It Feels Different Than 1980. but the Memories From This Olympics Will Last Just as Long
By Scott Lowe - MYHockeyRankings.com
It’s hard to believe that it was 46 years ago today.
Feb. 22, 1980.
The greatest day in the history of USA Hockey. That was the day of The Miracle. The Miracle that ultimately led to a gold medal.
That was the last time the United States won an Olympic gold medal in men’s ice hockey; the only time before that was at Squaw Valley in 1960. Before today there had been two gold-medal games for Team USA since the miracle in Lake Placid, both losses to Canada.
Only 37 American hockey players had won a gold medal. Ever. Dating back more than 100 years.
That all changed at around 11 a.m. EST.
Jack Hughes took a pass in the high slot from Zach Werenksi and fired a low laser into the far corner of the net and past a brick wall disguised as a hockey goalie named Jordan Binnington (Fortunately for the U.S., the brick wall at the other end of the ice wearing a Connor Hellebuyck costume apparently took up a just a little more of the net than Canada’s).
That shot, less than two minutes into overtime, was the moment for which USA Hockey – and American hockey fans – had waited 46 years.
The Golden Goal.
A play that will live in American hockey infamy, and it happened on a Sunday in February.
That sounds familiar for some reason.
Feb. 24, 1980.
That day the United States beat Finland, 4-2, in the final game of the medal round of the Lake Placid Olympics to earn the nation’s first hockey gold medal in 20 years. It was a game that often is a side note to the Miracle on Ice story that has been told time and again during the last 46 years.
The puck dropped that day at 1 p.m. EST., so it was 11 a.m. in parts of North America. In a game played on a Sunday with a weird start time almost 46 years to the day after the United States won its last men’s ice hockey gold medal, the Americans finally had done it again.
There was no gold-medal game in 1980; the contest against Finland was a game Team USA had to win to secure the gold. The game everyone remembers – the well-chronicled Miracle on Ice vs. the Soviet Union – was played two days earlier during the first day of medal-round play,
The top two teams from one group played the top two teams from the other group in the medal round, with total standings points earned for the games played against the other medal-round qualifiers determining the medal distribution. Following the Friday-evening 4-3 upset of the USSR and Sweden’s tie against Finland, the United States had three standings points, while the Soviets and Sweden had two and Finland had one.
After beating the Soviets in the greatest upset in sports history, the Americans had fewer than 48 hours to prepare physically and emotionally to face Finland on a sleepy Sunday in upstate New York. The upstart American team with players nobody had heard of two weeks prior, was one win away from a gold medal.
Something had changed, however.
The team everyone counted out before the Olympics – and that some pundits had picked to finish in seventh place – suddenly was expected to win. It was a done deal. They had beaten the best team in the world, and there was no chance Finland was going to ruin the greatest Cinderella sports story of all time.
Anyone who has played, coached or watched sports closely would understand that Team USA was about to play in the ultimate “trap game.” A team coming off a huge win playing an opponent everyone expects it to beat has been ripe for an upset since the beginning of athletic competition.
As a a 10-year-old hockey player living in an area where virtually no one played hockey, even I knew that.
There had been virtually no nervousess for most Americans leading up to and during the Soviet game until the team took the lead on Mike Eruzione's historic goal with exactly 10 minutes left in the third period. Those of us who followed hockey just hoped our guys could keep the game close and make it competitive.
Hockey was mostly an afterthought in the United States at that time – and the Americans were expected to get blown out – so ABC, the network covering the Olympics in the U.S., decided to air the game in prime time on a tape-delayed basis. With a 5 p.m. EST opening faceoff and a bad result expected, ABC probably figured the ratings would be too low to justify live coverage.
Looking back, I would surmise ABC assumed the game would be a rout and that bits and pieces of action could be shown in between other more popular events that night without creating much of an uproar. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, so it’s easy to condemn their stance, but that must be one of the worst programming decisions in television history.
Americans had fallen in love with the young, underdog U.S. team at a time when the nation desperately needed something positive to celebrate. Most people weren’t familiar enough with hockey to realize how much better the Soviets were on paper. All they knew was that the young, scrappy Americans were going to take on the hated Russians, essentially were a team of professionals, in the Olympics with a medal on the line.
