Poland men's national ice hockey team

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 IB level, the third tier of the World Championship.

Poland
Nickname(s)The Eagles
AssociationPolish Ice Hockey Federation
Head coachRóbert Kaláber
AssistantsJacek Szopiński
Marek Ziętara
CaptainTomasz Malasiński
Most gamesHenryk Gruth (292)
Top scorerAndrzej Zabawa (99)
Most pointsLeszek Laszkiewicz (150)
Team colors         
IIHF codePOL
Ranking
Current IIHF22 (24 April 2020)[1]
Highest IIHF19 (2003)
Lowest IIHF25 (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
Appearances57 (first in 1930)
Best result4th (1931)
IIHF European Championships
Appearances3 (first in 1926)
Best result (1929)
Olympics
Appearances13 (first in 1928)
International record (W–L–T)
476–531–92
Medal record
Pool B / Division I
1965 Finland
1967 Austria
1972 Romania
1978 Yugoslavia
1985 Switzerland
1987 Italy
2001 France (Group A)
2014 Lithuania (Group B)

Poland has competed in the Olympics thirteen times, most recently in 1992, with their best result being fourth place in 1932. They have been a regular participant of the World Championship, first appearing in 1930 and having appeared in all but one tournament since 1955. They frequently played in the top division, though have been in Division I since being relegated in 2002.

History
Poland at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, their first appearance at the Winter Olympics. They finished ninth.

Poland was a regular participant of the early Winter Olympics, first competing at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where they finished ninth out of eleven teams. They would appear at ever Winter Olympics until 1956, with their best finish being fourth in 1932.

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. They hosted the World Championship for the only time in 1976, with the matches taking place in Katowice. At this tournament Poland defeated the Soviet Union 6–4 in their opening match, the first time Poland ever won against the Soviets and what is regarded as one of the greatest upsets in international hockey history. While Poland finished seventh and was relegated for the following year, their victory against the USSR helped prevent them from winning gold for only the second time in 13 years.[2]

The national team in 2006.

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 Soviets down, but it was too much and the USSR stormed to an 8–1 win.

Poland at the 2017 World Championship Division IA tournament in Ukraine. They finished fourth.

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.

When Communist rule ended in 1989, the Polish national team began a slow decline in international play. They reached the Olympics in 1992, the most recent time they have played there, and finished eleventh out of twelve teams. During the 1990s the first two Polish-born and trained players were selected in the NHL Entry Draft: Mariusz Czerkawski was selected in the 1991 by the Boston Bruins, and Krzysztof Oliwa in 1993 by the New Jersey Devils; Oliwa won the Stanley Cup with the Devils in 2000, the first and only Pole to do so.

Poland last competed at the Elite level in 2002 World Championship, where they finished fourteenth and were relegated. Since then they have remained in Division I, but have not earned promotion back to the top level, though they have finished just outside of promotion several times. They were relegated to Division IB in 2018, the lowest they had ever played at.

Tournament record

Olympic Games
Games GP W OW T OL L GF GA Coach Captain Finish Rank
1928 St. Moritz 2 0 0 1 0 1 4 5 ? Tadeusz Adamowski First round 9th
1932 Lake Placid 6 0 0 0 0 6 3 34 Tadeusz Sachs ? First round 4th
1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen 3 1 0 0 0 2 11 12 Aleksander Tupalski, Lucjan Kulej ? First round 9th
1948 St. Moritz 8 2 0 0 0 6 29 97 Zbigniew Kasprzak ? Round-robin 6th (7th)
1952 Oslo 8 2 0 1 0 5 21 56 Mieczysław Kasprzycki ? Round-robin 6th
1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo 5 2 0 0 0 3 15 22 Mieczysław Palus, Wladyslaw Wiro-Kiro Józef Kurek Consolation Round 8th
1960 Squaw Valley Did not participate
1964 Innsbruck 8 6 0 0 0 2 41 15 Gary Hughes Józef Kurek Consolation Round 9th
1968 Grenoble Did not participate
1972 Sapporo 6 1 0 0 0 5 13 39 Anatoli Yegorov, Mieczysław Chmura Ludwik Czachowski Final Round 6th
1976 Innsbruck 6 2 0 0 0 4 16 41 Józef Kurek Robert Góralczyk Final Round 6th
1980 Lake Placid 5 2 0 0 0 3 15 23 Czeslaw Borowicz Stefan Chowaniec First round 7th
1984 Sarajevo 6 1 0 0 0 5 20 44 Emil Nikodemowicz Henryk Gruth 7th place game 8th
1988 Calgary 6 1 0 1 0 4 12 15 Leszek Lejczyk, Jerzy Mruk Henryk Gruth 9th place game 10th
1992 Albertville 9 2 0 0 0 5 25 47 Leszek Lejczyk, Jerzy Mruk Henryk Gruth 11th place match 11th
1994–2018Did not qualify

