US Beats USSR in Hockey.

US Beats USSR in Hockey. An unlikely victory by the United States hockey team at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, was a cause for wild celebration. . U.S. Hockey Team Captures Gold Medal "Do you believe in miracles? ... YES!!" Etched forever into the collective Olympic memory, those six words from broadcaster Al Michaels added an exclamation point to one of the most dramatic events in the history of the Games--the United States hockey team's startling victory over the highly favored Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) at Lake Placid, New York, in 1980. Having snapped the USSR's streak of four consecutive Olympic championships, two days later the U.S. squad bested Finland to capture its first hockey gold medal in 20 years. The heroic triumph reignited a sense of national pride throughout a country enduring the pain and humiliation of the Iranian hostage crisis, during which Iranian revolutionists were holding 53 U.S. Embassy staff members. As fireworks illuminated the sky over the Adirondack village of Lake Placid, millions of Americans--whether hockey fans or not--united not only to cheer for a group of overachieving hockey players, but also to exhibit their patriotic spirit. The achievement overwhelmed even Vice President Walter Mondale, who was among the crowd that witnessed the gold-medal clinching victory. "This," Mondale said, "is one of the greatest moments I've ever been through in my life." The exhilaration was joined by disbelief. "I'm sure the 20 guys [on the team] can't believe it," center Mark Johnson said afterward. "They'll probably wake up tomorrow morning and still won't believe it." The improbability of the United States earning the gold medal--and thwarting the Soviet team in the process--is difficult to overstate. The USSR unit was virtually the same group of players that had crushed a collection of National Hockey League (NHL) All-Stars at the Challenge Cup in New York City a year earlier. A few days before the Olympics, the USSR had squashed the U.S. team in an exhibition match, 10-3. The veteran-rich USSR squad, boasting several three-time Olympians, seemed all but unbeatable compared with the collection of college and minor-league players assembled by the United States just five months earlier; only one of them had previously competed in the Olympics. The mighty Soviets and seemingly disadvantaged Americans went into the tournament seeded first and seventh, respectively. When the U.S. team beat Czechoslovakia and earned a tie against Sweden in the qualifying rounds, however, talk began to spread of a possible repeat of the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California. That year the unheralded Americans stopped the Soviets in the semifinals and then held back the Czechs to capture the gold medal. The last player cut from that U.S. squad was none other than Herb Brooks, head coach of the underdog team gathered at Lake Placid. Two decades later, on Friday, February 22, Brooks led his team into the Olympic Field House to face a Soviet unit widely considered the strongest in the world. Some 10,000 people--about 1500 of them standing, settled in to watch two teams as yet undefeated in Olympic competition. In the locker room Brooks read a few words of inspiration from a yellow piece of paper: "You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here." The USSR drew first blood. Early in the first period Valery Krotov deflected a slap shot from Aleksei Kasatonov past goalie Jim Craig. The Americans responded midway through the stanza when Buzz Schneider, the U.S. team's only Olympic veteran, whizzed a shot over the shoulder of Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretyak for his team-leading fifth goal of the Games. The two sides once again exchanged goals during the first period. Sergei Makarov briefly gave the Soviets a lead when he beat Craig. The goal outraged many in the crowd who felt that referee Karl Kaisla of Finland missed a holding violation by a USSR player in front of the net. Controversy also played a role in the Americans' game-tying goal at the end of the period. With a few seconds left on the clock, Ken Morrow unleashed an 80-foot slap shot that ricocheted to center Mark Johnson, who deposited the puck into the net as time expired. The Soviets protested, but officials, among them Kaisla, counted the goal. At the first intermission the score was knotted at two goals apiece. Soviet goalie Tretyak did not return to the nets for the second period. "He is not playing well," assistant coach Vladimir Jursinov said, "and my feeling is he is nervous." His replacement, Vladimir Myshkin, kept the Americans off the scoreboard, although he was tested by only two shots on goal. The USSR took the lead during the period with a power-play goal by veteran Aleksandr Maltsev. Urged on by the roaring crowd, the United States regained a tie about midway through the third period. Johnson got his stick on a shot attempted by David Silk and scooted it past Maltsev. About 90 seconds later team captain Mark Eruzione snared a loose puck from the Soviet zone, raced toward the net, and fired a 30-foot shot from behind a teammate through Maltsev's pads. The Soviets battled to tie the score. But, as Craig later observed, "They panicked at the end. I couldn't believe it. They were just throwing the puck in and hoping for a break." As seconds fled from the clock, the joyous crowd picked up the countdown. "... Five! ... Four! ... Three! ... Two! ... One! ..." Michaels punctuated the ecstasy with his now-famous closing line, the last words he uttered before giving way to the deafening cheers. Pandemonium ensued on the ice, in the stands, and on the streets. The country lost itself in delirious pride. Even players struggled to retain their grip on reality. "Hey, what was the final score?" Craig asked amidst the locker-room chaos. "Was it 4-3? Does anybody know the final score?" Johnson, the 20-year-old center who scored the second and third U.S. goals, said afterward, "We knew we were younger. We knew we could outskate them. We knew we were going to break our butts to beat 'em. And we did. I can't believe it. I can't believe we beat them. But we did. And now we're only 60 minutes away from the gold medal, baby, only 60 minutes away." "This is a dream that nobody can say they're a part of except us," Eruzione said. After a day off to relax, the Americans returned to the Field House on Sunday to take on the Finnish team, which had tied Sweden on Friday. For about two hours, activity throughout the United States came to a virtual halt--even at the White House. President Jimmy Carter later told Brooks, "We were trying to do business and nobody could do it. We were watching the TV with one eye and Iran and the economy with the other." As in the contest against the Soviets, the U.S. team fell into an early hole. The Finns scored midway through the first period on a 55-foot slap shot by Jukka Porvari. The Americans responded early in the second period with a goal by Steve Christoff. The Finns regained the lead two minutes later on a power-play goal by Mikko Leinonen. As before, the U.S. squad entered the third period in need of heroics. A game-tying goal by Phil Verchota struck a historical chord. Feeding him on the two-on-one breakaway was Dave Christian, whose father scored the winning goal against the Soviets in the 1960 Games. Then, about five minutes into the period, Johnson passed the puck from behind the net to Rob McClanahan, who drove it home to give the United States a 3-2 lead. With about 14 minutes remaining, the match was far from over. American efforts to hold the slim lead were complicated by three late-game penalties. But not only did the U.S. team stymie the Finnish power plays, it extended its lead on Johnson's short-handed goal with 3 minutes and 35 seconds remaining. The Americans kept the Finns at bay to secure a 4-2 victory and the United States' second-ever hockey gold medal. Fans picked up where they had left off on Friday, chanting "U.S.A! U.S.A!," belting out "The Star Spangled Banner," hoisting American flags aloft, and partying into the early hours. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.