Countdown to 50: Part 1 – Establishing a New World Juniors Tournament
Here’s a breakdown of the relevant facts from the provided text:
Image Facts:
* Subject: Wayne Gretzky (#99) of Canada skating during warm-up.
* Photographer: Paul Bereswill / Hockey Hall Of Fame
World Junior Championship (WJC) History – 1977:
* Host: Czechoslovakia (Banska Bystrica and Zvolen)
* Format: Simple round robin with eight teams.
* Key Players:
* Canada: Dale McCourt, Rob Ramage, John Anderson
* Soviet Union: Slava Fetisov, Sergei Makarov, Sergei Mylnikov
* sweden: Bengt-Ake Gustafsson
* Finland: Reijo Ruotsalainen
* Czechoslovakia: Frantisek Cerny
* Result: Soviet Union won gold, defeating Canada 6-4. Canada tied Czechoslovakia 4-4.
World Junior Championship (WJC) – 1978:
* Host: Montreal and surrounding areas (Canada)
* Format: Two groups of four, top two advance to a medal round robin, then a gold-medal game.
* Attendance: Very low – 41,681 total for 25 games (under 2,000 per game average).
* Key Players (Canada): Wayne gretzky (16 years old, tournament leading scorer with 17 points in 6 games), Bobby Smith, Rick Vaive, Rob Ramage.
* Result: Soviet Union won gold, defeating Sweden 5-2 in the final. Canada lost to the Soviets 3-2 and to Sweden 6-5 in the medal round, finishing in third place.
World Junior championship (WJC) – 1979:
* Host: Karlstad and Karlskoga (Sweden)
* Format: Same as 1978 (two groups, medal round robin, gold-medal game).