DBWI: The Soviets bench Tretiak in 1980

American hockey fans are all too familiar with the 1980 Winter Olympics and that scrappy hockey team that won silver and would have won gold if they had pulled off the upset against the Soviets.

The story is all too familiar - the Soviet coach considered benching legendary goalie Vladislav Tretiak in favor of young Vladimir Myshkin after the first period, but he thought better of it. The Soviets took a 3-2 lead into the third, and with the score 3-all with 10 minutes left, Tretiak robbed Mike Eruzione of what would have been the game-winner had it held up, and the game ended in a tie.

Would Myshkin have let that goal in and given the Americans an upset? Would we have ever heard from the players or coaches on the Lake Placid Heartbreak team? It's really saddest what happened to Eruzione, and it was worse given that they found alcohol in his system at the scene of the crash.
 
OOC: The "miracle on ice" game was not for the Gold Medal. It was one of two games played to decide who would play for the Gold Medal. The other game was Finland vs. Sweden, which Finland won. Sweden and the US had played against each other earlier and tied, so there is a good chance that if the US had lost to the USSR, they would have then lost to Sweden and taken no medal at all. But if they lost to the USSR, winning the Silver was impossible. The only way for them to win the Silver would have been to beat the Soviets and then lose to Finland. That would have been the Olympics equivalent of the Yankees narrowly beating the Red Sox and then losing to the Marlins in 2003.
 
OOC: The "miracle on ice" game was not for the Gold Medal. It was one of two games played to decide who would play for the Gold Medal. The other game was Finland vs. Sweden, which Finland won. Sweden and the US had played against each other earlier and tied, so there is a good chance that if the US had lost to the USSR, they would have then lost to Sweden and taken no medal at all. But if they lost to the USSR, winning the Silver was impossible. The only way for them to win the Silver would have been to beat the Soviets and then lose to Finland. That would have been the Olympics equivalent of the Yankees narrowly beating the Red Sox and then losing to the Marlins in 2003.

OOC: I'm familiar with the Miracle on Ice. And if you look closely at the initial post, the USA didn't lose to the Soviets - the game ended in a tie, which, with a win over Finland, would give them the silver.
 

Bulldoggus

Banned
OOC: The "miracle on ice" game was not for the Gold Medal. It was one of two games played to decide who would play for the Gold Medal. The other game was Finland vs. Sweden, which Finland won.
Incorrect. It was a group game. The scores from USA V. Sweeden and USSR V. Finland were already taken into account. The USA was going to play Finland and the Sovs Sweeden no matter what.
 
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