Those folks weren’t nervous, and the people who followed hockey realized the monumental task the team faced and figured there was nothing to lose. A two- or three-goal setback would have been a great showing. Hockey fans just hoped the players would honor America by giving their best effort and making the Soviets work hard for a competitive victory.
Sunday, two days after the upset to end all upsets, the vibe was much different before the team played Finland. The game was going to be shown live on ABC in its entirety, and Team USA had the gold medal in the bag.
Well, this 10-year-old kid was a nervous wreck, and the tension grew as the Americans predictably came out flat. Finland scored about midway through the first period on a long slapshot that eluded netminder Jim Craig, who to that point had been impenetrable playing the Hellebuyck role on that team.
Craig had willed the U.S. to victory in a performance for the ages against the Soviets, so when he allowed a long-range softy it set off alarm bells in my brain. Steve Christoff tied the game on a backhander in the second period seconds after the Americans had killed a penalty to calm the nerves a bit, but that feeling didn’t last long as the Finns regained the lead 30 seconds later.
Finland took a 2-1 advantage into the locker room after two periods, prompting the famous speech from legendary Team USA Coach Herb Brooks. Brooks told his team that if they lost that game, “You’ll take it to your {bleeping} grave.”
Brooks was a hard-nosed coach, but those who played for him say he rarely cursed in the heat of battle. As he walked out of the room in that moment, though, he stopped and faced the team.
“Your {bleeping grave}.” he reiterated, according to team captain Mike Eruzione.
The Americans rallied around those words and stormed the ice prepared to do whatever was necessary to win that gold medal. Team USA played its best period of the tournament and overwhelmed Finland, scoring three unanswered goals to ensure their place in sports history.
As a kid I was just incredibly excited about the gold medal. While everything would have been fine had the team lost on that Sunday since we had beaten the big, bad Soviets, it just wouldn’t have been the same if the result hadn’t been a gold medal.
No way was that team going to lose and let the USSR back into a gold medal. We were just better. Screw those guys. I couldn’t wait to take my American flag to hockey practice and school and celebrate with my buddies.
It was a feeling of pure elation. I didn’t even fully understand why I was supposed to hate the Russian team. It’s just the way it was.
Those emotions where shared by millions of people around the country. Pure joy. Smiles, flags and other patriotic symbols were on display everywhere.
We rallied around a bunch of plucky kids with unfamiliar names like Craig, Eruzione, Johnson, Pavelich, Morrow, Schneider, O’Callahan, Baker, Suter, Wells, Strobel, Harrington, McClanahan, Christian, Christoff, Ramsey, Silk, Broten and Verchota and a no-nonsense coach named Brooks. In the span of two weeks after seeing those names and their faces plastered all over our television screens, they felt like family. And they were American heroes who would walk together in eternity.
Ever since then, as an American hockey player and coach raising a hockey-playing son who earned more than one opportunity to attend a USA Hockey developmental selection camp and went on to play five years at the NCAA level, I have longed for hockey to stir those emotions again.
Despite high hopes, the 1984, 1988, 1992 Olympics brought nothing but disappointment, with no American team finishing better than fourth. It was exciting to have National Hockey League players join the fray in Nagano for the 1998 Games, but that U.S. team finished sixth.
The 2002 Salt Lake City team also featured NHL players and was coached by Brooks. With the Olympics being held on home soil and the history-making coach back behind the bench, the stage was set, but the U.S. lost to Canada in the gold-medal game.
It would be silver again in Vancouver in 2010 thanks to Sidney Crosby’s overtime goal. In 2014 we were treated to T.J. Oshie’s one-man shootout show in a win against Russia on their home ice, but that team faded and placed fourth. The American teams at other Olympics that didn’t include NHL players placed fifth, seventh and eighth.
As a hockey fan, the 1996 World Cup of Hockey championship elicited some of those familiar feelings, but hardly anyone in the United States knew the tournament was happening. It was not televised by a national network, so while it was exciting for me personally to watch perhaps the best American team ever assembled compete and win against the world’s best players – and to win the title on Canadian ice – it was as if the proverbial tree had fallen in an empty forest for most people in the U.S.
