Ice Hockey · 1980 · Lake Placid, USA
Finishing the Miracle: Gold Against Finland
Two days after the Miracle on Ice, the young US team still has to beat Finland to actually win Olympic gold, and goes into the third period losing.
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, and under the tournament's round-robin format it guaranteed no medal at all. Two days later the Americans still had to beat Finland to secure the gold, which is the part that tends to fall out of the retelling.
Finland led 2-1 after two periods, and a young team that had just produced the upset of the century was forty minutes from finishing the tournament with nothing. 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.
It gets remembered as one continuous story, the Miracle on Ice, when it actually took two separate wins over two different opponents to deliver the gold medal. Captain Mike Eruzione waving the rest of the squad up onto the medal stand to join him has lasted about as long as the Soviet game itself.
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