Everything about Miracle On Ice totally explained
The "
Miracle on Ice" is the
nickname given to a
February 22 medal-round men's
ice hockey game during the
1980 Olympic Winter Games, in which a team of
amateur and
collegiate players from the
United States, led by coach
Herb Brooks, defeated the
Soviet Union, considered to be the best international hockey team in the world, 4-3.
The United States went on to win the gold medal by beating Finland (4–2) in their final game.
The Soviet Union took the silver by beating Sweden in their final game. Sweden received the bronze medal, and Finland finished 4th.
Background
The United States team, composed of young collegiate players and amateurs, entered the competition seeded seventh in the final round of twelve teams that qualified for the Lake Placid Olympics. The Soviet Union was the favored team. Though classed as amateur, Soviet players essentially played professionally (the Soviet Government gave them different job titles to compete) in a well-developed league with excellent training facilities. They were led by legendary players in world ice hockey, such as
Boris Mikhailov (a
right-winger and team captain) and
Vladislav Tretiak (considered by many to be the best ice hockey goaltender in the world at the time), as well as talented, young, and dynamic players such as defenseman
Viacheslav Fetisov and forwards
Vladimir Krutov,
Sergei Makarov, and
Valery Kharlamov. 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. 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.
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 the year before. Carter eventually decided in favor of the boycott.
On
February 9, the two teams met for an exhibition match at
Madison Square Garden in order to practice for the upcoming competition. The Soviet Union won handily, 10–3.
In Olympic group play, the United States surprised many observers with their physical, cohesive play. In their first game against favored Sweden, the U.S. earned a dramatic 2-2 tie by scoring with 30 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 second only to the Soviet Union and a favorite 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 to go 4-0-1 and advance to the medal round from their group along with Sweden. 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, and
Poland 8–1 – and easily qualified for the next round although both the Finns and the Canadians gave the Russians unexpectedly tough games for two periods. In the end, the
Soviet Union and
Finland (who overcame a disastrous start after sensationally losing to lowly Poland in their opening game of the tournament but then rallied to upset Canada) advanced from their group.
The U.S. and USSR 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."
"Do you believe in miracles?"
The home crowd, reinforced by the U.S. team's improbable run during group play and the Cold War "showdown" mentality, were in a
patriotic fervor throughout the match, waving
U.S. flags and singing patriotic songs such as "
God Bless America." The rest of the United States (except those who watched the game live on Canadian television) would have to wait to see the game, as ABC decided to broadcast the late-afternoon game on tape delay in prime time. 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 rallied 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 only 16). In the waning seconds of the first period,
Dave Christian fired a slap shot on Tretiak. The Soviet goalie saved the shot but misplayed the
rebound, and
Mark Johnson scooped it past the goaltender to tie the score with one second left in the period.
This victory was voted the greatest sports moment of the twentieth century by
Sports Illustrated.
The U.S. aftermath
Many people incorrectly recall that the U.S. won the gold medal that night. In fact, the medal round was a round-robin, not a single elimination format like it's 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 U.S. to finish anywhere from 1st to 4th. Needing to win to secure the gold medal, the U.S. team came back from a 2-1 third period deficit to defeat Finland (Hockey Hall of Famer
Jari Kurri was a member of the Finnish team) 4–2. 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. Today, the podiums are large enough to accommodate all of the players.
The victory bolstered many U.S. citizens' feelings of national pride, which had been severely strained during the turbulent 1970s. The match versus the Soviets popularized the
"U-S-A! U-S-A!" chant, which has been used by U.S. supporters at many international sports competitions since 1980.
Of the 20 players on the U.S. team, 13 eventually played in the NHL. Five of them would go on to play over 500 NHL games:
Having already won the 1979
NCAA championship at the
University of Minnesota, Broten became the only player to win a hockey championship at the collegiate, professional and Olympic level.
Ken Morrow won a Stanley Cup in 1980 as a member of the New York Islanders, becoming the first hockey player to win an Olympic gold medal and the Cup in the same year. He went on to play 550 NHL games and win three more Cups, all with the Islanders.
Mike Ramsey played in 1070 games over 18 years. Fourteen of those years were spent with the Buffalo Sabres, for whom he was a five-time All-Star and served as team captain from 1990–92. In 2000 he became an assistant coach for the Minnesota Wild.
