The men's ice hockey tournament at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, was the 12th Olympic Championship. Games were held at the Makomanai Ice Arena and at the Tsukisamu Dome. The Soviet Union won its fourth gold medal. The United States won the silver, while Czechoslovakia won the bronze. Canada, historically the most successful team in the tournament with six titles among 10 medals in the 11 Olympic competitions-to-date, failed to send a team to the event for the first time since ice hockey was first competed at the Olympics in 1920, instead competing with and defeating the Soviets in a competition later that year known as the Summit Series. Canada would not send a men's hockey team to the Olympics until 1980.