Sports Illustrated Cover from Wiki Commons
During the 1980s, the Cold War was still going on, and in the early 1980s things would flare up again between America and the Soviet Union (as it still was back then).
The US even staged a boycott of the Summer Olympics in Russia, but earlier in the year, the 1980 Winter Olympics were being held at Lake Placid, Florida.
It was here that the USA ice hockey team defied odds of 1000/1 to win the gold medal – and their main rivals were of course the Soviets, who were given around a 77% of winning gold by experts, so odds of about 3/10. They were, after all, the number 1 ranked team in the world, and the Americans were amateurs in comparison with an average age of just 22 years old.
The USA were seeded 7th in the competition and the team had never played together in a competition before, so no one even expected them to get to the final round.
However, they finished 2nd in their group, beating West Germany, Romania, Norway, and Czechoslovakia, and drawing with Sweden who finished top.
The way it worked back then, the top two teams from each group took part in a final round, which was essentially a mini league with 4 teams in it. However, the top two teams from one group would play the top two teams from the other group once each, and for the team who came from the same group as them, the score from the group stage would carry over – so there were only 4 matches in total in the final round.
The USA had progressed from the same group as Sweden, with whom they had drawn 2-2 in the group stage, so in the final round they would first face the Soviet Union, and then take on Finland.
The Final Round
Henry Zbyszynski, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Nobody expected USA to beat the Soviets, so when they went down 1-0 after 9 minutes in the first period, no one was surprised. They fought back hard though, securing a point of their own around the 14 minute mark after a 50 yard strike from Buzz Schneider. The Russian’s scored again a few minutes later, deflating the Americans, but in the very last second of the period, Mark Johnson picked up a fumbled save from the Soviet goaltender and drew his team level once more.
The clock counted down to zero as the goal went in, so there was some confusion over what would happen next, but eventually the game was restarted with 1 second left on the clock.
The second period was dominated by the Soviets, but they only managed to score once early on, despite outshooting their American opponents 12-1. Nevertheless, period 2 ended with the Russians leading 3-2.
They now had 10 long agonising minutes to hold on if they were to win the game, and despite a ferocious effort from the Soviet team as the clock counted down, the score remained 4-3, and the young American team took the win.
They still had to beat Finland of course, but what with the political situation at the time and the fact that the Americans were seen as no hopers, especially compared to the might of the Soviet team, this was the win that hit the headlines.
The USA would go on to beat Finland in similar style, conceding early to lose the first period, levelling in the second, before scoring 3 times in the 3rd period to take the game 4-2 and ultimately win the competition at odds of 1000/1.
So the USA’s defeat of the Soviet Union was not the game that won them the gold medal, but given that the mighty Soviet’s were the favourites to win the whole thing, the political situation at the time, and remembering that the US team was essentially a bunch of college kids, that win in particular was just incredible.