The "Miracle on Ice" is the popular nickname for the final round of ice hockey competition in the 1980 Olympic Winter Games, in which a team of amateur and collegiate players from the United States captured the Gold Medal against near-impossible odds. In particular, the nickname refers to the medal round game between the United States and the Soviet Union on February 22, 1980 in Lake Placid, New York. The Soviets received the Silver Medal in the competition, and Sweden received the Bronze.

Prelude and group play
The United States entered the competition without a great deal of fanfare or favor, having been seeded seventh in the final round of twelve teams which qualified for the Lake Placid Olympics. They were composed of collegiate players and amateurs; only a few, such as Neal Broten, had signed a contract to play in the National Hockey League, the world's premier professional league, but none had yet actually done so. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, were the favored team going into the tournament. Though classed as amateur, Soviet players essentially played professionally in a well-developed league with excellent training facilities. They were led by legendary players in world ice hockey, such as Boris Mikhailov, a center who served as the team captain, and Vladislav Tretiak, considered by many to be the best ice hockey goaltender in the world at the time, as well as talented, young, and dynamic players such as defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov.

The two teams were natural rivals because of the Cold War. In addition, President Jimmy Carter was at the time considering an American boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, to be held in Moscow, in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which began the year before. Carter eventually decided in favor of the boycott.

On February 9, the two teams met for an exhibition match in order to practice for the upcoming competition. The Soviet Union won, 10-3.

In group play, the United States surprised many observers with their physical, cohesive play, including a 7-3 victory against a very strong team from Czechoslovakia, and finished with 4 wins and 1 draw to advance to the medal round. In the other group, the Soviets stormed through their opposition, defeating, among others, Japan 16-0, the Netherlands 17-4, and Poland 8-1, and easily qualified for the next round. Sweden and Finland also qualified for the medal round.

The two teams prepared for the medal round in different ways. Coach Viktor Tikhonov of the Soviets rested most of his best players, preferring to let them study plays rather than actually skate. U.S. coach Herb Brooks, however, continued with his tough, confrontational style, skating "hard" practices, and berating his players for any perceived weaknesses.

The day before the match, columnist Dave Anderson wrote in the New York Times, "Unless the ice melts, or unless the United States team or another team performs a miracle, as did the American squad in 1960, the Russians are expected to win the Olympic gold medal for the sixth time in the last seven tournaments."

Medal round: U.S. vs. USSR
The home crowd, reinforced by the Americans' improbable run during group play and the Cold War "showdown" mentality, were in a patriotic fervor throughout the match, waving American flags and singing patriotic songs such as "God Bless America". The Americans, however, fell behind early, as they had in many of their preliminary games. Vladimir Krutov deflected a slap shot by Aleksei Kasatonov past U.S. goalie Jim Craig to give the Soviets a 1-0 lead, and after Buzz Schneider scored for the Americans to tie the game, the Soviets tallied again with a Sergei Makarov goal.

With the score 2-1 against, Craig began to improve his play, turning away many Soviet shots before the Americans had another shot on goal. With one second left in the first period, Dave Christian fired a desperate slap shot on Tretiak. The Soviet goalie saved the shot but uncharacteristically misplayed the rebound, and Mark Johnson scooped it past Tretiak to tie the score again.

In the second period, Coach Tikhonov decided to replace Tretiak with backup goalkeeper Vladimir Myshkin, a move which surprised many players on both teams, including Fetisov, who would later identify the move as the "turning point of the game". The move seemed to work at first, however, and Myshkin allowed no goals in the second, while Aleksandr Maltsev scored on the power play to make the score 3-2. Jim Craig was knocked down on the play by Kharlemov. Craig, almost injured, but got up at the last second.

In the third, however, Johnson scored again for the U.S., firing a loose puck past Myshkin to tie the score. Later, with ten minutes to go in the game, Mark Pavelich passed to U.S. team captain Mike Eruzione, who was, for reasons unknown, left undefended in the "high slot" (the area in front the goal before the blue line). Eruzione fired a shot past Myshkin, who couldn't see it past his own defensemen.

