Ice hockey at the 1980 Winter Olympics

1980 Winter Olympics
Ice Hockey
Tournament details
Host country  United States
Dates February 12–24, 1980
Teams 12
Venue(s) Olympic Arena,
Olympic Fieldhouse
Lake Placid, New York
Final positions
Champions   United States (2nd title)
Runner-up   Soviet Union
Third place   Sweden
Fourth place  Finland
Tournament statistics
Matches played 35
Goals scored 308 (8.8 per match)
Scoring leader(s) Czechoslovakia Milan Nový 15 points

Ice hockey at the 1980 Winter Olympics was held at the Olympic Arena and the Olympic Fieldhouse (now known as the Herb Brooks Arena) in Lake Placid, New York. Twelve teams competed in the tournament, which was held from February 12 to 24. The United States won the gold medal, including a win over the heavily favored Soviet Union that became known as the "Miracle on Ice".[1][2]

Background

The Olympics came at a difficult time for Soviet–U.S. relations, as they were deep in the Cold War. Only months before the games began, the USSR had invaded Afghanistan, and there was speculation that the strong Soviet team might not be allowed to compete.[3][4] However, they competed in the Lake Placid games in the end, although the United States and 65 other nations later boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.[5]

The Soviets had won every Winter Olympics ice hockey tournament since 1960, were well-seasoned and the majority of the players had been playing together for many years. In contrast, the Americans were a collection of college students (most from the rival schools of University of Minnesota and Boston University) with little history of playing together. However, the U.S. team also featured several highly promising players who went on to successful careers in the National Hockey League in the 1980s.[6]

Three days before the Olympics, Coach Herb Brooks scheduled an exhibition game at Madison Square Garden in New York City against the Soviet team. The Americans lost 10–3,[7] and defenseman Jack O'Callahan pulled a ligament in his knee, though he returned for the medal round. Coach Brooks gave only a few interviews after the game, but blamed his early conservative strategy as a factor.[7]

Despite these setbacks, Brooks managed to unify his players, training them for a year (the core of the team had been assembled since the 1979 World Ice Hockey Championships in Moscow), and lead them to victory.

Going into the games, the teams were ranked and divided into two groups. The ranking was: Soviet Union (1), Czechoslovakia (2), Sweden (3), Canada (4), Finland (5), West Germany (6), United States (7), Poland (8), Netherlands (9), Romania (10), Norway (11), Japan (12). East Germany was ranked tenth but declined to participate, with Japan filling their spot.

Highlights

The "Miracle on Ice" on a Paraguayan stamp

The USA vs USSR game, called the "Miracle on Ice" in the United States, is the best-remembered game of the tournament and the best-remembered international hockey game in the United States.[8] It was the USA's penultimate game of the tournament's round-robin medal round.[9] The USA's final game, against Finland, was the game which clinched the gold medal for the United States. The U.S. was down by a goal entering the third period then scored three to win 4–2.[2][10] Finland finished fourth in the overall standings. Another small upset which is not always noticed was Poland's defeat of Finland 5–4 during the preliminary round.

Final ranking

Gold: Silver: Bronze:
 United States (USA)

Bill Baker
Neal Broten
Dave Christian
Steve Christoff
Jim Craig
Mike Eruzione
John Harrington
Steve Janaszak
Mark Johnson
Rob McClanahan
Ken Morrow
Jack O'Callahan
Mark Pavelich
Mike Ramsey
Buzz Schneider
Dave Silk
Eric Strobel
Bob Suter
Phil Verchota
Mark Wells

 Soviet Union (URS)

Helmuts Balderis
Zinetula Bilyaletdinov
Viacheslav Fetisov
Aleksandr Golikov
Vladimir Golikov
Alexei Kasatonov
Valeri Kharlamov
Vladimir Krutov
Yuri Lebedev
Sergei Makarov
Aleksandr Maltsev
Boris Mikhailov
Vladimir Myshkin
Vasili Pervukhin
Vladimir Petrov
Aleksandr Skvortsov
Sergei Starikov
Vladislav Tretiak
Valeri Vasiliev
Viktor Zhluktov

 Sweden (SWE)

Mats Åhlberg
Sture Andersson
Bo Berglund
Håkan Eriksson
Jan Eriksson
Thomas Eriksson
Leif Holmgren
Tomas Jonsson
Pelle Lindbergh
William Lövquist
Harald Lückner
Bengt Lundholm
Per Lundqvist
Lars Molin
Mats Näslund
Lennart Norberg
Tommy Samuelsson
Dan Söderström
Mats Waltin
Ulf Weinstock

