Here's the Thing: The Final Four
Don't mistake the event for the goal: Iowa's on a business trip.
The 1980 Olympic hockey game between the USA and the Soviet Union changed sports forever. The Soviets were considered the most dominant team in the sport, having won four consecutive gold medals and five of the previous six, and had lost just once in 29 Olympic games in the previous twenty years. Their roster was populated with professionals — or, at least what passed for professionals in the Soviet Union of the late 1970s, “employees” of industrial facilities whose only job was to play on the company team — which was technically permissible only because the players did not actually receive payment to play.
The Americans, on the other hand, were college kids. Herb Brooks brought nine players from his squad for the University of Minnesota1 and a handful of other players from prominent programs, but they were young and overmatched. It would be a surprise if the Americans managed to win a medal at all.
Both teams were undefeated in pool play, with the Americans surprisingly knocking out Czechoslovakia with a 7-2 win in the process. Meanwhile, the Soviets won five games by a combined score of 51-11. You read that right: They were averaging more than ten goals per game.
A last-second goal for the Americans tied the game at 2-2 after one period, and the Soviets managed just one goal in the second. The U.S. got two goals in the first ten minutes of the final period, then held on for the win. Al Michaels made his legendary call, becoming an all-time American sports broadcaster in ten seconds.
And just like that, an undersized, undermanned group of college kids had knocked off the biggest, baddest, most unstoppable force in world hockey.
Except that it was just the semifinal. The Americans still had to win one more game to take gold. Everyone remembers the Miracle on Ice, but few recall the comeback victory over Finland a couple of days later to secure the gold medal. It’s almost a footnote to the story, even though it’s objectively the most important part. The key to the legend of the 1980 U.S. hockey team wasn’t the final. It was winning the game before.
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