This strategy, along with an "old-fashioned slap shot" - which was "drilled home...by Bill Baker of the University of Minnesota, in front of a crowd of 4,000 that half-filled the new field house" in Lake Placid. Only half full meant that perhaps most American Winter Olympics' fans didn't think the U.S. had a chance, and didn't buy the tickets because of that.
Eskenazi went on to explain that on the same night, the Soviet team beat Japan, 16-0, and Czechoslovakia routed Norway, 11-0. It was a sweet "victory" for the Americans to tie the Swedes, because the Swedes had joked that they had sent their "B" team out against Team USA; their "A" team, Eskenazi went on, was playing in the NHL.
Team USA then defeated Czechoslovakia 7-3, and West Germany, 4-2, and won two more to make the "medal round" - in which they really began to be taken seriously. Their next game was against the Soviets. Eskenazi again was the journalist covering the Americans as they faced - and defeated - the Soviets on February 21. "In one of the most startling and dramatic upsets in Olympic history, the underdog United States hockey team, composed in great part of collegians, defeated the defending champion Soviet squad by 4-3 tonight."
How did Team USA do it, and launch themselves into the championship game against Finland? For one thing, Team USA made the most of their shots, indeed, the Soviets out shot the Americans, 39 shots to 16. But Team USA had Jim Craig as its goalie, and he played one of the best games of his life. Craig, a handsome and articulate young man who had played for Boston University, became a hero in the United States following the Games. The U.S. was trailing 3-2 going into the final 20-minute period.
New York Times' sportswriter Dave Anderson reported on the game that really mattered most, the Gold medal contest between Team USA and Finland that the Americans won, 4-2. The game against the Soviets of course had more drama going into it because of the Cold War angle and the reputation the communist Soviet team had for beating any other team at any time. But after the game against Finland, Anderson wrote, "When the buzzer sounded, they hugged each other and tossed their sticks and gloves up to the people who were chanting, 'U-S-a, U-S-a,' and danced with those who had skidded onto the ice with American flags, large and small."
The reverberations from the Team USA victory were loud and positive, and official. That is, President Jimmy Carter welcomed the entire American Winter Games team and hailed them as "modern-day American heroes." Once the shouting and celebration died down, it was revealed that speed skater Eric Heiden, who had won five gold medals in the Games (somewhat overshadowed by the Team USA hockey gold medal), had given President Carter a petition signed by many (if not all) Winter Games athletes, asking him not to boycott the Summer Games. "I hope we don't boycott," said Heiden to the media during a "festive luncheon in the East Room of the White House." "The winter athletes in general just don't feel a boycott is the right thing," Heiden said. But Carter was not to be denied in his desire to have America stay away from Moscow that summer. "To go through all of that personal sacrifice is indeed a great achievement," said Carter, alluding to the Summer Games' athletes' years of hard training and anticipation.
And then to suffer an injury or some other obstacle that eliminates you from final competition is touch to accept," Carter continued. And to go through all that preparation and training and "have your chances dashed by something that really has nothing to do with your own efforts can be an even harder blow," said the president, quoted in the Weisman article. Jim Craig, the goalie for Team USA, joined Eric Heiden in publicly calling for Carter to change his mind.
So much has been written and said about Team USA's "miracle on ice" since that date that it would take a hundred or more pages of a paper to quote from them all. This was a game that will never be forgotten, even now that the Cold War is over and U.S. Olympic hockey teams are no longer made up of college students (professionals from the NHL are now the players in the Olympics). And one of the most well-known sporting publications, Sports Illustrated, has offered several very well written...
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