1987 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships
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The 1987 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships was the 1987 edition of the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships and was held in Piestany, Czechoslovakia. Finland captured its first World Junior gold medal. Czechoslovakia captured the silver, and Sweden the bronze.
[edit] Piestany Punchup
This tournament featured one of the most infamous brawls in international hockey history as Canada and the Soviet Union engaged in a wild melee after both benches cleared late in the final game of the tournament. As a result, both teams were disqualifed from the tournament, costing the Canadians the gold medal.
With Canada leading 4-2 at the time of the brawl, Soviet player Pavel Kostichkin took a two handed slash at Theoren Fleury beginning the melee. The Soviet Union's Evgeny Davydov was the first player off the bench, leading to both benches clearing. The officials could not break up the fight so they left the ice and eventually tried turning out the arena lights. The brawl lasted for 20 minutes. Afterwards, Soviet hockey official Anatoly Kastriukov claimed a trainer for the Canadian team had fuelled hostilities by coming over to the Soviet bench and pummelling one of their assistant coaches. The Canadians maintained that the Soviets had started the brawl by leaving their bench first. Neither team was allowed to attend the players' banquet at the end of the tournament, and the standings were resorted after the disqualification. [1]