Craig withstood another series of Soviet shots to finish the match, though the Soviets did not remove their goalkeeper for an extra attacker. As the U.S. team tried desperately to "clear the zone" (move the puck over the blue line, which they did with seven seconds remaining), the crowd began to count down the seconds left. Sportscaster Al Michaels, who was calling the game on ABC television along with former Montreal Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden, picked up on the countdown in his broadcast, and delivered the famous, ad-libbed line for which the match would later be known:

    "Eleven seconds, you got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now...Morrow up to Silk...five seconds left in the game! Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" 

Medal round: U.S. vs. Finland
The circumstances of the U.S. vs U.S.S.R. game were so emotional and memorable that many Americans still do not realize that the match against the Soviets did not win the Gold Medal for the U.S. Once again, Coach Brooks skated a "hard" practice the day before the game, determined to disabuse his team of the idea that the game was anti-climactic, as many Americans felt after the win over USSR.

Again, the U.S. fell behind early, this time 2-1 after two periods, due to excellent play by the Finnish goalie. Coming into the dressing room, Brooks turned to his players, looked at them and said: "If you lose this game, you'll take it to your fucking grave." Paused, took a few steps, turned again and said, "Your fucking grave." And walked out.

In the third period, the U.S. got three unanswered goals from Phil Verchota, Rob McClanahan, and Mark Johnson, and held on for a 4-2 victory. Again, Michaels delivered a famous line to end the game: "This impossible dream comes true!" The U.S. had won the gold medal. Players mobbed the ice, sticks and gloves flying. In an unforgettable scene, Jim Craig roamed he ice, draped in an American flag, scanning the crowd for his father, with whom he wanted to share the moment. Craig's mother had recently died, after expressing her dream that he play on the Olympic squad. Millions of Americans were moved to overjoyed tears as the ultimate underdog team celebrated its clinching victory.

Often, the game against Soviet Union is called the "semifinal" and the game against Finland is called the "final" or the "gold medal game". This is not quite accurate. In 1980 Olympics, each of the four teams who qualified for Medal Round (U.S., U.S.S.R, Sweden, Finland) would play every other team once in the Medal Round. The team with the most points in the Medal Round would become the Olympic Champion. After the U.S. upset of the Soviet Union, each team in the Medal Round still had a chance to win the Gold Medal, depending on the results of the two last games (U.S.-Finland and Sweden-U.S.S.R which was played on the same day).
Aftermath

Eruzione accepted the Gold Medal for the United States, inviting all of his teammates onto the podium with him to do so in a minor breach of Olympic etiquette.

The match versus the Soviets popularized the "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chant, which has been used by U.S. supporters at many international sports competitions since 1980.

Several of the U.S. teams' players, including Johnson, Pavelich, Christian, and Craig, later enjoyed modest success in the NHL. Neal Broten had a long and successful career in the NHL, and is considered by many the best hockey player to ever come from Minnesota. Ken Morrow won the Stanley Cup as a member of the New York Islanders. Eruzione, however, retired from professional hockey at the age of 25 rather than go on to the NHL, feeling that he had accomplished all he had wanted to do in the sport with the Gold Medal win.

Despite the loss, Soviet ice hockey was still recognized for superior play and talent, and Soviet players began to appear in the NHL with more regularity - although many had to defect in order to do so initially, because of the Cold War. Today, many of the NHL's top players, such as Sergei Fedorov, Igor Larionov, Sergei Gonchar, and Pavel Bure, come from the former Soviet Union.

Michaels was named "Sportscaster of the Year" in 1980 for his coverage of the event, and the team received Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsmen of the Year" award.

In 2004, ESPN, as part of their 25th anniversary, declared the U.S. vs Soviet Union the #1 headline, the #1 moment, and the #1 game of the period 1979-2004.

One day I had a date for lunch with friends. Mae, a little old "blue hair" about 80 years old, came along with them---All in all, a pleasant bunch. When the menus were presented, we ordered salads, sandwiches, and soups, except for Mae who said, "Ice Cream, please. Two scoops, chocolate." 

