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 Kirill Korenkov
Captain	Marcin Kolusz
Most games	Henryk Gruth (292)
Top scorer	Andrzej Zabawa (99)
Most points	Leszek Laszkiewicz (150)
IIHF code	POL
IIHF ranking	22 2
Highest IIHF ranking	19 (2003)
Lowest IIHF ranking	25 (2014)
Team colors
First international
Austria 13–1 Poland (Davos, Switzerland; January 11, 1926)
Biggest win
Poland 21–1 China (Eindhoven, Netherlands; March 26, 1993)
Biggest defeat
Soviet Union 20–0 Poland (Moscow, Soviet Union; April 11, 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)
418–509–88

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 USA 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 and 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.

Tournament record

Olympic Games

• 1928 – 9th place
• 1932 – 4th place
• 1936 – 9th place
• 1948 – 7th place
• 1952 – 6th place
• 1956 – 8th place
• 1964 – 9th place
• 1972 – 6th place
• 1976 – 6th place
• 1980 – 7th place
• 1984 – 8th place
• 1988 – 10th place
• 1992 – 11th place

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)

European Championships

• 1926 – 7th place
• 1927 – 4th place
• 1929 – Won silver medal

Team

2014 roster

• Head coach: Jacek Płachta

Pos.	No.	Player	Team
GK	30	Przemysław Odrobny	JKH GKS Jastrzębie
GK	1	Kamil Kosowski	Cardiff Devils
D	4	Patryk Wajda	Cracovia Krakow
D	12	Paweł Dronia	Schwenninger Wild Wings
D	23	Rafal Dutka	KH Sanok
D	6	Michał Kotlorz	GKS Tychy
D	5	Jakub Wanacki	GKS Tychy
D	9	Bartlomiej Pociecha	KH Sanok
D	24	Bartosz Dabkowski	Cracovia Krakow
D	28	Mateusz Rompkowski	JKH GKS Jastrzębie
F	3	Adam Bagiński	GKS Tychy
F	8	Aron Chmielewski	Cracovia Krakow
F	10	Krzysztof Zapała	KH Sanok
F	7	Jakub Witecki	GKS Tychy
F	15	Leszek Laszkiewicz	Cracovia Krakow
F	16	Tomasz Malasinski	GKS Tychy
F	14	Sebastian Kowalowka	Cracovia Krakow
F	19	Krystian Dziubinski	Podhale Nowy Targ
F	25	Mikolaj Lopuski	GKS Tychy
F	18	Grzegorz Pasiut	JKH GKS Jastrzębie
F	26	Marcin Kolusz	GKS Tychy
F	13	Marek Strzyżowski	KH Sanok

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	Boston Bruins
1993	Krzysztof Oliwa	65th overall	New Jersey Devils
1993	Patryk Pysz	102th overall	Chicago Blackhawks
2003	Marcin Kolusz	157th overall	Minnesota Wild

Notable players

• Henryk Gruth - Most games played for national team (292)
• Andrzej Zabawa - Most goals scored (99)
• Leszek Laszkiewicz - 96 games played, 81 total points
• Mariusz Czerkawski
• Krzysztof Oliwa
• Marcin Kolusz

External links

• Official website
• IIHF profile