The "Miracle on Ice" was a medal-round men's ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, on February 22. The United States team, made up of amateur and collegiate players and led by coach Herb Brooks, defeated the Soviet team, which was considered the best hockey team in the world.
Team USA went on to win the gold medal by winning their final match over Finland, who finished 4th. The Soviet Union took the bronze medal by beating Sweden in their final game. As part of its 100th anniversary celebrations in 2008, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) chose the Miracle on Ice as the number-one international hockey story of the century.[1]
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The Soviet Union entered the Olympic tournament as heavy favorites, having won the ice hockey gold medal in 1956 and every year since 1964. In the four Olympics after the Soviet squad was upset by Team USA at Squaw Valley in 1960, Soviet teams had gone 27-1-1 and outscored the opposition 175-44.[2] In head-to-head matchups against the United States the cumulative score over that period was 28-7.[3] The Soviet players were classed as amateurs, but soft jobs provided by the Brezhnev government (some were active-duty military)[4] allowed them to essentially play professionally in a well-developed league with world class training facilities. They were led by legendary players in world ice hockey, such as Boris Mikhailov (a top line right winger and team captain), Vladislav Tretiak (considered by many to be the best ice hockey goaltender in the world at the time), the speedy and skilled Valeri Kharlamov, as well as talented, young, and dynamic players such as defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov and forwards Vladimir Krutov and Sergei Makarov. From that team, Tretiak, Kharlamov, and Fetisov would eventually be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Herb Brooks conducted tryouts in Colorado Springs in the summer of 1979. Of the 20 players who eventually made the final Olympic roster, Buzz Schneider was the only one left over from the 1976 Olympic team.[5] Nine players had played under Herb Brooks at the University of Minnesota. Four more were from Boston University.[6] Assistant coach Craig Patrick had played with Brooks on the 1967 U.S. national team.[7]
The Soviet and American teams were natural rivals due to the decades-old Cold War. In addition, President Jimmy Carter was at the time considering a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, to be held in Moscow, in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which had begun just weeks before. On February 9, the same day that the American and Soviet teams met in an exhibition in New York City, U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance denounced the impending Moscow games at a meeting of the IOC.[8] President Carter eventually decided in favor of the boycott.
In exhibitions that year, Soviet club teams had gone 5–3–1 against National Hockey League (NHL) teams, and a year earlier the Soviet national team had routed the NHL All-Stars 6–0 to win the Challenge Cup.[9] In 1979–80, virtually all the top North American players were Canadians, although the number of U.S.-born professional players had been on the rise throughout the 1970s. The 1980 U.S. Olympic team featured several young players who were regarded as highly promising, and some had signed contracts to play in the NHL immediately after the tournament.
In September the American team started exhibition play, playing 61 games in five months against teams from Europe and America.[10] The last exhibition game was against the Soviets in Madison Square Garden on February 9, 1980. The Soviets crushed the Americans 10-3.[11] Viktor Tikhonov later said that this victory "turned out to be a very big problem" by causing the Soviets to underestimate the American team.[12]
In Olympic group play, the United States surprised many observers with their physical, cohesive play. In their first game against favoured Sweden, Team USA earned a dramatic 2–2 draw by scoring with 27 seconds left after pulling goalie Jim Craig for an extra attacker. Then came a stunning 7–3 victory over Czechoslovakia, considered by many to be the second-best team after the Soviet Union and a favourite for the silver medal. With their two toughest games in the group phase out of the way, the U.S. team reeled off three more wins, beating Norway 5–1, Romania 7–2, and West Germany 4–2 to go 4–0–1 and advance to the medal round from their group, along with the Swedes.
In the other group, the Soviets stormed through their opposition undefeated, often by grossly lopsided scores – knocking off Japan 16–0, the Netherlands 17–4, Poland 8–1, Finland 4–2, and Canada 6–4; easily qualifying for the next round, although both the Finns and the Canadians gave the Soviets tough games for two periods. In the end, the Soviet Union and Finland (who overcame a disastrous start after sensationally losing to Poland in their opening game of the tournament, but then rallied to upset Canada) advanced from their group.[13]
The U.S. and Soviet teams prepared for the medal round in different ways. Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov rested most of his best players, preferring to let them study plays rather than actually skate. U.S. coach Herb Brooks, however, continued with his tough, confrontational style, skating "hard" practices and berating his players for perceived weaknesses.
The day before the match, columnist Dave Anderson wrote in the New York Times, "Unless the ice melts, or unless the United States team or another team performs a miracle, as did the American squad in 1960, the Russians are expected to easily win the Olympic gold medal for the sixth time in the last seven tournaments."[14]
The Field House (capacity 8500) was packed.[15] The home crowd waved American flags and sang patriotic songs such as "God Bless America."[9] The rest of the United States (except those who watched the game live on Canadian television) had to wait to see the game. After the Soviets refused to consent to moving the game from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. for American television (this would have meant a 4 a.m. start in Moscow for Soviet viewers), ABC decided to broadcast the late-afternoon game on tape delay in prime time.[16] Before the game, Brooks read his players a statement he'd written out on a piece of paper, telling them that "You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours."[17]
As in several previous games, the U.S. team fell behind early. Vladimir Krutov deflected a slap shot by Aleksei Kasatonov past U.S. netminder Jim Craig to give the Soviets a 1–0 lead, and after Buzz Schneider scored for the United States to tie the game, the Soviets struck again with a Sergei Makarov goal. Down 2–1, Craig improved his play, turning away many Soviet shots before the U.S. team had another shot on goal (the Soviet team had 39 shots on goal in the game, the Americans 16).
