February 21 | | |
| Germany | 3 | February 21 | February 21 | |
| Germany | 3 | Canada | 4 | |
| February 18 | February 18 | | Canada | 4 | |
| February 18 | February 18 | Czechoslovakia | 2 | |
| United States | 4 | Czechoslovakia | 2 | |
| United States | 4 | | | | February 23 | February 23 |
| France | 1 | | | | February 23 | February 23 |
| France | 1 | | | | Canada | 1 |
| February 19 | February 19 | | | | | Canada | 1 |
| February 19 | February 19 | | | | Unified Team | 3 |
| Unified Team | 6 | | | | Unified Team | 3 |
| Unified Team | 6 | February 21 | February 21 | | | |
| Finland | 1 | February 21 | February 21 | | | |
| Finland | 1 | Unified Team | 5 | | | |
| February 19 | February 19 | | Unified Team | 5 | | | |
| February 19 | February 19 | United States | 2 | | Bronze-medal game | Bronze-medal game |
| Sweden | 1 | United States | 2 | | Bronze-medal game | Bronze-medal game |
| Sweden | 1 | | | | February 22 | February 22 |
| Czechoslovakia | 3 | | | | February 22 | February 22 |
| Czechoslovakia | 3 | | | | United States | 1 |
| | | | | | Czechoslovakia | 6 |
| 5–8th-place semifinals | 5–8th-place semifinals | Fifth-place game | Fifth-place game |
| February 20 | February 20 |
| Germany | 5 |
| Germany | 5 | February 22 | February 22 |
| France | 4 | February 22 | February 22 |
| France | 4 | Sweden | 4 |
| February 20 | February 20 | | Sweden | 4 |
| February 20 | February 20 | Germany | 3 |
| Sweden | 3 | Germany | 3 |
| Finland | 2 | | |
| Finland | 2 | Seventh-place game | Seventh-place game |
| | | February 22 | February 22 |
| | | Finland | 4 |
| | | France | 1 |

### Gold-medal game
## Statistics
### Average age

Team Germany was the oldest team in the tournament, averaging 28 years and 6 months. Team USA was the youngest team in the tournament, averaging 24 years. Gold medalists Unified Team averaged 24 years and 2 months. Tournament average was 26 years and 4 months.

### Leading scorers

| Rk | Name | GP | G | A | Pts |
| 1 | Joe Juneau | 8 | 6 | 9 | 15 |
| 2 | Andrei Khomutov | 8 | 7 | 7 | 14 |
| 3 | Robert Lang | 8 | 5 | 8 | 13 |
| 4 | Teemu Selänne | 8 | 7 | 4 | 11 |
| 5 | Eric Lindros | 8 | 5 | 6 | 11 |
| 5 | Hannu Järvenpää | 8 | 5 | 6 | 11 |
| 7 | Vyacheslav Bykov | 8 | 4 | 7 | 11 |
| 8 | Yuri Khmylev | 8 | 4 | 6 | 10 |
| 8 | Mika Nieminen | 8 | 4 | 6 | 10 |
| 10 | Nikolai Borschevskiy | 8 | 7 | 2 | 9 |

## Final rankings

* Unified Team
* Canada
* Czechoslovakia
* United States
* Sweden
* Germany
* Finland
* France
* Norway
* Switzerland
* Poland
* Italy

## Unified Medal controversy

Russian goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin was the third on the depth chart and never played when the Unified Team won gold in Albertville, France. Instead of giving the gold to someone who did not play, coach Viktor Tikhonov kept it. Only players are given Olympic medals; coaches and management are not. The medal was returned to Khabibulin in a private medal ceremony during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.