As Finland prepares to host the World Championships again, the Danes are preparing to send a team to the competition for the first time since 1949, the only other time they competed with the world's top teams. Their participation in 2003 is the result of winning Group B of Division I play in Hungary last year by scoring a decisive 6-2 win over the host nation of the final day of the tournament and finishing first ahead of those same Hungarians. But although that victory rewards them with a new challenge, the country's recollections of 1949 are hardly tinged with sweetness.

It was only on April 27, 1946 that Denmark joined the IIHF to announce formally their intentions to compete in international hockey. Their first game came less than three years later, on February 12, 1949, in Stockholm, Sweden, a country hosting the World Championships for the first time. Unfortunately, their initiation came in the form of a preliminary round game against Canada, and even more unfortunately the game produced the most lop-sided result in world championship history. Canada won by a score of 47-0, and the Danes never got the puck into Canada's half of the ice. It was a stunning loss for the Danes and an equally stunning win for Canada, which was represented by the Sudbury Wolves that year.

The Wolves were assembled by Max Silverman, who had taken the Sudbury team to Prague in 1938 where Canada had won a gold. Again in 1949, he brought together the best amateur players he could find in Ontario. He trained them in Sudbury and took the team to Europe in December 1948 to tour and prepare the players for the championship the following February. At first, this plan seemed to backfire miserably. Upon arriving in England, the Canadian players had their sticks confiscated by customs officers who claimed the players were going to sell the sticks for a large profit. The accusation was preposterous, but the team had to take it seriously or else they could not proceed.

After paying a healthy tariff, the players went on their way, but in their first 13 exhibition games of the tour they won only twice. They lost three games by scores of 7-3, 7-1, and 7-0 to local British teams, a rank embarrassment by Canadian standards, and by the time they arrived in Sweden no critic or fan predicted a strong Canadian showing.

But at 19.00 of the opening day of the WC, February 12, 1949, Canada faced Denmark and produced a record performance. Only 549 fans were on hand at the Stockholm Stadion to see the match, and the Canadians scored 13 goals in the first period, 16 in the second, and, if that weren't enough, 18 more in the third. As one newspaper account related: "The spectators often laughed heartily at the desperate Danish efforts to make a game of it. The chief thrill of the crowd was betting on whether Canada would top 50 goals or not."

The scoring was incredible. Every member of the Canadian team recorded at least a hat trick, Jim Russell leading the way with eight goals and Tom Russell with six. Don Stanley, Joe DiBastiani, and Don Munro all had five goals, and three each were credited to Ray Bauer, Bud Hashey, Joe Tergeson, Emile Gagne, Barney Hillson, and Bill Dimock. Stanley, interestingly, was a late addition to the team and was the son of Hall of Famer Barney Stanley.

"They played with full force right from the beginning," Jorgen Hviid, star of the Danes, said years later, recalling that awful night. "Their coach was absolutely crazy. He was screaming, 'Kill them! Kill them!'"

The difference in the two countries' skill was reflected in their equipment as well. "We had awful equipment," Hviid acknowledged. "We put newspapers under our shin pads to ease the pain getting in the way of some of the hard Canadian shots."

Incredibly, goaltender Fleming Jensen was in net for all 47 goals and was none too pleased after the game. He lamented the fact that he should have stopped at least three of the goals, and was outraged that another three had been, in his opinion, offside on the play leading to the score!

Despite the slaughter, though, Canada lost the gold medal because of a 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Czechs. The Danes, meanwhile, soldiered on.

Two days later, they lost to Austria by another great score, 25-1, but on February 17 they made a game of it against Belgium, losing only 8-3. In all, they were outscored 80-3 in their three games of the group schedule before going home to rue their initial performance in international hockey.  It was Hviid who scored the country's first international goal in that Austria contest, and he counted for all three markers against Belgium playing alongside his brother, Erik. Half a century later, he can still claim to be the only Dane to score at the world championship.

Other members of that 1949 team included Borge and Ib Hamann, Svend Malver, Dan Dandry, Knud Lebech, Frede Sorensen, Ole and Poul Nielsen, Erik Halberg, Leif Ammenstrop, Lund Christiansen, and backup goalie Leif Jonsen.

Denmark never made it back to the top pool of the IIHF World Championships for the next 54 years. In fact, after 1949, the nation didn't play again until 1962 when the team finished sixth in the B Pool and was relegated to the C Pool for the next year. They made it back to the B Pool in 1970, 1979, and 1989, and in 1992 they made their greatest strides when they returned to the B Pool, where they would remain for the rest of the decade. Here they are now, back among the top 16 countries in the world. Canada, of course, will be back, and even if the two nations play again the Canadians won't be able to rack up another four dozen goals. And the Danes will want someone other than Jorgen Hviid to score a goal for them.

Andrew Podnieks