In the waning seconds of the first period, Dave Christian fired a slap shot on Tretiak from 100 feet away. The Soviet goalie saved the shot but misplayed the rebound, which bounced out some 20 feet in front of him. The Soviet defensemen, Pervukhin and Bilyaletdinov, quit playing and watched the clock tick off the last few seconds. Tretiak started to move out of goal. Mark Johnson sliced between the two defensemen, found the loose puck and fired it past a diving Tretiak to tie the score with one second left in the period.[18] The Soviet team played the final second of the period with just three players on the ice, as the rest of the team had retired to their dressing room for the first intermission. The first period ended with the game tied 2-2.[19]
Tikhonov replaced Tretiak with backup goaltender Vladimir Myshkin immediately after Johnson's tying goal,[20] a move which shocked players on both teams.[9] Fetisov later identified this as the "turning point of the game."[21] Later Tikhonov called the decision "the biggest mistake of my career".[22] Myshkin allowed no goals in the second period. The Soviets dominated play in the second period, outshooting the Americans 12-2, but scored only once, on a power play goal by Aleksandr Maltsev. After two periods the Soviet Union led 3-2.
Vladimir Krutov was sent to the penalty box at the 6:47 mark of the third period for high-sticking. The Americans, who had managed only two shots on Myshkin in 27 minutes, had a power play and a rare offensive opportunity. Myshkin stopped a Ramsey shot, then Eruzione fired a shot wide. Late in the power play, Dave Silk was advancing into the Soviet zone when Vasilev knocked him to the ice. The puck slid to Mark Johnson.[23] Johnson fired off a shot that went under Myshkin and into the net at the 8:39 mark, as the power play was ending, tying the game 3-3.[24] Only a couple shifts later, Mark Pavelich passed to U.S. captain Mike Eruzione, who was left undefended in the high slot. Eruzione, who had just come into the game, fired a shot past Myshkin, who was screened by Pervukhin.[25] This goal gave Team USA a 4–3 lead, its first of the game, with exactly 10 minutes left.
The Soviets attacked furiously. Moments after Eruzione's goal, Maltzev fired off a shot which ricocheted off the right goal post.[26] As the minutes wound down, Brooks kept repeating "Play your game. Play your game."[27] Instead of going into a defensive crouch, the United States continued to play offense, even getting off a few more shots on goal.[28] The Soviets began to shoot wildly, and Starikov admitted that "we were panicking." As the clock ticked down below a minute the Soviets got the puck back into the American zone, and Mikhailov passed to Petrov, who shot wide.[29] The Soviets never pulled Myshkin for an extra attacker, much to the disbelief of the Americans. Starikov later explained that "We never did six-on-five", not even in practice, because "Tikhonov just didn't believe in it."[30] Craig kicked away a Petrov slap shot with 33 seconds left. Kharlamov fired the puck back in as the clock ticked below 20 seconds. A wild scramble for the puck ensued, ending when Johnson found it and passed to Morrow.[30] As the U.S. team tried to clear the zone (move the puck over the blue line, which they did with seven seconds remaining), the crowd began to count down the seconds left. Sportscaster Al Michaels, who was calling the game on ABC along with former Montreal Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden, picked up on the countdown in his broadcast, and delivered his famous call:[31]
| “ | Eleven seconds, you've got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now! Morrow, up to Silk. Five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in miracles? YES! | ” |
In the locker room afterwards, players spontaneously broke into a chorus of "God Bless America".[32] As his team ran all over the ice in celebration, Herb Brooks sprinted back to the locker room and cried.[33]
For its March 3, 1980 issue, Sports Illustrated ran a cover with just a photograph by Heinz Kluetmeier, without any accompanying caption or headline. Kluetmeir said, "It didn't need (any cover language). Everyone in America knew what happened."[34]
It is easy to incorrectly assume that the United States won the gold medal that night. In fact, the medal round was a round-robin, not a single elimination format like it is today. Under Olympic rules at the time, the group game with Sweden was counted along with the medal round games versus the Soviet Union and Finland so it was mathematically possible for the United States to finish anywhere from first to fourth.[35]
Needing to win to secure the gold medal, Team USA came back from a 2-1 third period deficit to defeat Finland 4–2.[13] According to Mike Eruzione, coming into the dressing room in the second intermission, Brooks turned to his players, looked at them and said, "If you lose this game, you'll take it to your graves." He then paused, took a few steps, turned again, said, "Your fucking graves," and walked out.
At the time, the players ascended a podium to receive their medals and then lined up on the ice for the playing of the national anthem, as the podium was only meant to accommodate one person. Only the team captains remained on the podium for the duration. After the completion of the anthem, Eruzione motioned for his teammates to join him on the podium.[36] Today, the podiums are large enough to accommodate all of the players.
