Czech fans have been waiting for the gold from the World Championship since 1985 for 11 long years before it finally happened again in Vienna in 1996. Once again, the legendary Luděk Bukač was there as coach. He was able to mix an excellent selection combining great players from the extra league, European leagues and the NHL.
The Czechs successively won over Sweden, Finland, France and Italy, only stumbling in the group with a draw with Norway. They easily defeated the Germans in the quarter-finals, again easily dealt with the USA in the semi-finals, and all that remained was to beat Canada in the final. Thanks to Martin Procházka’s memorable goal 19 seconds before the end, it was possible! The independent Czech Republic became world champion for the first time.
“Educational Slap”
But then came a big slap, which turned out to be very important. In 1996, the first edition of the World Cup, which continued the tradition of the Canada Cup, was played at the end of August. The Czech national team entered the tournament not only as a team of world champions, but additionally strengthened by stars from the NHL, in which Jágr, Nedvěd, Holík, Ručinský and others had grown in the meantime. Three big defeats and especially the last 1:7 against Germany meant a shameful end after the basic group. It proved that only a team can win, not just a collection of stars.
“We didn’t play together at all, we didn’t play as a team, we played there as about 23 individuals and we were completely burnt out,” confirms Martin Ručinský, who recalled the worst tournament of his extremely long and successful career in an interview for the Nosiči ledu podcast series. “But I agree that it was the right educational slap for us, when we then realized that you can’t play like this. If we want to win something together, we will have to think a little differently.”
Photo: Pavel Vondra, Seznam Zpravy
Martin Ručinský.
And then in 1998 it came. Czech hockey players have already had Olympic gold within reach several times, after all, in 1948 or 1968, one extra goal would have been enough to triumph. In Nagano, however, things did not look very promising with the golden Czech ambitions, the Czech selection of Ivan Hlinka could have been helped by NHL megastars such as Jágr or Hašek, but absolutely all teams could count on that. And that there were plenty of similar megastars in the other teams – Gretzky, Lindros, Yzerman, Chelios, Hull, Modano, Lidström, Forsberg, Sundin, Koivu, Selänne, Bure, Fyodorov, Jašin and others and others, it was a flood of fantastic players and legends hockey history.
Some Czechs only got to know each other in Nagano, but they got along great on the ice. They defeated Finland and Kazakhstan in the group and only narrowly lost to Russia. It meant a tough opponent for the quarterfinals – the United States of America, full of NHL stars, which two years before had won the World Cup so unsuccessfully for the Czechs. In the first period, only the insurmountable Hašek kept the Czechs afloat, but then the scorers also woke up and a surprising 4:1 win was achieved. In the semi-finals, Canada came, who clearly came for the gold. But the Czechs stepped on the giant that day. Linden managed to answer Šlégr’s cannon from the blue line a minute before the end. It came down to raids, and in them Reichel hit at the beginning.
Then no one scored a goal. In short, the dominator locked the goal and sent the Czech Republic to the final. The last obstacle was waiting there – how many times were there hockey players from Russia? But the former domination of the eastern country was already tatam, we had freedom a long time ago. And also Petra Svoboda. His most famous and only national team goal decided the Nagano final.
The Czech national team won the Olympic Games in ice hockey for the first time in history. And right away at the biggest tournament in history.
There is no need to win, especially if we bring gold
After the historic triumph, it might have seemed that Czech hockey had nowhere to rise, but they were wrong! The gold rush only started with that. In 1999, the world championship was played in Norway, and coach Ivan Hlinka had already announced with a smile that there was no need to win, especially if we brought gold. They were prophetic words. The Czechs won the basic group, in the next they lost to the Russians 1:6, but wins against Slovakia and Sweden sent them to the semi-finals. Two games were played then and it was again an even battle with Canada. Only raids after the second match and defender Špaček were decisive. Even the final was played over two games. We beat the Finns first, but then we lost to them. So it went to a decisive extra time. And in it, Jan Hlaváč experienced the moment of his life. His delivery was golden!
Past episodes of Ice Bearers
In 2000, the championship was played in Russia without coach Hlinka, who accepted an offer from the NHL. The nomination fell apart for coach Josef August, one excuse followed another. But those who eventually went to the tournament wanted to prove that they were no worse than the players from the NHL, where there were 56 of them with a Czech passport that season. Latvia went astray in the quarter-finals, Canada in the semi-finals and the final? For the first time in history, the recent national team colleagues – the Slovaks – got there.
The more experienced Czechs took a 3:0 lead, but the Slovaks did not want to give up and gradually reduced the score to 4:3. Everything was decided only by Robert Reichel’s shot into an empty net. It was only the second Czech defense of the world gold.
Stories from the history of hockey
Foto: Getty Images
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List News has prepared a series of articles on the history of hockey championships. Where was hockey passion born, when were the Czechs champions? Unknown stories from the history of this sport.
But it did even more. At the World Cup in Germany in 2001, the Czechs even completed a golden hat trick for the first time in history. No other country in the playoff era had accomplished anything like that before or since. That makes the whole achievement more valuable. The Czechs managed the group and the superstructure with a routine and a single slip in a draw with the home team. In the quarter-finals, Slovaks waited in vain for revenge for last year’s defeat in the final. The Czechs won 2:0. The Swedes had to be beaten in the semi-finals – and that was the hardest job in the end. The equalizer at 2:2 was arranged by Viktor Ujčík before the end, who then also decided the raids. The third final in three years, this time the Czech lions were defeated by the team of Finland, and this time too it was hard work. However, the Czech team did not rest from the Finns’ 2:0 lead, goals from Procházka and Dopita leveled the score and David Moravec’s moment of life came in overtime.
Third gold in a row! Unbelievable, crazy and apparently unrepeatable. A nation of ten million people from the center of Europe, where it doesn’t even really freeze in winter, was undoubtedly the best hockey nation in the world at that time!
“I think that our generation wore those medals, you could say, practically all the time, even though we were always only interested in the gold one, the others didn’t really interest us,” Martin Ručinský looks back on the golden era from the turn of the century. Since he last wore the national team jersey (2015), the Czechs have brought home only one medal from a major tournament, namely the bronze from the 2022 WC in Finland. We will find out next month whether they will be able to get another medal in front of their home crowd this year.
Ice Bearers
Sound design: David Kaiser
Podcast series Seznam Zpráv, in which Tomáš Kučera describes the most interesting moments of our rich hockey history and interviews those who were personally present at the greatest successes.
Every Thursday – from 21.3. – to be heard as a bonus episode of the related podcast Nosiči vody on Podcasty.cz, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast apps.
Feedback is welcome at the e-mail address audio@sz.cz.