Ice Hockey Tournament at Lake Placid 1980
United States,
1980 Olympic Champions,
the 22nd February 1980 a team of Collegiate players defeated the top favorite USSR team to reach one of the biggest upsets of the world Sports history,
called by the US press as the "Miracle on Ice"
The Men´s Ice Hockey Tournament at the Winter Olympic Games 1980 took place from 12th to 24th February 1980 in Lake Placid, USA. For the second time in history after 42 years this New York´s resort hosted the Winter Olympic Games. The matches were played at the Olympic Arena and at the Olympic Fieldhouse.
The tournament wasn´t by far the most famous hockey event of history in term of field quality or by the level of the play itself. But, the 1980 Winter Olympic Ice Hockey tournament is Certainly the most famous and world-widely known ice hockey event thanks it´s epic outcome. One of the most underestimated hockey teams in history of this sport won a improbable and totally unexpected gold. The United States team formed from collegiate players shocked the world winning the Gold medals. Especially the win in the match over the top favorite USSR 4-3, became known as the so-called "Miracle on Ice". The win was in the USA considered as a great success and reason for pride of the western part of the world during a time of Cold War tensions, even though it was the next day win against Finland that secured the gold medal.
12 Nations entered the tournament. One of the highlights of the championship was the long time awaited return of Canada, which missed the last two tournaments and also Sweden after missing the last event in Innsbruck.
All teams were divided into 2 preliminary groups (particularly called the Red and Blue Divisions) Only the top 2 nations from both pools advanced to the final-four (A 4 nations round-robin deciding the medals, Teams from same groups carried their respective results from the preliminary round) the 3rd ranked Nations payed a direct 5th place match, called Consolation Round. Remaining 4 nations finished the tournament ranked by their positioning in the preliminary groups.
Three days before the Olympics USA composed by unknown players from US College teams led by the legendary coach Herb Brooks played a exhibition game in the Madison Square Garden against the USSR - 4 times Olympic Champions in a row - and submitted heavily 3-10 to the USSR´s Red Machine. In fact no one expected from the USA to finish among the top 2 teams from the group and this last test match was another prove about.
But the Americans experienced a crazy memorable tournament winning 6 of it´s seven games resulting in the second historic Olympic title (Just like in 1960 they won it at home) ahead of USSR winning 7th consecutive Olympic medal (1st silver) and Sweden returning to the medal podium after 12 years.
USA - USSR 4-3 or the "Miracle on Ice",
two weeks before both teams played a exhibition game in the Madison Square Garden and the Soviets outclassed this same host team 10-3 !
In the preliminary round pools, Sweden and the United States advanced to the final-four from the Blue Division, Czechoslovakia disappointedly finished only third and qualified for "only" the 5th place match. Romania, West Germany and Norway failed to advance from the group. In the Group B called Red Division it was as expected the USSR which dominated the field and topped the group without losing a single point. But the biggest upset of the preliminary round was the win of Finland over Canada 4-3 causing a unexpected final round qualification for the Finns. Canada finished just as Czechoslovakia in the other group only third in the group and in their Olympic return had to play only for 5th place. Poland, debuting the Netherlands and Japan invited to replace the withdrawing East German team only few weeks before the games finished the tourney already in the first round.
USA and Sweden carried their 2-2 tie from the preliminary round into the final round, USSR advanced to the final-four with the best position of 2 points win over Finland 4-2. But already in the opening game of the last round surprisingly failed to the USA 3-4 in a match that entered the history as a synonym of one of the biggest sports surprise, the Miracle on Ice. The victory became one of the most iconic moments of the Games and in U.S. sports. Equally well-known was the television call of the final seconds of the game by Al Michaels, in which he famously declared in the final seconds,
In 1999, Sports Illustrated named the "Miracle on Ice" the top sports moment of the 20th century.As part of its centennial celebration in 2008, the IIHF named the "Miracle on Ice" as the best international ice hockey story of the past 100 years.
After the 3-3 tie among the Nordic rivals Sweden and Finland, the Way for gold was suddenly and surprisingely open for the host team and the United States did it winning 4-2 against Finland to celebrating the second country´s olympic gold. USSR defeated the Swedes in the last match to earn silver. Sweden thanks to the point carried out from the preliminary round from the match with the USA got the Bronze one single point in front of Finland finishing Once again fourth !
If the win over USSR is the most known, the last step which brought the gold to the host team was the win in the last game against Finland 4-2
Czechoslovakia extremely disappointed by the outcome of the tournament at least wrote to it´s history the highest Olympic triumph over Canada in the consolation game to earn the 5th place ahead of the North Americans by 6-1.
Czechoslovakia send a rejuvenated but very strong team led by the famous Slovak brothers Peter, Anton and Marián Šťastný, altogether with Milan Nový they dominated the scoring leaders tables, the top 3 scorers of the tournament were from TCH team, but even this was not enough for the team to win any medal.
The tournament started with a easy win 11-0 over Norway in the opening day of the Blue Division, but two days later on the Valentines Day came a shock and absolute nightmare, the totally unexpected lose to the local strongly underestimated amateur players of the United States team 3-7. After this failure the staff knew the only way for the medals will be by winning over Sweden, but before this the team had to win also the remaining preliminary games, the team managed it more or less easily beating 7-2 Romania and 11-3 over West Germany thanks a goal festival of the Šťastný brothers. But the last step remained unfinished Czechoslovakia lost to Sweden in a typical do-or-die tense and nervous match 2-4.
The result send the team only to the 3rd place, meaning only a 5th place match against Canada, similarly disappointed team from the other group. The team at least showed more will in the last match and finished a unsuccessful tournament by a high and not usual win over Canada 6-1.
1980 Olympic Medalists,
Gold USA, Silver USSR, Bronze Sweden
Final Ranking:
1. United States
2. USSR
3. Sweden
4. Finland
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5. Czechoslovakia - Consolation Round
6. Canada - Consolation Round
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7. Poland - Preliminary Round
8. Romania - Preliminary Round
9. Netherlands - Preliminary Round
10. West Germany - Preliminary Round
11. Norway - Preliminary Round
12. Japan - Preliminary Round
In 2002 it was the members of the 1980 olympic winning team that had the honor to light the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics opening ceremony cauldron