Games were held at the Makomanai Ice Arena and at the Tsukisamu Indoor Skating Rink.

For the first time since ice hockey was introduced at the Olympic Games in 1920, Canada did not send a team to the 1972 Olympics after Canadian Minister of Health and Welfare John Munro announced the withdrawal of the team from all international competitions in response to the International Ice Hockey Federation opposition to allowing professional players at international competitions.

[2] Canadian officials were frustrated that their best players, competing in the National Hockey League, were prevented from playing while Soviet players, who were "employees" of the industrial or military organizations that fielded "amateur" teams, were allowed to compete.

Valeri Kharlamov of the Soviet Union was considered one of the world's best players and experts agree he would have been a star in the NHL.

After losing as expected to the Soviet Union, the young Americans upset Finland.

[5] Fourteen nations qualified, but East Germany, Romania and France all chose not to travel for primarily financial reasons.