By winning its first-ever world championship, the United States deprived Canada of the world title for the first time in tournament history. The American team, the Massachusetts Rangers, was mostly made up of university students and led by standout performances of Gerry Cosby in goal and team captain Ben Langmaid on defence. Canada was represented by the Toronto National Sea Fleas, winners of the 1932 Allan Cup, and coached by the controversial hockey personality Harold Ballard.[1] The teams met on February 26 at Zimní stadión on Štvanice island. Tied 1-1 after 45 minutes of regulation time on goals by Sherman Forbes for the United States and an equalizer by Canadian Tim Kerr, defenceman John Garrison beat Canadian goalie Ron Geddes at the 6-minute mark of a dramatic "non-sudden death" overtime period.
Ten nations played in three groups, with the top two in each group advancing to the second round to join Canada and the United States, who both were automatically qualified through to the next round. In the second round, eight teams played in two groups; the top two teams from each group advancing to the semifinals, where the top qualifier in each group were seeded against the second qualifier in the opposing group. The winners of the semifinal matches played in the gold medal game, while the losers played for third place.
Fifth and sixth places were decided by a match between the third-place finishers in the two second ground groups; similarly seventh and eighth places were decided between the two last-place finishers in the second round groups. For the final four places, two classification matches were played between the bottom four finishers in the first round, which provided the seedings for the ninth and eleventh-place matches.
The United States' oldest active college hockey award, the Walter Brown Award, was created in 1953 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of this championship team and its coach, the eponymous Walter A. Brown.[2]
A team photograph, and a gold medal on loan from the family of Sherman Forbes, are currently on display at The Sports Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.
