Poland men's national ice hockey team

Poland
Nickname(s) The Eagles
Association Polish Ice Hockey Federation
General Manager Andrzej Zabawa
Head coach Jacek Płachta
Assistants Torbjörn Johansson
Captain Marcin Kolusz
Most games Henryk Gruth (292)
Top scorer Andrzej Zabawa (99)
Most points Leszek Laszkiewicz (150)
Team colors          
IIHF code POL
Ranking
Current IIHF 20 Increase2
Highest IIHF 19 (2003)
Lowest IIHF 25 (2014)
First international
 Austria 13–1 Poland 
(Davos, Switzerland; 11 January 1926)
Biggest win
 Poland 21–1 China 
(Eindhoven, Netherlands; 26 March 1993)
Biggest defeat
 Soviet Union 20–0 Poland 
(Moscow, Soviet Union; 11 April 1973)
IIHF World Championships
Appearances 56 (first in 1930)
Best result 4th (1931)
IIHF European Championships
Appearances 3 (first in 1926)
Best result (1929)
Olympics
Appearances 13 (first in 1928)
International record (W–L–T)
421–511–88

The Poland national men's ice hockey team is the national ice hockey team of Poland, and a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. They are ranked 21st in the world in the IIHF World Rankings, but prior to the 1980s they were ranked as high as 6th internationally. They are one of only 8 countries never to have played below the Division I (former B Pool) level. Currently the Polish national team plays at the Division IA level, the second tier of the World Championship.

History

Financed by state coal money from the 1950s to the 1970s the Polish hockey team was a regular at the top level upsetting the Swedes, Finns, and Czechoslovaks from time to time. In 1976 Poland beat the dominant Soviet Union 6-4 in the World Championships after being soundly defeated by the same team 16-1 in the Winter Olympics. It was only the second time in 13 years that the Soviet Union had not won the gold.

In the olympics earlier that year, Poland played 5 matches in the top division, but lost all of them. In the first game, the team managed four goals on the West Germany but it was not enough as they lost 7-4. Four days later, after being destroyed by the Soviet Union, the Poles took on Czechoslovakia who dominated the whole game throughout and won 7-1, but after the drug testing, the officials found that one of the Czech players tested positive for doping and they awarded Poland with a 1-0 victory, although they didn't receive any points in the standings. With only two games left and no points in the standings, Poland had no shot at a medal, but still played the last two games against the United States and Finland, and lost 7-2 and 7-1 respectively.

Poland managed to clean up a bit over four years and played well during the 1980 Olympics and finished seventh out of twelve teams. They managed to pull off a huge upset in their first game by beating Finland 5-4, who would eventually advance to the medal round. In their next game, they played Canada and hoped to complete an even bigger upset. The Canadians didn't let this happen and beat the Poles 5-1. In the third game, Poland took on the five time Gold Medalists, The Soviet Union. The players knew that this would be a challenge because they had played the Soviets many times before and had lost by usually very lopsided scores, such as 8-3, 9-3, 16-1, and 20-0. The Polish team, however, had also beaten the Soviets once in the 1976 World Championship and some of the players from that game were still on the team. The team tried to keep the Russians down, but it was too much and the USSR stormed to an 8-1 win. With their toughest games out of the way, Poland would have one more chance to try to get to the Medal Round. They took on the Netherlands and went down early in the first period but managed to tie it about four minutes later. The Dutch team scored twice more in the period to lead 3-1. Polish hero Wieslaw Jobczyk (who scored a hat trick in the 1976 upset against USSR) scored to put Poland within one goal but the Netherlands stormed back to get two more goals before the third period to make it 5-2. The Polish ended up losing 5-3 and saw their hopes of the Medal round come to an end. They had one more game against Japan, who had not won any games in the tournament and only tied once. Poland burst out in the first period and scored 3 goals before twenty minutes had ended. They scored two more goals and Japan seemed out of it. The final score was 5-1 for Poland. The team's final record was 2-3-0 and received 4 points in the standings.

By the early 1980s, though, the Polish economy went into the tail spin and the money for the hockey programs vanished. Despite this Poland has managed to produce some NHL caliber talent including Mariusz Czerkawski with the New York Islanders, Peter Sidorkiewicz for both the Hartford Whalers and the Ottawa Senators, and Krzysztof Oliwa for the New Jersey Devils where he won a Stanley Cup in 1999-2000.

Ever since 2000s Poland continues the tendency to compete in Division I of the World Championships (former Pool B). The only time in this century, so far, when the Poles managed to advance to the Elite division was in 2002, only to be relegated back to Division I

Tournament record

Olympic Games

World Championship

European Championships

Team

Current roster

Roster for the 2018 Winter Olympics qualification tournament.[1]

Pos. No. Player Team
GK 1 Kamil Kosowski Poland GKS Tychy
GK 30 Przemysław Odrobny France Pingouins de Morzine-Avoriaz
GK 29 Rafał Radziszewski Poland Comarch Cracovia
D 17 Mateusz Bryk Poland GKS Tychy
D 12 Paweł Dronia Germany Fischtown Pinguins
D 6 Michał Kotlorz Poland GKS Tychy
D 2 Maciej Kruczek Poland Comarch Cracovia
D 9 Bartlomiej Pociecha Poland GKS Tychy
D 28 Mateusz Rompkowski Poland Comarch Cracovia
D 4 Patryk Wajda Poland Comarch Cracovia
F 3 Adam Bagiński Poland GKS Tychy
F 22 Mateusz Bepierszcz Poland GKS Tychy
F 8 Aron Chmielewski Czech Republic HC Oceláři Třinec
F 19 Krystian Dziubinski Poland Comarch Cracovia
F 27 Radosław Galant Poland GKS Tychy
F 14 Kacper Guzik Poland Comarch Cracovia
F 26 Marcin Kolusz (C) Poland GKS Tychy
F 25 Mikołaj Łopuski Poland GKS Tychy
F 16 Tomasz Malasiński United Kingdom Swindon Wildcats
F 18 Grzegorz Pasiut Poland Comarch Cracovia
F 11 Maciej Urbanowicz Poland Comarch Cracovia
F 15 Patryk Wronka Poland Podhale Nowy Targ
F 10 Krzysztof Zapała Poland Podhale Nowy Targ

Former and current players in NHL

Players who have played in the NHL and the Polish national team

Year Name Position Team
1993–2006 Mariusz Czerkawski RW Boston Bruins
Edmonton Oilers
New York Islanders
Montreal Canadiens
Toronto Maple Leafs
1996–2006 Krzysztof Oliwa LW New Jersey Devils
Columbus Blue Jackets
Pittsburgh Penguins
New York Rangers
Boston Bruins
Calgary Flames

NHL Drafts

Players from Poland to be drafted in the NHL

Year Name Overall Team
1991 Mariusz Czerkawski 106th overall United States Boston Bruins
1993 Krzysztof Oliwa 65th overall United States New Jersey Devils
1993 Patryk Pysz 102th overall United States Chicago Blackhawks
2003 Marcin Kolusz 157th overall United States Minnesota Wild

Notable players

References

  1. ↑ "Znamy kadrę reprezentacji Polski na turniej w Budapeszcie". Hokej.net. 9 February 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
  2. ↑ IIHF (2010-04-17). "Poland Team Roster" (PDF). IIHF.com. Retrieved 2010-12-19.

External links

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