The U.S. hockey team had won only a single Olym-
pic medal since 1960 going into the 1980 Winter
Olympics, and the 1980 squad appeared to have lit-
tle chance of adding to that total. The team had lost
to the Soviet Union 10 to 3 in a pre-Olympic exhibi-
tion game, and it was placed in a preliminary pool
with the highly regarded teams from Sweden and
Czechoslovakia. In its opening match, however, it
stayed close to the Swedes throughout the contest
and scored a goal in the game’s final minute to sal-
vage a 2-2 tie. Two days later, the United States sur-
prised the Czechs in a lopsided 7-3 victory, then went
on to complete pool play with relatively easy wins
over Norway, Romania, and West Germany.
Though the team had played well throughout the
tournament under the leadership and inspiration
of coach Herb Brooks, its first match in the medal
round, on February 22 against the Soviet Union, was
not expected to be close. The Soviets had won four
straight gold medals and had beaten their oppo-
nents in pool play by a combined score of 51 to 11.
However, the first period of the U.S.-Soviet match
ended with the score tied at two goals apiece after a
last-second goal by the United States. The Soviet
coach responded by pulling his star goalie from the
game, replacing him with the backup goalie. The
change helped shut down the U.S. squad until nearly
halfway through the third period, when a U.S. goal
tied the score at 3 to 3. Less than two minutes later,
another goal gave America its first lead of the game,
and the U.S. defense, led by goalie Jim Craig, held
off a furious Soviet assault to complete the stunning
4-3 victory, prompting sportscaster Al Michaels’s fa-
mous comment, “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”658 Miracle on Ice The Eighties in America
The U.S. hockey team celebrates its miraculous victory over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics.(AP/Wide World Photos)