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    Miracle on Ice: How a Stunning Upset United a Country
    Miracle on Ice: How a Stunning Upset United a Country
    Miracle on Ice: How a Stunning Upset United a Country
    Ebook84 pages26 minutes

    Miracle on Ice: How a Stunning Upset United a Country

    By Michael Burgan

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    About this ebook

    The mighty Soviets were the favorites to win hockey gold at the 1980 Winter Olympics. But a team of U.S. college players had other ideas. The stunning upset of the Soviet hockey team by the young Americans has been called the greatest moment in international hockey. And to many people the victory was about much more than sports. Americans had gone through difficult times at home and abroad. Beating the best hockey team in the world—and its major Cold War rival—gave Americans a sense of pride. One iconic photo captured the impact of that “miraculous” historic event.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCapstone Young Readers
    Release dateJan 1, 2016
    ISBN9780756554132
    Author

    Michael Burgan

    Michael Burgan has written numerous books for children and young adults during his nearly 20 years as a freelance writer. Many of his books have focused on U.S. history, geography, and the lives of world leaders. Michael has won several awards for his writing, and his graphic novel version of the classic tale Frankenstein (Stone Arch Books) was a Junior Library Guild selection.  Michael graduated from the University of Connecticut with a bachelor’s degree in history. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his cat, Callie.

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      Book preview

      Miracle on Ice - Michael Burgan

      Cover

      Chapter One

      WORKING TOWARD AN UPSET

      With the score tied 3-3 in the third period, the United States hockey team changed its forward line. Mike Eruzione stepped onto the rink and chased after a puck his teammates John Harrington and Mark Pavelich had dumped into center ice. Eruzione was the captain of the U.S. team, which was playing the Soviet Union in a crucial semifinal game at the 1980 Winter Olympics. If Team USA won this February 22 contest, it would have a chance to play for the gold medal. Cheering on the Americans was an enthusiastic crowd of about 10,000 people jammed into the small ice arena at Lake Placid, New York.

      Team captain Mike Eruzione sped down the ice at the Lake Placid Olympic Arena.

      But what were the odds Eruzione and the young Americans could beat the mighty Soviet team, which had won the last four Olympic gold medals in hockey? At that time Olympic athletes had to be amateurs. Many of the Soviet players belonged to their country’s army, the Red Army, so technically they were paid as soldiers, not athletes. But the whole world knew they were selected, trained, and paid to play hockey for their country. Most of the Soviet players were in their mid-to-late 20s, while a few were just over 30. They had years of international experience playing together as a team.

      Their experience and skill made the Soviet players among the best in the world. Just the year before, in a series played in New York, the Soviets had taken two out of three games from the National Hockey League (NHL) All-Stars. The Red Army team won the final game against the NHLers with its best goalie, Vladislav Tretiak, sitting on the bench. But even with Soviet backup goalie Vladimir Myshkin in the net, the All-Stars could not score a goal.

      The Americans, on the other hand, were mostly college students. While they excelled at their sport in school, they had started training and playing international hockey together only a few months before the 1980 Games. The selection process to create Team USA began with its coach, Herb Brooks, who was also the hockey coach at the University of Minnesota. Brooks wanted players who would work hard and not crack under stress. Nine of the players he chose had been with him at Minnesota. He knew their talents, and they knew his coaching style.

      Mike Eruzione, 25, a left winger, was one of the oldest players on the squad. He was one of four players from Massachusetts. The rest were from the Midwest—12 from Minnesota and two each from Wisconsin and Michigan. Those states were the hotbeds of U.S. amateur hockey, but the American presence in the NHL was still fairly small. Only about 12 percent of the pro players were American, in a league dominated by Canadians. Compared with professional baseball, football, and basketball, hockey interested few U.S. sports fans.

      Eruzione was one of the players who had done well in college, setting scoring records at Boston University. In the games leading up to the Olympics, however, he had trouble scoring, and at one point Coach Brooks decided to cut him from the team. Brooks told his friend Gus Hendrickson, another college coach, that he planned to dump Eruzione. *But Eruzione’s your leader, Hendrickson said. You need a leader. The other players were upset when they heard they might lose their captain. Everyone knew Eruzione was not the best scorer or skater on the

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