4  Finland
5  Czechoslovakia
6  Canada
7  Poland
8  Romania
9  Netherlands
10  West Germany
11  Norway
12  Japan

First round

Blue Division

     Team advanced to the Final Round
     Team advanced to Consolation Round
Team GP W L T GF GA Pts
 Sweden 5 4 0 1 26 7 9
 United States 5 4 0 1 25 10 9
 Czechoslovakia 5 3 2 0 34 16 6
 Romania 5 1 3 1 13 29 3
 West Germany 5 1 4 0 21 30 2
 Norway 5 0 4 1 9 36 1

All times are local (UTC-5).

February 12, 1980
13:16
Czechoslovakia  11 – 0
(0–0, 5–0, 6–0)
 Norway Olympic Arena, Lake Placid
February 12, 1980
16:30
Romania  6 – 4
(1–1, 2–3, 3–0)
 West Germany Olympic Arena, Lake Placid
February 12, 1980
17:21
Sweden  2 – 2
(1–0, 0–1, 1–1)
 United States Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 14, 1980
13:00
Romania  0 – 8
(0–3, 0–4, 0–1)
 Sweden Olympic Arena, Lake Placid
February 14, 1980
13:30
Norway  4 – 10
(2–5, 1–3, 1–2)
 West Germany Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 14, 1980
20:30
United States  7 – 3
(2–2, 2–0, 3–1)
 Czechoslovakia Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 16, 1980
13:00
United States  5 – 1
(0–1, 3–0, 2–0)
 Norway Olympic Arena, Lake Placid
February 16, 1980
13:00
Romania  2 – 7
(0–2, 1–3, 1–2)
 Czechoslovakia Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 16, 1980
20:00
Sweden  5 – 2
(1–0, 4–1, 0–1)
 West Germany Olympic Arena, Lake Placid
February 18, 1980
13:30
Norway  1 – 7
(0–2, 0–4, 1–1)
 Sweden Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 18, 1980
20:00
West Germany  3 – 11
(1–5, 0–5, 2–1)
 Czechoslovakia Olympic Arena, Lake Placid
February 18, 1980
20:30
United States  7 – 2
(2–0, 2–1, 3–1)
 Romania Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 20, 1980
13:00
Norway  3 – 3
(1–1, 0–1, 2–1)
 Romania Olympic Arena, Lake Placid
February 20, 1980
13:30
Czechoslovakia  2 – 4
(0–2, 0–1, 2–1)
 Sweden Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 20, 1980
20:30
West Germany  2 – 4
(2–0, 0–2, 0–2)
 United States Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid

Red Division

Canada vs. the Netherlands
     Team advanced to the Final Round
     Team advanced to Consolation Round
Team GP W L T GF GA Pts
 Soviet Union 5 5 0 0 51 11 10
 Finland 5 3 2 0 26 18 6
 Canada 5 3 2 0 28 12 6
 Poland 5 2 3 0 15 23 4
 Netherlands 5 1 3 1 16 43 3
 Japan 5 0 4 1 7 36 1

All times are local (UTC-5).

February 12, 1980
13:30
Netherlands  1 – 10
(1–2, 0–2, 0–6)
 Canada Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 12, 1980
20:00
Poland  5 – 4
(1–0, 4–3, 0–1)
 Finland Olympic Arena, Lake Placid
February 12, 1980
20:40
Japan  0 – 16
(0–8, 0–5, 0–3)
 Soviet Union Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 14, 1980
16:30
Netherlands  4 – 17
(1–8, 1–7, 2–2)
 Soviet Union Olympic Arena, Lake Placid
February 14, 1980
17:00
Poland  1 – 5
(0–1, 1–2, 0–2)
 Canada Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 14, 1980
20:00
Japan  3 – 6
(0–2, 2–2, 1–2)
 Finland Olympic Arena, Lake Placid
February 16, 1980
16:30
Japan  3 – 3
(3–1, 0–1, 0–1)
 Netherlands Olympic Arena, Lake Placid
February 16, 1980
16:30
Soviet Union  8 – 1
(5–1, 1–0, 2–0)
 Poland Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 16, 1980
20:30
Canada  3 – 4
(1–2, 0–1, 2–1)
 Finland Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 18, 1980
13:00
Canada  6 – 0
(2–0, 2–0, 2–0)
 Japan Olympic Arena, Lake Placid
February 18, 1980
16:30
Netherlands  5 – 3
(3–1, 2–1, 0–1)
 Poland Olympic Arena, Lake Placid
February 18, 1980
17:00
Finland  2 – 4
(1–0, 0–1, 1–3)
 Soviet Union Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 20, 1980
16:30
Poland  5 – 1
(3–0, 1–0, 1–1)
 Japan Olympic Arena, Lake Placid
February 20, 1980
17:00
Soviet Union  6 – 4
(1–1, 1–2, 4–1)
 Canada Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 20, 1980
20:00
Finland  10 – 3
(2–1, 2–1, 6–1)
 Netherlands Olympic Arena, Lake Placid

