I meant to post this yesterday. I remember this so clearly. I'm talking razor-sharp. It was one of the most exciting and exhilarating things that I ever witnessed. I had some friends who couldn't bear to watch it and didn't turn on the TV . . . UNTIL IT WAS OVER. Once when the old man was about to do one of his 11(so far) Iron Man Triathlon's in Lake Placid - we were there about 10 days before so he could check out the course . . . AGAIN - I was really bored after a hike. I went into the arena where that last game was won 4-3 and walked around the rink. I looked at the stands and then closed my eyes and said, "Wow." It was such a cool private moment. Then I walked around the lobby a little bit and grabbed some brochures of Mike Richter's who was shilling Hockey Camp, haha. To anyone on here who wasn't born yet I can't push watching that game enough. Even if you don't like hockey, you are missing out. To get the full effect and the whole aura you have to watch the entire series. The Russians didn't hack us that day! EDIT: Autocorrect that wasn't stupid enough to leave.
This was probably the best moment watching a sporting event that I ever experienced. The third period was like the Last Stand at the Alamo with the Russians storming the goal over and over again and always 3 guys there in front of Craig to keep the crease clear and the puck swept to the boards. I was at the 10-3 massacre in the Garden a couple of weeks before and I didn't expect the US to get out of the 1st period on their feet let alone into the 2nd tied. Then we gave up the early goal in the 2nd to break the tie and I figured the floodgates would open up. I've never seen a team work harder to keep the crease clear in my life. It was like everybody decided they weren't going to be the guy who let the Russians get that 4th goal and it was 3-2 after the 2nd period. Craig was just amazing. Stop after stop and very few rebounds. We got the power play early in the 3rd and and Mark Johnson scored to tie it up. That was the first time I thought we might win it. The go-ahead goal came very fast after that and I remember thinking there was too much time left on the clock and now the Russians would really turn it up. They swarmed after that and the defense in front of Craig was crazy stuff. Guys were going down on one knee to block shots every other play. Morrow was glomming on to whoever the guy coming in after the play was and lifting his stick and pushing him to the side of the net and generally taking him out of the play. Craig handled the first shot and we'd get another face off in the zone, over and over again. With about 4 minutes to go I realized the US was probably going to win the game. The Russians had been in swarm mode and it wasn't working and they had nowhere else to go. They couldn't turn it up a notch because it was already at 100% and the US wasn't having it that day. I remember guys throwing their sticks straight up in the air at the final horn and thinking I would never see something as amazing as this in a sporting event again.
It was so much more than advancing to the gold medal and a hockey game. It was at the height of the Cold War. I'll never forget the look of utter defeat on the faces of the Russian team. It was complete humiliation, shock, disbelief, a national embarrassment. It wouldn't surprise me if there were some suicides when they got back home and if some people mysteriously disappeared. I'm not even fooling around. Advancing past the Soviets to play Finland was not supposed to happen on any level. Not to sound saccharine, but it was magical. It really was. I had just turned 16 a few days before. What a great present. USA! USA! USA!
Besides the game itself, there were several other things about that tournament that were memorable for me. I remember watching the US-Sweden game on the first day of the tournament, and being impressed with the play of the US team. Just as they tied the game 2-2 in the last 30 seconds of the game my roommate walked in our apartment and asked me how it was going. I told him, and also said "This US team is good enough to win the gold medal." He laughed hysterically and offered me 20-to-1 odds against it on a $5 bet. I put up the $5 and really enjoyed the $100 I got back a couple of weeks later (I didn't like him very much). I was watching the US team particularly closely because of Ken Morrow - as an Islanders season ticket holder I knew he was going to be coming to the team immediately after the Olympics. It was obvious to everyone how good he was, and I do mean everyone - two weeks after he joined the team Bill Torrey traded defenseman Dave Lewis (and winger Billy Harris) to the Kings for Butch Goring, and that was the key step to the four Stanley Cups that followed (and still remains the best NHL trade deadline deal in history). He never would have made that trade if Morrow hadn't been such a dominating defensive presence in the entire tournament, and in the game against the Soviets in particular. As we all know, of course, the actual gold medal game was two days later against Finland. Finland led the game going into the third period, but there was never any doubt in my mind that the US would win. It was similar to what I felt 6 years later during the 1986 World Series - After the heroics of Game 6, I never had any doubt that the Mets would win Game 7, even though the Red Sox led 3-0 going into the bottom of the 6th inning. Sometimes fate takes a hand. Kinda like Super Bowl III, another game about which I had absolutely no doubts who the winner would turn out to be.
