This was the last World Championships played on natural ice; and were the first World Championships held in the
Soviet Union and they are remembered for the political circumstances surrounding the games.
Hungary had been recently occupied by the
Soviet Army (to suppress a
revolution in October and November 1956), and as a result, the
United States and
Canada boycotted the World Championships in protest. Joining them were
Norway,
West Germany,
Italy and
Switzerland.
East Germany participated at the top level for the first time.
With the boycott, the home team
USSR was heavily favoured to win the tournament, but
Sweden surprised the world by pulling off an upset. The first step was taken in their third game, when they beat
Czechoslovakia 2-0. This important victory was saved by the head of
Leksands IF defenseman
Vilgot Larsson. He literally headed the puck away from the Swedish net to save a goal, and in the days before mandatory helmets, received several stitches for his heroics. In the final game, Sweden opened with two goals, but the dynamic Soviets responded with four goals of their own. Down by two in the third period, goals by
Eilert Määttä and
Erling Lindström tied the game, and the goaltending of
Thord Flodqvist and play of
Sven "Tumba" Johansson guaranteed the final draw. The
USSR had previously only tied
Czechoslovakia, so all Sweden needed was one point, or a tie, for gold.
The Soviets did not have the Swedish national anthem ready for the gold medal ceremony. To compensate for this, the Swedish players decided to sing the anthem over the stadium's PA system. However, few players knew the anthem by heart so they decided to play a little prank on the Soviets and instead sang the Swedish drinking song "
Helan Går".[1] Swedish captain Lasse Björn later recalled the story of
Marshal Zhukov, the Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union, standing to attention for a simple Swedish drinking song.[2]
The final game (
USSR versus
Sweden for the championship) was played on the football field of the Grand Sports Arena of the
Luzhniki Stadium. It is reputed that over 50,000 fans (or 55,000, depending on sources) saw the game, the most ever for an international hockey game. This stood as the world record until 6 October 2001, when 74,544 fans saw
Michigan State University and the
University of Michigan play an American
NCAA Hockey game outdoors at
Spartan Stadium in
East Lansing, Michigan.
European Championship medal table
Games played against Japan did not count for the purposes of determining the European champion. Since six of the seven European participants defeated Japan, and since the only opponent that did not defeat Japan (Austria) also lost to each of their European opponents, finishing order for the European championship table was the same as it was for the main championship table.
Soviet Union
Sweden (2nd title)
Czechoslovakia
Finland
East Germany
Poland
Austria
Japan