I wasn't sure my ears heard right, and the others were aghast. "Along with heated apple pie," Mae added, completely unabashed. We tried to act quite nonchalant, as if people did this all the time. But when our orders were brought out, I didn't enjoy mine. I couldn't take my eyes off Mae as her pie a-la-mode went down. The other ladies showed dismay. They 
ate their lunches silently and frowned. 

The next time I went out to eat, I called and invited Mae. I lunched on white meat tuna. She ordered a parfait. I smiled. She asked if she amused me. I answered, "Yes, you do, but also you confuse me. How come you order rich desserts, while I feel I must be sensible? 

She laughed and said, with wanton mirth, "I'm tasting  all  that's  Possible. I try to eat the food I need, and do the 
things I should. But life's so short, my friend, I hate missing out on something good. This year I realized how old I was. (She grinned) I haven't been this old before." 

"So, before I die, I've got to try those things that for years I had ignored. I haven't smelled all the flowers yet. There are too many books I haven't read. There's more fudge sundaes to wolf down and kites to be flown overhead. There are many malls I haven't shopped. I've not laughed at all the jokes. I've missed a lot of Broadway hits and potato chips and cokes. 

I want to wade again in water and feel ocean spray on my face. I want to sit in a country church once more and thank God for His grace. I want peanut butter every day spread on my morning toast. I want UN-timed long distance calls to the folks I love the most. I haven't cried at all the movies yet, or walked in the morning rain. I need to feel wind in my hair. I want to fall in love again. So, if I choose to have dessert, 
instead of having dinner, then should I die before night fall, I'd say I died a winner, because I missed out on nothing. I filled my heart's desire. I had that final chocolate mousse before my life expired."
 

People who buy digital cameras, buy them with great capacity for picture quality.  They can print a photo on 8 by 10 inch photo paper that looks as good as if they have sent it to a studio for printing.  However, when they send those photos, straight from the camera to an e-mail recipient, they send huge files!

If you have a digital camera, or if you scan images for e-mailing, check the size of the file before sending.  Try to keep the total of your e-mail attachments under a half megabyte.  If you are sending many pictures at the same time, you may want to keep each picture under 50 Kb. 

Most software that is used for computer photography can be used to re-size photos.  Check the size of your file by right-clicking on the file and clicking on properties.  If you size it downward to send through e-mail, your recipient will most likely thank you.  If it’s still too big after reducing the “on-screen” size, reduce the number of pixels, or dots, in the photo.  For e-mail, you can reduce the number of pixels to 72 and it’ll still look good.

Also, if your photo has a file extension of anything but .jpg or .gif, convert it to one of those file types. Anyone who uses the Internet can view a file with those extensions.  Just use the “save as” selection under “file” and choose .jpg or .gif as the file type.  Experiment a little and save two files with different extensions.  Check the difference in size.  What the eye can’t detect, the computer can.  It’s not a waste of time to learn this trick.

To check a photo’s e-mail quality, send it to yourself.  You’ll see that a smaller picture is easier to appreciate – it arrives from your mailbox to your computer quicker and it’s easier to see a 3” by 4” photo on your monitor than to try to scroll around looking at a huge photo. 

Computer Newsletters
Computer newsletters are great.  But you can get too much of a good thing.  I think that people get on line occasionally when they are lonely or just frustrated with their lives.  They start browsing the Internet and start finding good information about interesting topics.  They choose “sign me up” and fill out the form to receive a newsletter every week.  They don’t UNcheck “it’s OK to give my e-mail to others” and away they go!

In nothing flat, they are receiving 20, 30, 40 or more newsletters and advertisements every day!  Be very careful when you start signing up for good stuff on-line.  You can get a lot of junk.  I’ve seen e-mail accounts that receive over 500 messages per day!

Have fun – keep learning!  Until next week…

KCnet Board Of Directors Officers:   President Judy Yoho, Vice President Bill Raco, Secretary Donna Lannan, and Treasurer Don Miller.    Other members of the board:  Carsten Jon Ahrens, Fred Bierly, R.  Keith Kelly, Paul Korn, Amy Lapriola, Tom Livingston,  Ray McGill,  Bob Rolley, and Rich Wykoff.