The victory bolstered many American citizens' feelings of national pride, which had been severely strained during the turbulent 1970s. The match against the Soviets popularized the "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chant,[37] which has been used by American supporters at many international sports competitions since 1980.
Of the 20 players of Team USA, 13 eventually played in the NHL.[38] Five of them went on to play over 500 NHL games, and three would play over 1,000 NHL games.
In the Soviet locker room Tikhonov singled out first-line players Tretiak, Kharlamov, Petrov, and Mikhailov, and told each of them that "This is your loss!"[53] Two days after the Miracle on Ice, the Soviet team crushed Sweden 9-2, winning the silver medal. The Soviet players were so upset at their loss that they did not turn in their silver medals to get their names inscribed on them, as is custom.[54]
The result stunned the Soviet Union and its news media. The day after the loss, the TASS news offices at Lake Placid's International Broadcast Center were closed, with a handwritten note taped to the door of the office stating "Today Closed We Are." Pravda did not mention the game, either in its next daily issue or in its Lake Placid wrapup.[54]
Despite the loss, the USSR remained the pre-eminent power in Olympic hockey until the country's 1991 break-up. The Soviets did not lose another international hockey game until 1985 and did not lose to the United States again until 1991.[55] Throughout the 1980s, NHL teams continued to draft Soviet players in hopes of enticing them to eventually play professionally in North America, but the first did not do so until the 1988–89 NHL season, when veteran Sergei Pryakhin joined the Calgary Flames.[56]
In the 1989–90 NHL season, other 1980 Olympians joined the NHL, including Vyacheslav Fetisov, Alexei Kasatonov, Vladimir Krutov, Helmut Balderis and Sergei Makarov. Fetisov, as noted above, was a teammate of Mike Ramsey on the 1995 Detroit Red Wings team that lost the Stanley Cup final. Fetisov completed his career by winning Cups with the Red Wings in 1997 and 1998.[57] Makarov won the Calder Memorial Trophy (NHL Rookie of the Year) in 1990, becoming the oldest player to win that award.[58] That same 1989-90 season, younger Soviet stars Alexander Mogilny and Sergei Fedorov defected to play for the Buffalo Sabres and the Detroit Red Wings, respectively. Soon thereafter, the collapse of the Soviet Union led to a flood of ex-Soviet stars in the NHL like Igor Larionov and Vladimir Konstantinov; since then, many of the NHL's top players have come from the former Soviet republics.
A movie, Miracle on Ice, starring Karl Malden as Brooks and Steve Guttenberg as Craig, aired on television in 1981.[59] It incorporates actual game footage and original commentary from the 1980 Winter Games.
A second movie called Miracle, starring Kurt Russell as Brooks, was released in 2004. Al Michaels recreated his commentary for most of the games. The final ten seconds, however, and his "Do you believe in miracles? YES!" call, were from the original broadcast and used in the film since the filmmakers felt that they could not ask him to recreate the emotion he felt at that moment. The film was dedicated to Herb Brooks.
The documentary film Do You Believe in Miracles?, narrated by Liev Schreiber, appeared on HBO in 2001.[60]
* Starters
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Officials: Karl-Gustav Kaisla (
Finland) (referee), Nico Toemen (
Netherlands) (linesman), Francois LaRochelle (
Canada) (linesman)
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   | Born to Be Players, Born to the Moment - Washingtonpost.com: Born to Be Players, Born to the Moment |
| | "Russian hockey looked different after '72 Summit Series" - CNNSI.com - Hockey - Russian hockey changed significantly in wake of series - Friday October 04, 2002 10:38 PM |
| | U.S. Shocks Soviets in Ice Hockey, 4-3 - Washingtonpost.com: U.S. Shocks Soviets in Ice Hockey, 4-3 |
| | "With one seemingly harmless shot, Mike Eruzione staked the U.S. to a lead and a Miracle on Ice" - CNNSI.com - SI Online - SI Flashback: The Golden Goal - Friday February 22, 2002 11:58 AM |
| | "Herb Brooks killed in car accident" - SI.com - Hockey - 'Miracle on Ice' coach Brooks killed in car accident - Monday August 11, 2003 10:57 PM |
| | Miracle On Ice || Lake Placid Olympic Authority - MIRACLE ON ICE |
| | Lake Placid Olympic Authority - LAKE PLACID OLYMPIC REGION |
| | article - ESPN Classic - College kids perform Olympic miracle |
| | appeared - Do You Believe in Miracles? The Story of the 1980 U.S. Hockey Team (2001) (TV) |
| | aired - Miracle on Ice (1981) (TV) |
| | Audio interview with Miracle on Ice team member Mark Johnson from Wisconsin Public Television - Be more Tuned In: WPT Be more Tuned In Podcast -- UW Women's Hockey Coach Mark Johnson... |
| | Miracle at Lake Placid - Miracle | 1980 Winter Olympics |
| | appeared - Do You Believe in Miracles? The Story of the 1980 U.S. Hockey Team (2001) (TV) |
| | aired - Miracle on Ice (1981) (TV) |
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