United States Men's National Ice Hockey Team - History

History

The American ice hockey team's greatest success was the "Miracle on Ice" at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York when they defeated the heavily favored Soviet Union on the way to a gold medal. Though hockey is not a universally popular sport in the United States, the "Miracle" is often listed as one of the greatest achievements in the history of American sports. The U.S. also won the gold medal in the 1960 Games at Squaw Valley, California, defeating the Soviet Union, Canada, Czechoslovakia, and Sweden along the way. However, since this victory is not as well known as the 1980 win, it has come to be known as the "Forgotten Miracle."

U.S. hockey experienced a spike in talent in the 1980s and 1990s, with future National Hockey League (NHL) stars including Tony Amonte, Tom Barrasso, Chris Chelios, Brett Hull, Pat LaFontaine, John LeClair, Brian Leetch, Mike Modano, Mike Richter, Jeremy Roenick, Kevin Stevens, Keith Tkachuk, and Doug Weight. Although the U.S. finished no higher than fourth in any World or Olympic event from 1981 through 1994, the Americans did win the 1996 World Cup with a squad of NHL players. Six years later, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and NHL arranged to allow NHL players to participate in the Olympic Games, the United States earned a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics with a roster that included NHL stars Adam Deadmarsh, Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, Jamie Langenbrunner, and Brian Rafalski. But by 2006, many of these NHL All-Stars had retired or lost their skill with age. Though the 2006 Olympic team finished a disappointing 8th, it was more of a transitional team, featuring young NHL players like Rick DiPietro, John-Michael Liles, and Jordan Leopold.

The 2010 U.S. Olympic team was composed of much younger and faster players than teams of previous years, including David Backes, Dustin Brown, Jack Johnson, Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel, Zach Parise, Joe Pavelski, Bobby Ryan, Paul Stastny, and Ryan Suter. The team also had a solid group of veterans that included top NHL goalie Ryan Miller top defenseman Brian Rafalski and U.S. Olympic Team Captain Jamie Langenbrunner. The U.S. team upset team Canada 5-3 in the round-robin phase of the tournament and went into the single elimination phase of the tournament as the number- one seeded team. After beating Finland 6-1 the U.S. advanced to the gold medal game, where they lost in overtime 3-2 to Canada to claim the silver medal. The gold medal game between Canada and the U.S. was watched by an estimated 27.6 million U.S. households. This was the most watched hockey game in America since the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" game, including any Stanley Cup Final or NHL Winter Classic broadcast.

However, several months later at the IIHF World Championship, the U.S. team posted the worst record in its history by losing all three of its games in the preliminary round. The losses eliminated the U.S from medal contention and dropped them below 12th place. Only three wins in the relegation round, including a shootout win over over Italy, prevented the U.S. from being relegated to Division I and gave Team USA a chance to play for the IIHF World Championship in 2011.