Miracle on Ice

I'll admit it, I'm not a huge Ice Hockey fan, I may occasionally tune in for an occasional Stanley Cup game or for matches played in the Winter Olympics, but I don't really follow the sport. However Ice Hockey does have, maybe the most famous upset of all time, "The Miracle on Ice", an upset so big and so well known that even people who have no interest at all in Ice Hockey know about it.

Going into the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, everyone who knew anything about Ice Hockey thought the Soviet Union were nailed on to claim victory. They had after all dominated the sport since the mid 1950's and claimed 14 World Titles (including titles in 1979 and 1978) from the previous 22. As well as adding 6 Olympic Gold medals (including the previous 5 in a row).

In total the Soviet Ice Hockey team going into the the 1980 Winter Olympics, had 6 Olympic Gold medals, an Olympic Bronze, 14 World titles, 6 World Silver medals and 2 World Bronze medals and had won medals at every major competition they had entered since the mid 1950's. They weren't just seen as the favourites going into Lake Placed but were seen

The Soviet domination of the sport however was controversial and whilst they were clearly the best team in the world their was a huge question regarding their "amateur status" with a number of countries, notably Canada alleging that the Soviet players were given "phantom jobs" and were effectively professionals. Despite this claim the team were never prevented from playing, probably due to the difficultly of proving it.

With the Soviets all but guaranteed a Gold medal there was little surprise when they dominated their group winning all 5 of their groups matches. The dominance in the group really was startling, not only did they win all 5 matches but they out scored their rivals 51-11 over those 5 matches. Those stats really shocked nobody though did show just how good the Soviet team was. Along side the Soviets, Finland also qualified from their group though they were a clear distant second.

From the other group the USA and Sweeden had both qualified. Like the Soviet Union neither team had lost (having tied 2-2 with each other) but neither had looked stunning scoring just 51 goals combined! Despite qualifying, neither team had really been expected to challenge the Soviet dominance. In fact the USA had almost conceded before the competition had even started and their team consisted of only 1 returning played from the 1976 Olympics with much of the squad made up of University players that the coach had previously worked with.

In the medal stage both the USA and the Soviets won their first game and thus, they had to play each other. Everyone seemed to feel it was nailed on for the Soviets who had dominated the sport, the competition and pretty much everything else related to Ice Hockey and amazingly ABC in American failed to even televise the match live.

The Soviets took the lead midway through the first period thanks to the excellent Vladimir Krutov after around 9 minutes. The Soviet lead lasted just 5 minutes before Buzz Schneider tied the scores at the time of 14:03. Sergei Makarov would put the Soviets 2-1 up before Mark Johnson controversially equalised with a shot on the buzzer.

At the start of the second period Soviet keeper Vladislav Tretiak was taken off the ice, as he was single handedly blamed for the second equaliser, this saw replacement keeper Vladimir Myshkin come on, a move that was a huge surprise to both teams. Despite the change in goal the Soviets dominated the period and took the lead for the 3rd time in the match moving 3-2 up, they should however have been out of sight as they thoroughly dominated the period.

The Americans tied the score in the 3rd period thanks to a second goal by Mark Johnson before Mike Eruzione surprisingly put American in a 4-3 lead, a lead they managed to hold on to for the final 10 minutes despite some major pressure from the Soviet attack. This victory saw the USA claiming the Gold medal and although the Soviets would defeat Sweden a few days later they only took home the Silver medal.

Despite the loss the Soviets continued to dominate the sport in the fall out and claimed the next 2 Winter Olympic Gold medals and 6 of the following 9 World Championships. However the loss was a really dark day in the history of Soviet Ice Hockey.

For the USA it became a really memorable sporting event and has seen a number of movies and TV specials made around it. It's seen by many as one of, if not the, greatest sporting moment of all time and made a number of the players stars in their field. It was a special, special sporting moment and something all sports fans, American or not, should look at as a case of over-coming adversity and refusing to be written off.