Only Stalin's death in 1953, and the new political outlook of Nikita Kchruschev brings hope. After many appeals, the innocent players are finally released in 1955. Years of imprisonment has taken its toll on their health. Several are too ill and disillusioned to contemplate playing ice-hockey again. For a few others, the urge is still too strong to resist.

Three players, still in their mid-twenties at the time of their release, attempt a comeback. They are scheduled to appear for the first time in a pre-season exhibition game normally attended by just a few avid hockey fans. But word gets out and the stadium in Prague is sold out over night. 13,000 spectators pack in. The communist authorities, afraid of a possible anti-Soviet demonstration, panic and cancel the game a few minutes before it starts. Hundreds of protesting fans are led away by the police.

A special Sports Federation decree is soon enacted. The three stars of the 1949 Championship Team are now banned from top competition. Their request to play hockey abroad is turned down. To earn a living, they play in small provincial clubs and finish their careers quietly during the early sixties. Two of their team-mates die. An autopsy report states the cause of death: extended exposure to uranium.

Czechs and Slovaks start wiggling free of this tight-fisted communist grip. During the brief period of 'Prague Spring' in 1968, Dubcek's government finally proclaims the charges against the hockey players as being false and unbased. He offers a small but symbolic financial settlement for their years of imprisonment.

But the Soviet regime is uncompromising in their demands on all the satellite states. In August 1968, tanks come to re-claim Soviet interests. The clock goes backwards again. Mood of despondency sets in. Another exodus of talent follows. Because of the Soviet in- vasion, the 1968 World Hockey Championship Games, originally scheduled for Prague, are held in Stockholm, Sweden, February of 1969.

All Czechoslovakia can muster is an unproven, hurriedly-assembled team to represent their humiliated country. And that is just fine with the authorities, as the Soviets are now the reigning world champions and they expect to keep that title.

Now, an ice-hockey rink in Stockholm becomes the emotional battleground for the entire Czechoslovakian nation. Surprisingly, this underdog team battles its way through a series of elimination games. Gradually, the media picks up on the story and tension seizes a huge world audience, many of whom never watched ice-hockey before. Both Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union win their respective semi-finals. Again, David and Goliath face-off. The Czechoslovakian team is under continued psychological pressure to lose. A win would not be in the best interest of this small country and the big 'socialist cause'.

For the older Gustav Bubnik, now watching the game from the V.I.P. box, this game takes on a special significance. Twenty years ago at this same arena in Stockholm, he led his team to the championship. Today, the rival team comes from the Soviet Union, the country symbolizing his aborted career and life-long suffering.
In terms of drama and international significance, there are probably few matches in the annals of world class sports to rival the finals of this championship.

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