The Miracle On Ice
A golden story of an American dream come true
The U.S. hockey team was not expected to achieve much at Lake Placid. Yet here they were, after a string of upsets, facing the five time Olympic champions.
February of 1980 was not a pleasant time for most Americans. The economy was in a tailspin, unemployment was on the rise, Iranian students were holding U.S. citizens hostage, and the Soviet Union was throwing its weight around Afghanistan. It was under this curtain of gloom that an unlikely band of fresh faced fuzzy checked college kids captivated the country for two weeks, playing the game of hockey that few really understood. Suddenly and without warning, "America's Team" was on the brink of bringing the powerful Soviet hockey dynasty to its knees, while America held its collective breath and watched.
Eight minutes and thirty nine seconds into the final period, the Americans were hanging on by a thread. They were within one goal of tying the mighty Soviets when forward Dave Silk brought the hockey puck into the Russian zone and flicked it away just before he was crushed into the boards. Through a stroke of luck, Dave Silk's "pass to no one" caromed off a Russian skate onto the hockey stick of Mark Johnson, just five feet from the goal. Mark Johnson calmly slapped it into the net for his second freak score of the night.
Before the young USA olympic hockey team could even savor the tie, they were mounting another attack. The Russians sent the hockey puck squirting along the boards, where forward Mark Pavelich picked it up and hammered it. The hockey puck streaked into the slot directly in front of U.S. team captain Mike Eruzione. He picked it up and wheeled toward the net. The Russians, befuddled and confused, scrambled out to meet him, but Eruzione had already snapped off a lighting fast wrist shot. It threaded its way through a wall of players and into the net. The USA Olympic hockey team had pulled ahead 4-3.
The entire arena erupted. No one could believe it, least of all the American layers, who left their bench and swarmed around Eruzione. With the crowd on their feet and a deafening roar filling the Field House, the USA hockey team spent the last 10 minutes of the game doing anything and everything to stop their opponents. At last, battered, bloody, but not beaten. 20 exhausted kids heard the final buzzer sound.
"Do you believe in miracles?" shouted Al Michaels to millions of Americans watching on tv.
"Yes!" A wave of white USA jerseys cascaded onto the ice in the wildest celebration in Olympic history.
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Although the USA Olympic hockey team had beaten the Soviet Union, the Americans still had to beat Finland to win a gold medal. Somehow, everyone knew they had come too far to blow it. True to form, they didn't. It took three goals in the final period, but they pulled out the win 4-2.
