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The first World Cup of Hockey (WCH), or the 1996 World Cup of Hockey,[a] was the inaugural edition of the event, replacing the Canada Cup as one the world championships of ice hockey.
Inaugural World Cup of Hockey
The first edition of the Cup featured eight teams divided into two groups. The European Group, whose games were all played in European cities, included the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, and Sweden. The North American Group played in North American cities and included Canada, Russia, Slovakia, and the United States. Some of the best players in the world were missing in the tournament, some either declined invitation, such as Dominik Hašek stating "I would love to play in (the competition), but the timing is bad",[1] or because of injuries, as Pavel Bure was injured during a Russia–USA exhibition game in Detroit.
After the teams played a three-game group stage, the top team in each group advanced to the semi-finals, while the second and third place teams played cross-over quarter-finals. The quarter-finals and semi-finals were single elimination games. The championship final was a best-of-three. All playoff games were played in North America.
In the biggest surprise of the tournament, Germany defeated the Czech Republic 7–1 in the European Group, which eliminated the Czechs and sent the Germans into the quarter-finals. In the biggest game of the North American Group, the USA defeated Canada 5–3 to finish first and get a bye to the semi-finals. In the semis, they defeated Russia 5–2, while Canada beat Sweden 3–2 on Theoren Fleury's goal at 19:47 of the second overtime period, ending the longest game in international hockey history.
The tournament did see some controversy after the Canada–Russia game in Vancouver was played when Sweden's coach Kent Forsberg said he believed "Canada cheated its way to victory" through help of Canadian NHL referees that saw two goals disallowed and several controversial penalties for Russia.[2][3] The Russian team's coach Boris Mikhailov echoed a similar sentiment after the game saying "It was the referees' victory", as Russia felt there was "biased officiating".[3][4][5]
In the best-of-three final, Canada won the first game, in Philadelphia, 4–3 in overtime. Then the USA recorded a memorable pair of 5–2 victories in Montreal to win the series. In the third and decisive game, the USA received spectacular goaltending from tournament MVP Mike Richter[6] and rallied from a 2–1 deficit in the third period by scoring four goals in the final 3:18 of the game. Tony Amonte scored the game-winning goal.
^German: Eishockey-Weltmeisterschaft 1996, French: Coupe du monde hockey sur glace 1996, Czech: Světový pohár v ledním hokeji 1996, Swedish: World Cup i ishockey 1996, Finnish: Jääkiekon maailmancup 1996
