Miracle on Ice: How a Stunning Upset United a Country

Miracle on Ice: How a Stunning Upset United a Country — page 7
or stood tightly together because the crowd was several thousand people larger than what the arena was built to hold Now in a tie game against the sport’s greatest team Mike Eruzione took the puck in a play set up by Harrington and Pavelich Eruzione launched a shot at Soviet goalie Vladimir Myshkin At almost the same time a Soviet defenseman dropped to his knees on the ice to try to block the shot The puck shot past him and flew toward Myshkin who had trouble seeing it In an instant the puck was in the net and Eruzione was celebrating the goal that gave the Americans their first lead of the game It was also the first time a U S team had held a lead over any Soviet team in the Olympics since 1960 Now the Americans and their fans wondered Could they keep that lead THE 1960 OLYMPICS Team USA and the Soviet team had squared off in another important game 20 years before their match in Lake Placid In the 1960 Olympic Games the two teams played to see who would compete for the gold The Soviet team was on its way to becoming a powerhouse team having won the gold medal at the previous games The Americans had never beaten them in hockey competition The Americans had won the silver medal in the 1956 Games but they were not expected to do well in 1960 even though they were playing before a home crowd in Squaw Valley California But Team USA made it to the medal round and a game against the Soviets The hero of the game was Bill Christian who scored twice with his brother Roger assisting on each play The final score was 3-2 and the Americans then went on to beat Czechoslovakia to win the gold medal The 1980 U S team had some connections to the 1960 team Before the Squaw Valley Games future coach Herb Brooks was the last player cut from the roster And Dave Christian who played defense for Brooks in 1980 was the son of Bill Christian