1965 Ice Hockey World Championships

1965 Ice Hockey World Championships

A Finnish stamp dedicated to the 1965 World Ice Hockey Championships
Tournament details
Host country	Finland
Dates	3–14 March
Teams	8
Final positions
Champions	Soviet Union (5th title)
Runner-up	Czechoslovakia
Third place	Sweden
Fourth place	Canada
Tournament statistics
Games played	28
Goals scored	221 (7.89 per game)
Attendance	178,968 (6,392 per game)
Scoring leader(s)	Josef Golonka (14 points)
← 1964 1966 →

The 1965 Ice Hockey World Championships took place in Hakametsä, Tampere, Finland, 3–15 March. Eight teams took part, each playing each other once. The Soviets became world champions for the fifth time, winning all of their games. This also counted as their ninth European title, with the Czechs finishing second and the Swedes third. For the third straight year Canada finished fourth. The tournament employed new tie-breaking rules, which some believed were supposed to be in place for the Innsbruck Olympics. To decide medals priority would be given to the team who won the head-to-head game, unless they tied, or more than two teams were tied. In those two cases goal differential would be used, but only the goal differential between the top four teams.^[1]

Fifteen nations played in two groups, with qualification games used to establish the tier for closely ranked teams. From now on, the last place team in group 'A' would be relegated, with the group 'B' champion being promoted to replace them. Poland went undefeated to earn promotion, defeating the Swiss, and tying the West Germans.

The event was the first Ice Hockey World Championships hosted by Finland, and was organized by Harry Lindblad, president of the Finnish Ice Hockey Association.^[2][3]