The Miracle on Ice

 

The Soviet team had won the last gold medals the last four years, since 1964 and had not lost an Olympic ice hockey game since 1968. Just three days before the Lake Placid games began, the Soviet Union had beaten the US Team 10-3 in an exhibition game at Madison Square Garden.

Americans seemed to looked unorganized and outmatched, but few blamed them. With a median age of only 22 the team was made up of college players, they were the youngest US Olympic squad ever. The team captain Mike Ergioni was found in the Toledo Blades who played in the International League.

The Soviets were the No.1 Seed and went undefeated, winning five games in the first round. The US team in comparison was the No.7 seed, but the team also went undefeated in the first round albeit with one draw.

The team's coach Brook had given up on the traditional North American style of playing hockey. Instead, his layers quickly crossed the ice. The young Americans did not hesitate to give up their traditional position and they hit just enough to show who they were. Brooks believed that this combination (more open play with adequate body checks) was the only way to meet the challenges of the Olympics.

The Americans went down by a goal on two occasions. But they kept their poise and stuck to their guns. The game was tight. 

In the second period, the irritated Soviets came out with a fresh goalie, Vladimir Myshkin, and turned up the pressure. The Soviets dominated the game in the second period, outshooting the United States 12-2, and taking a 3-2 lead with a goal by Alesandr Maltsev. If not for several massive saves by Jim Craig, the Soviet's surely would have scored more than just 3 as the third and final 20-minute period began.

Nearly nine minutes into the final period, Johnson took advantage of a Soviet penalty and finished off a wild shot by David Silk to even the scores. Not even a minute and a half later, Mike Eruzione, whose last name in Italian means “eruption” , picked up a stray puck in the Soviet's zone and rocketed at shot past Myshkin from 25-feet. For the first time in the game, the Americans had taken the lead, and the crowd erupted in celebration.
 
Still. with 10 minutes of play to go, there was work to do, but the Americans held on, with Craig making a few more great saves. With five seconds left, the Americans finally got the puck out of their zone, and the crowd counted down the final seconds.

When the final horn sounded, the players, coaches, and team officials raced onto the ice in  celebration. The Soviet players, as stunned as everyone else in the building, waited patiently and shook their opponents’ hands

The Miracle on Ice was more than just an Olympic upset; to many Americans , it was an victory in the Cold War as meaningful as the Apollo moon landing. The upset had come at the perfect time: Then President Jimmy Carter had just announced that the United States wasn't going to attend the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and Americans, faced with a major recession, things to celebrate were few and far between. After the game, President Carter personally called the players to give them his congratulations. That night millions of Americans celebrated the victory of  'Their Boy's'.