Happy "Do You Believe in Miracles?" Day

[alexd]

Wasn't a gold medal game. Ussr game was just the second game in group play. Finland was the last game.

Ahhhhhh.....interesting tourney set up:

Old Olympic rules.
2 pools, and the top 2 advanced to medal round.
Those teams carried their record against the other top team in their pool into the medal round, and played the two from the other pool.
The results of those 3 games formed a mini-round robin.
The USA-Finland game wasn't technically a "gold-medal game" per se.

1st-Gold-USA-2 wins (USSR, Finland), 1 Draw (with Sweden in pool play)=5 points
2nd-Silver-USSR-2 wins (Finland (in pool), Sweden), 1 Loss (USA)=4 points
3rd-Bronze-Sweden-1 win (Finland), 1 Draw (USA), 1 Loss (USSR)= 3 points
4th-Finland-3 Losses (USA, USSR, Sweden)= 0 points

 

[Kgun7]

Was the championship game against the Finns broadcast live? I remember watching a game in the afternoon at my railroad flat apartment on East 7th Street that I shared with a cute lesbian because I was home sick with the flu.

There really wasn't a championship game. The format started with 2 groups of 6 teams round robin. The top 2 from each group advance to a 4 team round robin medal round group ... but your initial game against the team from your group carries over to the medal round. So the US advanced with Sweden along with their 2-2 draw from group play. The Soviets advanced with Finland along with their 4-2 victory over Finland.

After the US defeated the Soviets in the first game of the medal round Finland tied Sweden in the second game of the day. The standings were: US 3pts, Soviets 2, Swedes 2, Fins 1. If the US lost to Finland and the Soviets defeated Sweden the US would have ended up with the Bronze, a point behind the Soviets, and would have lost the Silver to Finland based on head to head result. The Soviets and Swedes played the second game of that day, but the Gold result was sealed by the US after the victory over the Fins. The Soviets went on to defeat the Swedes 9-2.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Tarasov's training methods were right out of Rocky IV. The 30 for 30 did an exceptional job of humanizing the Soviet team. It would have been very easy to make it a good vs. evil documentary and it probably still would've been good.

I remember watching the game. Looking back on it, I don't have any memory of it being on tape delay. It's the second oldest sporting event memory I have. The oldest one is Bucky Dent in 1978.

When I see documentaries like this I do feel sorry for those who weren't around to see it and experience it live.

I was night skiing that night and heard the announcement on a lift line. Everyone went nuts but few had any cue as to the magnitude of that win. I saw game three of the Challenge Cup (Soviets vs NHL all stars) thirteen months earlier at MSG (bought the tickets the day they went on sale five months earlier, just to see the NHL finally field a team that could be truly capable of matching up with the Soviet team) and in all candor, the Soviets toyed with the NHL team. I believed then and I still believe today that they let the NHL win game one and jump to an early lead in game two (of the best of three) just to make it more obvious how much better the Soviets were.

One thing we had going for us in that game (which Herb Brooks pointed out countless times to the players) was that at that point the Soviets were basically begging for someone to knock them off. That they were as overconfident as they were for that game just magnified the condition. Pulling Tretiak (Tretjak as it was spelled for that game) was a mistake but I'm not sure how large a role that played because how great as he was (and yes, he was without question the best goalie in the world from nearly a decade before that game until he retired) he always was prone to let in a stray cheap goal or two, which didn't matter if his team was regularly scoring 7, 8 or 9 goals a game. Just as the real story of Super Bowl XLII was the Giant defense holding the Patriots to 14 points, USA holding the Soviets to three goals (largely due to Jim Craig playing out of his mind) was the story in that game (imagine that, defense winning championships,.... who knew?).

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Ahhhhhh.....interesting tourney set up:

Old Olympic rules.
2 pools, and the top 2 advanced to medal round.
Those teams carried their record against the other top team in their pool into the medal round, and played the two from the other pool.
The results of those 3 games formed a mini-round robin.
The USA-Finland game wasn't technically a "gold-medal game" per se.

1st-Gold-USA-2 wins (USSR, Finland), 1 Draw (with Sweden in pool play)=5 points
2nd-Silver-USSR-2 wins (Finland (in pool), Sweden), 1 Loss (USA)=4 points
3rd-Bronze-Sweden-1 win (Finland), 1 Draw (USA), 1 Loss (USSR)= 3 points
4th-Finland-3 Losses (USA, USSR, Sweden)= 0 points

Most people didn't realize this either. The USA-USSR game wasn't a semifinal, merely a game within a round robin. The top two teams (USSR & Finland from one group, USA & Sweden from the other) advanced, with their prior matchup (USSR beat Finland, USA & Sweden tied) counting within the championship round. If we lost to Finland, the Soviets would have won the gold. I cannot tell you how many people I argued with over the years who believed that the winner of the USA-Finland game would have won the gold. It didn't work that way back then.

 

[CL82]

Thanks! It is impossible for anyone who didn't see it to realize just how stressful that last minute was or how joyous it was when it ended.

 

[jibsey]

Where were you living at the time???

Albany