World Championship
  • 1930 – 5th place
  • 1931 – 4th place
  • 1933 – 7th place
  • 1935 – 10th place
  • 1937 – 8th place
  • 1938 – 7th place
  • 1939 – 6th place
  • 1947 – 6th place
  • 1955 – 7th place
  • 1957 – 6th place
  • 1958 – 8th place
  • 1959 – 11th place
  • 1961 – 13th place (5th in Pool B)
  • 1963 – 12th place (4th in Pool B)
  • 1965 – 9th place (1st in Pool B)
  • 1966 – 8th place
  • 1967 – 9th place (1st in Pool B)
  • 1969 – 8th place (2nd in Pool B)
  • 1970 – 6th place
  • 1971 – 8th place (2nd in Pool B)
  • 1972 – 7th place (1st in Pool B)
  • 1973 – 5th place
  • 1974 – 5th place
  • 1975 – 5th place
  • 1976 – 7th place
  • 1977 – 10th place (2nd in Pool B)
  • 1978 – 9th place (1st in Pool B)
  • 1979 – 8th place
  • 1981 – 10th place (2nd in Pool B)
  • 1982 – 11th place (3rd in Pool B)
  • 1983 – 10th place (2nd in Pool B)
  • 1985 – 9th place (1st in Pool B)
  • 1986 – 8th place
  • 1987 – 9th place (1st in Pool B)
  • 1989 – 8th place
  • 1990 – 14th place (6th in Pool B)
  • 1991 – 12th place (4th in Pool B)
  • 1992 – 12th place
  • 1993 – 14th place (2nd in Pool B)
  • 1994 – 15th place (3rd in Pool B)
  • 1995 – 15th place (3rd in Pool B)
  • 1996 – 17th place (5th in Pool B)
  • 1997 – 17th place (5th in Pool B)
  • 1998 – 23rd place (7th in Pool B)
  • 1999 – 23rd place (7th in Pool B)
  • 2000 – 20th place (4th in Pool B)
  • 2001 – 18th place (1st in Division I, Group A)
  • 2002 – 14th place
  • 2003 – 19th place (2nd in Division I, Group A)
  • 2004 – 21st place (3rd in Division I, Group B)
  • 2005 – 19th place (2nd in Division I, Group A)
  • 2006 – 21st place (3rd in Division I, Group B)
  • 2007 – 20th place (2nd in Division I, Group A)
  • 2008 – 22nd place (3rd in Division I, Group A)
  • 2009 – 23rd place (4th in Division I, Group B)
  • 2010 – 22nd place (3rd in Division I, Group B)
  • 2011 – 23rd place (4th in Division I, Group B)
  • 2012 – 24th place (2nd in Division I, Group B)
  • 2013 – 24th place (2nd in Division I, Group B)
  • 2014 – 23rd place (1st in Division I, Group B)
  • 2015 – 19th place (3rd in Division I, Group A)
  • 2016 – 19th place (3rd in Division I, Group A)
  • 2017 – 20th place (4th in Division I, Group A)
  • 2018 – 22nd place (6th in Division I, Group A)
  • 2019 – 24th place (2nd in Division I, Group B)
  • 2020 – Cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic[3]

European Championships
Games GP W T L GF GA Coach Captain Finish Rank
1910–1925Did not participate.
1926 Davos 5 3 0 2 12 7 ? ? Consolation Round 6–7 Place Game 6th
1927 Wien 5 1 2 2 11 9 ? ? Round-robin 4th
1929 Budapest 3 2 0 1 6 3 ? ? Final
1932 Berlin Did not participate.