That bring us to the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Italy.
After 46 years, Team USA finally has done it again – and the team did it wearing throwback jerseys reminiscent of past gold-medal winners. The overtime win against Sweden was incredible, as was Canada’s victory in extra time vs. Czechia, and the gold-medal matchup was as thrilling as any sporting event most of us ever will watch.
Yeah. It’s still not the same.
This year’s Olympic men’s hockey tournament brought different, yet equally intoxicating, feelings and emotions to the surface. And today’s gold-medal clash of the titans only enhanced those sentiments.
Certainly, in the United States both the men’s and women’s overtime gold-medal-winning performances brought together a nation that is extremely divided. People who don’t normally follow hockey tuned in today, bars and restaurants opened at 5 a.m. on one coast and 8 a.m. on the other so people could congregate to watch and alcohol restrictions even were lifted in some jurisdictions on both sides of the border to let fans celebrate the moment.
Live shots from watch parties around the United States tapped into the patriotism and excitement whenever the American teams scored and ultimately for the golden-goal celebrations. That outpouring of support and the patriotic displays brought back some memories and were very much needed.
From a hockey perspective, at least for me, this was an entirely different experience but in a totally awesome way. And while it stirred different emotions and a different type of excitement, the 2026 Winter Olympics turned out to be no less memorable.
In 1980, the Miracle on Ice solidified my love for the sport and produced a level of national pride that, as it turns out, may not be equaled in my lifetime. The Milano Cortina Olympic Games simply produced the greatest hockey I’ve ever seen.
This wasn’t a bunch of no-name college kids pulling off a once-in-a-lifetime upset in a politically charged matchup on American soil. Except for a handful of players who were absent because Russia continues to be banned from international play, this Olympic tournament featured the best players in the world.
And it did not disappoint.
Even casual hockey fans were familiar with at least some of the players on most teams. From the quarterfinals through today’s gold-medal matchup, four games required overtime. The U.S. won its quarterfinal game vs. Sweden on a Quinn Hughes OT goal, while Canada needed extra time and a goal from often-maligned former Toronto Maple Leaf Mitch Marner to beat Czechia in the quarters.
The Canadians rallied from two goals down in the final 26 minutes vs. Finland in the semifinals, getting a power-play marker from Nathan MacKinnon in the final minute to advance.
Then there was today’s gold-medal matchup.
The pace was breathtaking. The intensity was off the charts. The physicality resembled a Game 7 Stanley Cup Playoff matchup. The atmosphere inside the arena oozed through the TV screen, with fan passion rivaling what we see at World Cup soccer matches.
And the goaltending. My God. The goaltending was otherworldly.
As a lifetime hockey fan, the experience was just different. And it was amazing. Before the game, I had no idea what to expect emotionally.
Just like with any rivalry, there were players on Canada’s rosters I don’t like. There also were players I love and root for every day in the NHL. I would have been thrilled to see them win a gold medal. There are many other Canadian players who I really enjoy watching and respect immensely.
In a nutshell, I found it impossible to hate Team Canada.
Meanwhile, there absolutely were players on the Team USA roster who I don’t like. I’m pretty sure most hockey fans would agree with me on one or two of them.
While none of the American players are on my favorite NHL team, there were guys I’ve been following since they played in the World Junior Championship who have earned gold medals for my homeland and who I truly enjoy watching. Like the Canadian team, the U.S. roster featured a bunch of players I hold in high esteem and respect even though they play for NHL organizations I may not like.
While my heart was with my homeland and I was excited to see the United States win, it wasn’t a politically charged or overtly emotional feeling. In fact, I may have been just as happy had Tom Wilson and Logan Thompson, who play for the Washington Capitals team I’ve supported for the last 40-plus years won, but I never will know for sure. I felt bad seeing their disappointment as I did for many other Canadian players.
It really was no-lose situation for me, and I’m guessing that many other hockey fans felt the same.
The level of play and storylines – not politics or nationalism – are what stirred my emotions this time, and while the feeling was different, it was no less fulfilling.
It started with Marner, who heard his share of negativity while playing in Toronto, scoring the overtime goal that sent Canada to the semifinals.
Then there were the goalies.
