This Day in Hockey History – September 14, 1996 – Rocky Hockey Picture Show

The inaugural World Cup of Hockey, which began August 26, 1996, replaced the Canada Cup which had taken place five times between 1976 and 1991. The Canada Cup was the answer to demands for an international competition that would allow players to compete regardless of their professional status. At the time of the Canada Cup’s inception, the Olympics was still limited to those players who held amateur status. The competition was sanctioned by both the International Ice Hockey Federation and the National Hockey League. Of the five Canada Cup competitions, Canada had won four (1976, 1984, 1987, 1991) and the Soviet Union won once in 1981.

Like the Canada Cup, the World Cup of Hockey was to be played in August and September and was supposed to include the best of the best. However, not all of the players invited for some of the teams accepted those invitations, such as Dominik Hašek, from the Czech Republic, who declined saying that the timing wasn’t good for him. And the Russian team was without Pavel Bure who was recuperating from an injury sustained in a Russia-USA exhibition game that had taken place in Detroit.

The design of the tournament was to have the eight teams broken into two groups, playing three games at the group stage, against the other teams in their group. The first place teams in the two groups would advance to the semi-finals, and then the second and third placed teams played a cross-over quarter-finals. The quarter-finals and semi-finals were single game eliminations and then the final would be a best of three. While the group stage games were played in both North America and Europe, the playoff rounds were all to be played in North America.

The North American Pool was made up of teams representing Canada, Russia, Slovakia, and the United States. The European Pool consisted of teams from the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany and Sweden. The United States, from the North American Pool, and Sweden, from the European Pool advanced to the semi-finals, and then had to wait to see who would join them.

For the North American pool, Team Canada and Team Russia advanced to the quarter-finals, while Finland and Germany represented the European Pool. The quarter-finals saw Canada play the Germans, who they defeated 4-1, while Russia ousted Finland 5-0. The semi-finals saw Canada narrowly defeat Sweden to advance to the championship with a 3-2 overtime win on September 7. Meanwhile the following day, the United States sent the Russians packing in a 5-2 victory.

The best of three championship final games took place on September 10th, 12th, and the 14th. The first game was played in Philadelphia and saw Canada beat the United States in overtime 4-3, though Team USA had been leading 3-1 at the end of two periods. The teams then went to Montreal where the United States managed to tie the series and force a game three.

“The eyes of the country will be upon Team Canada as it battles the United States in the third and deciding game of the World Cup of Hockey,” reported The Leader-Post of Regina, Saskatchewan. “And those eyes, inevitably, will be drawn to big No. 88. Eric Lindros, the love-him-or-leave-him heir apparent to Canadian hockey’s throne, remains the dark prince despite what was to have been his coronation in this tournament.”

“We’ve put ourselves in a situation where it all funnels down into one game,” said Lindros the day before the third game.

“Tomorrow is sudden death. Anytime you’re in a position to be in a sudden-death situation, it’s different than playing a game where you know there’s a tomorrow. There’s pressure on both teams,” shared Team USA’s Mark Messier about game three.

“This is what we worked 35 days for,” said Team USA coach Ron Wilson the day before game three. “It’s sitting right there. Each team has one hand on the World Cup. It’s going to be a slugfest to see who gets the other hand on it.”

And perhaps Wilson’s comments were a hint as to some additional motivation he had designed for his players. He combined highlights from Team USA’s play throughout the tournament with clips from the movie Rocky II.

The plot of Rocky II certainly seemed appropriate. The premise being a rematch between heavyweight boxing champion Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa. Creed considers his prior win in a split decision a blemish on his career and wants the next bout to be a knockout decision. It was easy enough to see Team USA as Rocky.

“The organizers changed the name this time—to the World Cup of Hockey. Maybe they realized it was no longer Canada’s Cup,” reported The Honolulu Advertiser the day after the final bout.

“The teams entered the third period of the final game of the best-of-3 series tied 1-1 and Canada, which had dominated play throughout, appeared set to retain its mantle of international ice hockey superiority when Adam Foote scored at 12:50, sending the capacity crowd of 21, 273 at the Molson Centre into a deafening roar,” The Honolulu Advertiser continued. “But, the partisan crowd lost its collective voice in a hurry moments later when Brett Hull and Tony Amonte scored in a 43-second span late in the third period. And just like that the United States had its most important victory since the U.S. Olympic hockey team won the 1980 gold medal just down the road at Lake Placid, N.Y.”

“All of Canada must have been abuzz in every bar across the land, jumping up and down with three minutes left. Then two quick goals. You could have probably heard a pin drop everywhere because I know you could in the arena,” said Amonte.

The U.S. would go on to score two more goals in the final minute of that third period with an empty-netter at 19:18 and then their fifth goal of the game at 19:43. Perhaps they were all embracing their inner Rocky, showing just how they could rally, and that they should never be counted out.

Additional Sources:

• Mike Commito, Hockey 365, Daily Stories from the Ice (Toronto: Dundurn, 2018), kindle edition
• “U.S. topples Canada with late surge, 5-2,” The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, Hawaii), Sunday, September 15, 1996, p. C12
• Dave Lueking, “Cup ‘Just a Tournament’ for Hull; To Others, It’s About National Pride,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri), Saturday, September 14, 1996, p. D1
• “Pressure on Lindaas,” The Leader-Post (Regina, Saskatchewan), Saturday, September 14, 1996, p. C3
• John Kekis, “Messier will return for finale,” Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wisconsin), September 14, 1996, p. 4D