Former Players In NHL

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

YearNamePositionTeam
1993–2006Mariusz CzerkawskiRWBoston Bruins
Edmonton Oilers
New York Islanders
Montreal Canadiens
Toronto Maple Leafs
1996–2006Krzysztof OliwaLWNew Jersey Devils
Columbus Blue Jackets
Pittsburgh Penguins
New York Rangers
Boston Bruins
Calgary Flames
2015–2016Mike DantonCNew Jersey Devils
St. Louis Blues

NHL Entry Draft

Polish born players selected in the NHL Entry Draft

YearNameOverallTeam
1981Peter Sidorkiewicz91st overallWashington Capitals
1991Mariusz Czerkawski106th overallBoston Bruins
1993Krzysztof Oliwa65th overallNew Jersey Devils
1993Patryk Pysz102nd overallChicago Blackhawks
1998Tomek Valtonen56th overallDetroit Red Wings
2000Stefan Liv102nd overallDetroit Red Wings
2003Marcin Kolusz157th overallMinnesota Wild
2004Wojtek Wolski21st overallColorado Avalanche

Notable National team players

Other Polish-born NHL players

Head-to-head records
Opponent Matches Won Draw Lost Goals for Goals against
 Australia 1 1 0 0 5 3
 Austria 55 26 3 26 179 168
 Belarus 18 5 0 13 41 80
 Belgium 5 4 1 0 29 6
 Bulgaria 2 2 0 0 27 2
 Canada 29 0 1 28 27 188
 China 6 6 0 0 79 11
 Croatia 5 5 0 0 33 4
 Czechoslovakia 44 3 2 39 59 329
 Czech Republic 1 0 1 0 2 2
 Denmark 33 18 4 11 143 108
 East Germany 69 32 12 25 278 234
 Estonia 16 14 1 1 77 31
 Finland 52 5 8 39 107 263
 France 51 20 6 25 133 138
 Germany 16 4 0 12 31 49
 Great Britain 33 11 2 20 101 120
 Hungary 59 32 6 21 192 125
 Italy 52 27 4 21 164 136
 Japan 39 32 2 5 206 92
 Kazakhstan 20 1 1 18 39 80
 Latvia 17 3 0 14 32 62
 Lithuania 17 13 0 4 89 30
 Netherlands 39 34 2 3 201 85
 Norway 76 38 7 31 302 239
 Romania 56 46 5 5 362 94
 Serbia 1 1 0 0 13 2
 Slovakia 6 0 1 5 10 36
 Slovenia 22 8 0 14 51 62
 South Korea 11 7 0 4 41 28
 Soviet Union 33 1 0 32 43 321
 Spain 2 2 0 0 9 1
 Sweden 36 6 4 26 66 220
  Switzerland 47 19 7 21 157 166
 Ukraine 37 13 2 22 91 120
 United States 35 6 2 27 81 187
 West Germany 37 12 7 18 128 139
 Yugoslavia 21 19 1 1 139 53
Together 1099 476 92 531 3767 4014
  • The head to head records do not include matches against reserve, junior teams or club teams.
  • In grey, teams of countries which no longer exist
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References
  1. "IIHF Men's World Ranking". IIHF. 24 April 2020. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
  2. IIHF (2008). "Poland scores biggest shocker in World Championship history". IIHF.com. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  3. "IIHF cancels Division I tournaments". iihf.com. 17 March 2019.
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