Binnington and all of Canada’s goalies were questioned by hockey pundits dating back to last year’s 4 Nation’s Face-off. He backstopped his team to the gold medal in that tournament and damn near did it again at the Olympics. While his last few NHL seasons haven’t been his best, he has been phenomenal wearing the maple leaf.
If Hellebuyck isn’t the unquestioned best goalie in the world, he’s clearly among the top three. Yet his lack of success in the Stanley Cup Playoffs has been well-documented. At the Olympics, where teams often need the goalie to be the best player to win a gold medal, that’s exactly what Hellebuyck was. He stopped 41 of the 42 shots he faced in the gold-medal game to earn Best Goaltender honors for the tournament.
Like Marner and Hellebuyck, Team USA captain Auston Matthews has had to deal with NHL playoff failures and media negativity throughout his career in Toronto. Today he got to skate around the rink during the postgame celebration carrying the United States flag.
Jack Hughes, Team USA’s golden-goal hero, was the top pick in the 2019 NHL draft and has persevered through an injury-plagued career that has caused some members of the hockey media to question if he ever will live up to expectations. At the Olympics he watched the USA women’s team his mother Ellen helped assemble win a gold medal and saw his brother Quinn score the overtime winner vs. Sweden.
Today Jack Hughes lost some teeth courtesy of a Sam Bennett high stick but ended up scoring a goal that set off a nationwide celebration and will secure his place in USA Hockey history. The reaction of his family after the game-winning goal was priceless and is something only those who raise an athlete can fully understand.
During today’s game there was a series of plays while both teams were on the attack in the third period that included an incredible desperation paddle save by Hellebuyck, several remarkable stops by Binnington and a near miss by MacKinnon on a Grade A scoring opportunity. The pace and intensity were unreal, the tension was mounting and players on both teams were emptying their tanks in hopes of delivering a gold medal for their respective nations.
My head was spinning, but my brain locked in on something Coach Brooks once said: “The name on the front of the jersey means a hell of a lot more than the name on the back."
We were witnessing that mentality in real time during one of the greatest hockey games ever played. I said out loud to no one in particular, “This is the best hockey I’ve ever watched.”
As I said that, my eyes began tearing up a little.
The 1980 Miracle wasn’t shown live in the United States. I had to tune into game updates every 15 minutes on a local radio station. In 1996, I had to find an out-of-the way-sportsman’s bar with fish and deer heads hanging on the wall to watch the USA-Canada World Cup of Hockey championship game.
To watch today’s game along with countless millions of other Americans live in my own home was a privilege I don’t take for granted. We’ve come a long way, and my statement was reflective of the entire Olympic viewing experience this year. Those breathtaking third-period moments during the game just prompted me to spit it out.
My emotions were moved again when Jack Hughes scored and I saw his family’s reaction. And again when I saw the dejection on the faces of the Canadian players. And again when I saw Hellebuyck have his Jim Craig moment with the American flag draped around his shoulders. And again when the players shook hands.
And again and again and again.
Another Herb Brooks reference. If you know, you know.
So many poignant images. So many enthralling storylines. So many flashbacks to 1980, my days playing youth hockey and my son’s hockey career.
Then, just when I thought I had pulled myself together, Dylan Larkin and Zach Werenski brought the late Johny Gaudreau’s children, Noa and Johnny Jr., onto the ice to be part of a photo with the American team. Werenski, one of Gaudreau’s best friends, held Noa on his lap. Cameras panned to Gaudreau’s wife Meredith, who was wiping away tears, and his visibly emotional father Guy, a longtime hockey coach.
Full waterworks.
It’s been a memorable two-plus weeks for this American fan of hockey. The Miracle in 1980 was a memorable time for me as an American hockey fan.
There is a difference, and this Olympics made a different but lasting impression on me that I will remember fondly forever.
Hopefully, after a little time to heal from these heartbreaking losses, Canadian fans also will be able to reflect fondly on the valiant efforts put forth by their teams, the overall level of play and the positive impact these Olympics will have on the sport around the world.
Today I felt like I couldn’t lose.
Maybe I’m just lucky, but I’d prefer to believe that all hockey fans were lucky to have had the opportunity to watch what may have been the greatest international hockey tournament ever played.
