Miracle on Ice

The Miracle on Ice is the popular nickname for the ice hockey game in the 1980 Olympic Winter Games, in which a team of amateur and collegiate players from the United States beat the Soviet Union against near-impossible odds on February 22, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York. The United States went on to win the gold medal. USSR received the silver medal, Sweden received the bronze.http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/results/search_r_uk.asp?SPO_S_CODE=IH&OLG_I_YEAR=1980&OLGT_I_ID=2&RESULT=TRUE&DIS_S_CODE=IH&SEARCH_TYPE=3&GET_C_ID=W,M,X&MED_I_ID=1,2,3

Medal round: U.S. vs. USSR

The home crowd, reinforced by the Americans' improbable run during group play and the Cold War "showdown" mentality, were in a patriotic fervor throughout the match, waving American flags and singing patriotic songs such as "God Bless America." The rest of America would have to wait to see the game, however, as ABC decided not to cover the games live, but rather on tape delay so the 5:00 game could be seen in primetime. The Americans, however, fell behind early, as they had in many of their preliminary games. Vladimir Krutov deflected a slap shot by Aleksei Kasatonov past U.S. goaltender Jim Craig to give the Soviets a 1-0 lead, and after Buzz Schneider scored for the Americans to tie the game, the Soviets rallied again with a Sergei Makarov goal.

Related Topics:
Patriotic - American flags - God Bless America - Vladimir Krutov - Aleksei Kasatonov - Goaltender - Jim Craig - Buzz Schneider - Sergei Makarov

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Down 2-1, Craig began to improve his play, turning away many Soviet shots before the Americans had another shot on goal. With one second left in the first period, Dave Christian fired a desperate slap shot on Tretiak. The Soviet goalie saved the shot but uncharacteristically misplayed the rebound, and Mark Johnson scooped it past Tretiak to tie the score again. The frustrated 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 intermission.

Related Topics:
Dave Christian - Mark Johnson

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In the second period, Coach Tikhonov decided to replace Tretiak with backup goalkeeper Vladimir Myshkin, a move which surprised many players on both teams, including Fetisov, who would later identify the move as the "turning point of the game". The move seemed to work at first, however, and Myshkin allowed no goals in the second, while Aleksandr Maltsev scored on the power play to make the score 3-2. Jim Craig was knocked down on the play by Kharlemov. Despite being in obvious pain, Craig got up and remained in the game.

Related Topics:
Vladimir Myshkin - Aleksandr Maltsev

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In the third, however, Johnson scored again for the U.S., firing a loose puck past Myshkin to tie the score. Later, with ten minutes to go in the game, Mark Pavelich passed to U.S. captain Mike Eruzione, who was left undefended in the high slot (the area directly in front of the goal). Eruzione fired a shot past Myshkin, who was unable to see the shot because his own defenseman was blocking his view.

Related Topics:
Mark Pavelich - Mike Eruzione - Slot

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Craig withstood another series of Soviet shots to finish the match, though the Soviets did not remove their goalkeeper for an extra attacker. As the U.S. team tried desperately 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 the famous, ad-libbed line for which the match would later be known:

Related Topics:
Extra attacker - Al Michaels - ABC - Montreal Canadiens - Ken Dryden

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Eleven seconds, you got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now...Morrow up to Silk...five seconds left in the game! Four left in the game! Do you believe in miracles? YES!!! Unbelievable!

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