The Miracle on Ice hockey game occurred on February 22, 1980, during the Winter Olympics being held at Lake Placid, New York. The team from the Soviet Union was the four-time defending gold medalist and was expected to win another gold. The USA team was a surprising qualifier for the medal round, tying the favored Swedish team and handily defeating another favorite, Czechoslovakia.
Both Sweden and the USA qualified for the medal round, along with the Soviet Union and Finland. The format called for each team to play the two qualifiers from the other pool, and then the medal standings would be determined by each team’s record against the other three teams in the medal round, which included the earlier games played in the qualifying round.
The USA team, of course, defeated the Soviet Union 4-3, while Sweden and Finland tied 3-3 in the other game on the 22nd. Two days later, USA defeated Finland 4-2 to clinch the gold medal, while the Soviets earned silver by thrashing Sweden 9-2.
USA won the gold with a 2-0-1 record, and the Soviets were second with a 2-1-0 record. Sweden won the bronze with a record of 0-1-2, and Finland finished fourth in the medal round with a record of 0-2-1.
(Another long and somewhat rambling post, but I confess I did not know how the medals were awarded. If I understand this correctly, had the USA team lost to Finland in the last game, the Soviets would have won gold. I believe a tie in the last game would also have given the gold to the USA by virtue of their win over the Soviet Union.)
