Ice Hockey · 1980 · Lake Placid, USA
Finishing the Miracle: Gold Against Finland
Two days after the Miracle on Ice victory over the Soviet Union, the young US team still has to beat Finland to actually win Olympic gold, and does it by scoring three unanswered goals in the third period.
USA 4-2 Finland
Result
3 unanswered
Third-period goals (USA)
Gold
Medal
The United States' upset of the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympic medal round is the game everyone remembers, but under the tournament's round-robin format it did not, by itself, guarantee any medal at all. Two days later, the US had to beat Finland to actually secure gold, a fact largely forgotten in the retelling of that Olympics.
Finland led 2-1 after two periods, and a young US team that had just produced the upset of the century suddenly faced the possibility of finishing the tournament without gold at all. Phil Verchota, Rob McClanahan, and Mark Johnson each scored in the third period, three unanswered goals that turned a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 win.
The victory completed what is now remembered as a single continuous story, the Miracle on Ice, even though it took two separate wins over two different opponents to actually deliver the gold medal. Captain Mike Eruzione and his teammates' medal-stand celebration, waving the rest of the US team up to join them, became as much a symbol of the Games as the Soviet game itself.
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