Never in sporting history, has one event had such a lasting impact on millions of people around the world. The Miracle on Ice; the day, 22 February 1980, the event, the 1980 Winter Olympic Games, the venue, Lake Placid, New York, the teams, 1980 USA Hockey Team and the USSR Olympic Hockey Team. It wasn’t even the ultimate gold medal match, but for many it goes down in history as the greatest sporting achievement ever. The 1980 USA Hockey Team, a team put together the year before from collegiates and amateurs, rose above all expectations and beat the highly experienced Soviet team, considered to be the greatest Hockey team in the world and red hot favorite for winning the Olympic Gold Medal.
The game wasn’t even watched live on television, except in Canada, as the Soviet team had refused for the time of the game to be moved from 5pm to 8pm, understandably so as this would have been 4am in Moscow for the Russian viewers. So, apart from the 8500 capacity crowd at The Field House, everyone else had to wait to watch a recording of the historic event.
Herb Brooks, the coach of the young and extremely determined 1980 USA Hockey Team, had predicted that the team might be able to win a bronze medal, but little did anyone know that they were about to go 2 steps higher on the podium, and take home the coveted gold for the first time since the USA team had beaten the Soviets 20 years earlier in 1960. Since that time, from 1964, the Soviet squad had taken the gold medal in every winter Olympics, and fully expected their supremacy to remain. When later they only succeeded in winning the silver medals, they didn’t even submit them for engraving, as was customary, such was their deep disappointment and shame.
The Soviet team had delivered a crushing defeat to the 1980 USA Hockey Team only a couple of weeks earlier in an exhibition match, and this had unknowingly sealed their fate. They entered the match with the young Americans feeling over confident and seriously under-estimated the speed, determination and tenacity of this young squad. Leaving the ice with seconds to go at the end of the first period was just the beginning of the seal to their fate, with the tenacious Mark Johnson seizing his opportunity and slamming in an equalizing goal in the final second of the first period. The young Americans had survived the first period, and could begin the second on equal terms, with the score 2-2.
In the second period the Soviet squad outplayed the Americans with shots of 12 – 2, but only managed to find the back of the net on one occasion, leaving the young USA team with only a 1 goal deficit, 3-2 at the end of the second period. The third period saw frantic action with the USA team pulling ahead to 4-3 with a full 10 minutes remaining. Instead of defending their position, the Americans kept attacking and the nearer it got to the end of the match, the more the Russians panicked. They began shooting wildly and later admitted that panic had set it. The last few seconds of the match were magical, with the entire crowd counting down from seven seconds. Do you believe in miracles? Yes, we certainly do.