Dave Christian spent 14 years in the NHL, the bulk of them for the Winnipeg Jets (for whom he served as team captain) and Washington Capitals. He ended his career with 773 points (340 goals, 443 assists) in 1,009 games and made the All-Star team in 1991.
Mark Johnson bounced around the NHL for several years before finding a home in New Jersey, tallying 508 career points (203 goals, 305 assists) in 669 games over 11 seasons. Like Christian, Ramsey, and Broten, he became an NHL All-Star (in 1984) and served as team captain with the Hartford Whalers. In 2002 Johnson became the coach of the University of Wisconsin Women's Hockey team, leading the team to consecutive National Championships in the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 seasons.
One of Brooks' assistant coaches, Craig Patrick, went on to become a successful general manager in the NHL and is now in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Brooks himself would coach several NHL teams following the Olympics, with mixed results. Both Patrick and later Brooks would coach (and in Patrick's case, become GM of) the Pittsburgh Penguins. He would also return to the Olympics as coach of the 2002 team, winning the silver medal. Brooks died in a car crash in 2003 at the age of 66. The ice arena in Lake Placid is now named in his honor.
Jim Craig appeared in 30 NHL games from 1980 through 1984 and helping his dad get through the rough life of losing his wife and his job through the depressing times. Most notably, team captain Mike Eruzione played his last high-level hockey game in the 1980 Olympics, as he felt that he'd accomplished his hockey goals with the gold medal win.
Michaels was named "Sportscaster of the Year" in 1980 for his coverage of the event, and the team received Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsmen of the Year" award, as well as being named as Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press and ABC's Wide World of Sports.
In 2004, ESPN, as part of their 25th anniversary, declared the Miracle on Ice to be the top sports headline, moment, and game of the period 1979–2004.
Soviet reaction
Though their immediate public reactions were generally sportsmanlike, the Soviet players' primary postgame emotion was despair, accentuated by coach Viktor Tikhonov's rage. There was also fear involved; a position on the national team was a high-status placement in Soviet society, affording a better lifestyle to the players in return for the perceived propaganda value of international sporting dominance. A loss to the U.S. team negated this goal. Though the game was on live television in the Soviet Union, it was played at 1:00 AM Moscow time. This afforded CPSU officials some ability to squelch news and discussion; Pravda didn't carry a game report or mention the match in its post-Olympic wrap-up, and the hockey players were quickly and quietly herded away from the arrival reception for Olympic athletes at Moscow's airport.
Despite the loss, the USSR would remain the preeminent power in international hockey until the country's 1991 break-up. 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 wouldn't do so until the 1988-89 NHL season, when veteran Sergei Pryakhin joined the Calgary Flames. In the 1989-90 NHL season, other 1980 Olympians joined the NHL, including Vyacheslav Fetisov, Alexei Kasatonov, Vladimir Krutov, Helmut Balderis, and Sergei Makarov. That same season, young star Alexander Mogilny defected to play for the Buffalo Sabres. Soon thereafter, the collapse of the Soviet Union led to a flood of ex-Soviet stars in the NHL; since then, many of the NHL's top players have come from the former Soviet republics.
With the end of the Cold War and the fact that many players from that team went on to good careers in the NHL, more players opened up in interviews about the game. The general consensus was that the U.S deserved its hard fought win, and the Soviet players were stunned at the intensity of the U.S. team and their ability to keep playing all out no matter what the game situation.
Cultural references
A movie, Miracle on Ice, starring Karl Malden as Brooks and Steve Guttenberg as Craig, aired on television in 1981. It incorporates actual game footage and original commentary from the 1980 Winter Games.
A second movie about the hockey victory 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 couldn't ask him to recreate the emotion he felt at that moment.
In the X-Files episode "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man," it's said that the Soviet Union lost because the Cigarette Smoking Man rigged the game by drugging the Soviet goaltender (Tretiak).
The Miracle on Ice features in the last episode of Peoples Century, "Fast Forward." to illustrate Soviet/US rivalries.
The documentary film Do You Believe in Miracles?, narrated by Liev Schreiber, appeared on HBO in 2001.
Team rosters
Further Information
Get more info on 'Miracle On Ice'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://miracle_on_ice.totallyexplained.com">Miracle on Ice Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