Consolation round

The third-placed teams in each division, Czechoslovakia and Canada, played each other to determine fifth place.

February 22, 1980
13:30
Czechoslovakia  6 – 1
(5–0, 0–1, 1–0)
 Canada Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid

Final round

The top two teams from each group play the top two teams from the other group once. Points from previous games against their own group carry over, excluding teams who failed to make the medal round. First place team wins gold, second silver and third bronze.

Team GP W L T GF GA Pts
 United States 3 2 0 1 10 7 5
 Soviet Union 3 2 1 0 16 8 4
 Sweden 3 0 1 2 7 14 2
 Finland 3 0 2 1 7 11 1
February 22, 1980
17:00
United States  4 – 3
(2–2, 0–1, 2–0)
 Soviet Union Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 22, 1980
20:42
Finland  3 – 3
(1–0, 1–1, 1–2)
 Sweden Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 24, 1980
11:00
United States  4 – 2
(0–1, 1–1, 3–0)
 Finland Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid
February 24, 1980
14:30
Sweden  2 – 9
(0–4, 0–5, 2–0)
 Soviet Union Olympic Fieldhouse, Lake Placid

Carried over group matches:

Statistics

Leading scorers

Rank Player GP G A Pts
1 Czechoslovakia Milan Nový 6 7 8 15
2 Czechoslovakia Peter Šťastný 6 7 7 14
3 Czechoslovakia Jaroslav Pouzar 6 8 5 13
4 Soviet Union Aleksandr Golikov 7 7 6 13
5 Finland Jukka Porvari 7 7 4 11
6 Soviet Union Boris Mikhailov 7 6 5 11
6 Soviet Union Vladimir Krutov 7 6 5 11
8 Czechoslovakia Marián Šťastný 6 5 6 11
9 Soviet Union Sergei Makarov 7 5 6 11
9 United States Mark Johnson 7 5 6 11

Hat trick scorers

Leading goaltenders

Goalkeepers with 40% or more of their team's total minutes.

Rank Goaltender TOI GA SV GAA SV%
1  Jim Craig (USA) 419:36 15 163 2.14 91.57
2  Antero Kivelä (FIN) 180:00 10 90 3.33 90.00
3  Vladimir Myshkin (URS) 260:00 9 77 2.08 89.53
4  Paul Pageau (CAN) 236:50 11 82 2.79 88.17
5  Pelle Lindbergh (SWE) 300:00 18 124 3.60 87.32

Shut-outs

References

  1. Brown, Frank (February 11, 1990). "Debacle on ice: Lake Placid ghosts still haunt Soviets". Beaver County Times. (New York Daily News). p. C14.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Swift, E.M. (March 3, 1980). "The Golden Goal". Sports Illustrated. p. 16.
  3. Martin, Ralbovsky (January 16, 1980). "U.S. may ban Soviets from Lake Placid, source says". Miami News. p. 4A.
  4. "Soviets set for Summer, Lake Placid". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. UPI. January 28, 1980. p. 1-C.
  5. "The Olympic Boycott, 1980". United States Department of State. Retrieved March 14, 2010.
  6. Coffey, Wayne (2005). The Boys of Winter (E-book edition ed.). New York City: Crown Publishers. p. 318. ISBN 0-307-23731-1.
  7. 7.0 7.1 "Soviets thrash Americans". Palm Beach Post. Associated Press. February 10, 1980. p. E7.
  8. Allen, Kevin (December 23, 2007). "College kids perform Olympic miracle". ESPN.com. Retrieved March 14, 2010.
  9. Lieber, Jill (February 23, 1980). "State stars lead US hockey upset". Milwaukee Sentinel. p. 1, part 1.
  10. Lieber, Jill (February 25, 1980). "US captures hockey's gold medal". Milwaukee Sentinel. p. 1, part 1.

External links