Miracles?

[woodtoo]

The greatest hockey miracle happened 39 years ago when Team U.S.A. defeated the much heralded Soviet Union 4-3 on home ice
in Lake Placid New York. Scoring 2 third period goals the exclusively amateur team beat all odds to win Olympic Gold.

[kingfin66]

It was not the gold medal game. They beat Finland for the gold. That was actually a great accomplishment too as it would have been easy to have a letdown after such a great win against the Soviets.

YouTube

[woodtoo]

Thanks for the correction kingfin, more like 2 miracles!

[kingfin66]

I'm just glad you guys and the Soviets let us have one. It's been a long drought since then.

[thaskalos]

Easily the most over-hyped sporting event in the world of sports. Greece, a country whose soccer team had not even won a SINGLE major international soccer game in the country's history...won the entire EUROPEAN CUP in 2004. THAT'S what you call a "miracle".

[ElKabong]

Originally Posted by woodtoo

The greatest hockey miracle happened 39 years ago when Team U.S.A. defeated the much heralded Soviet Union 4-3 on home ice
in Lake Placid New York. Scoring 2 third period goals the exclusively amateur team beat all odds to win Olympic Gold.

Ok I'm going by memory only here so forgive me if I'm wrong

The USA team played the soviets in MSG on a nationally televised game weeks before the olympics and were destroyed. The USA team also played a few exhibition games vs chl teams that winter. One game was in Fort Worth and they looked pretty bad. The FW minor league team took it easy on them in that lines were shifted and some defensemen played either wing. It was fun to watch, but little did anyone know they'd in gold

Remember the tie vs Sweden in the early rounds (I think it was Sweden). Defenseman Baker scored from the point in the last minute or two. Without that I kinda doubt the confidence and momentum was there to beat Russia.

[kingfin66]

I remember that blowout too. I also remember that Russia pulled its goalie, who was a legend. Out of curiosity, I looked up the shots on goal from the game:

USSR - 39

USA - 16

What a game by Jim Craig!

[ElKabong]

39-16....And the soviets were known for quality SOGs, not quantity.

Vladislav Tretiak. Maybe the best goalkeeper of all time, like you said he was pulled after the first period when mark Johnson scored a softie. I read about the USA team this morning out of curiosity, the Soviet coach said it was his biggest mistake of his career.

Remember the 1972 (face off at the summit) series between Canada and Russia? He was unreal in the games I saw except game 8. Oddly enough I was about as interested in that series as I was 1980. Totally glued to any news we could get. In Texas, we didn't get as much real time info on the series as my cousins in Minnesota did.

[HalvOnHorseracing]

Originally Posted by woodtoo

The greatest hockey miracle happened 39 years ago when Team U.S.A. defeated the much heralded Soviet Union 4-3 on home ice
in Lake Placid New York. Scoring 2 third period goals the exclusively amateur team beat all odds to win Olympic Gold.

There was a documentary in which a number of the players appeared. That was way better than the movie with Kurt Russell. When the players told stories they really struck a chord.

If I remember, the US had to come from behind in all their games.