Czechoslovakia men's national ice hockey team
The Czechoslovakia men's national ice hockey team was the national ice hockey team of Czechoslovakia, and competed from 1920 until 1992. The successor to the Bohemia national ice hockey team, which was a European power prior to World War I, the Czechoslovak national team first appeared at the 1920 Summer Olympics, two years after the creation of the state. In the 1940s, they established themselves as the best team in Europe, becoming the first team from the continent to win two World Championships (1947 and 1949). After the arrival of the Soviet Union on the international hockey scene in the 1950s, the Czechoslovaks regularly fought Sweden and Canada for silver and bronze medals, and sometimes beat the Soviets. In total, they won the gold medal six times.
| Most games | Jiří Holík (319) |
|---|---|
| Top scorer | Josef Maleček (216) |
| Most points | Josef Maleček (285) |
| IIHF code | TCH |
| First international | |
| Canada 15–0 Czechoslovakia (Antwerp, Belgium; 24 April 1920) Last international Czechoslovakia 7–2 Switzerland (Moscow, Russia; 19 December 1992) | |
| Biggest win | |
| Czechoslovakia 24–0 Yugoslavia (Basel, Switzerland; 3 February 1939) Czechoslovakia 24–0 Belgium (Prague, Czechoslovakia; 21 February 1947) Czechoslovakia 27–3 East Germany (East Berlin, East Germany; 25 April 1951) Czechoslovakia 25–1 Japan (Moscow, the Soviet Union; 4 March 1957) | |
| Biggest defeat | |
| Canada 30–0 Czechoslovakia (Chamonix, France; 28 January 1924) | |
| IIHF World Championships | |
| Appearances | 52 (first in 1930) |
| Best result | Gold: 6 (1947, 1949, 1972, 1976, 1977, 1985) Silver: 10 (1961, 1965, 1966, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1983) Bronze: 14 (1933, 1938, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1963, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1981, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1992) |
| Canada Cup | |
| Appearances | 5 (first in 1976) |
| Best result | 2nd: (1976) |
| Olympics | |
| Appearances | 16 (first in 1920) |
| Medals | Silver: 4 (1948, 1968, 1976, 1984) Bronze: 4 (1920, 1964, 1972, 1992) |
Due to the split of the country Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the team was replaced in 1993 with the Czech and the Slovak national teams. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) recognized the Czech national team as a successor of Czechoslovakia national team and kept it in the top group, while the Slovak national team was entered into the lowest level, Pool C, winning promotion in successive years to join the elite division in 1996.