This game proved to EVERYONE that Heart is more important than Talent! One of the proudest days in my life as an American!

Herb Brooks was the mastermind. The players were the heart.

Still get goosebumps watching this game knowing what was going to happen.

Best moment in US sports history.

Daisy. I can watch the game between the 🇺🇸 Americans and the Soviets over and over again!! It NEVER gets old!! What a thrill!!!

On February 22nd, 1980...Mark Johnson was the best hockey player in the world! 🇺🇸👍

Not sure how you can talk about this game without mentioning that Jim Craig carried them to victory. Without him, there is no miracle. He stood on his head, especially in the 3rd period.

"Boys, you just put the best goaltender in the world on the bench!" HOW TRUE!!!

Never knew the game was on tape delay until later. It was awesome!

Eruzione won the Cold War with that wrister

Slava Malamud "the guy came in and scored, Johnson." Yeah the guy that was the best US forward, played in an NHL All Star Game and had a long career in the NHL. Yeah, that guy Johnson.

Taking Tretiak out of goal, imo, was the GREATEST sports blunder EVER! I remember thinking to myself......we have a chance!

People forget, the USA won seven gold medals at the 1980 winter Olympics but the speed skater Eric Heiden won six of them.

On 22 February 1980 I was in Flight School at NAS Pensacola FL. There were 12 student Naval Aviators in the BOQ TV room watching this game. Forget about the Lake Placid Ice Arena- it got very loud in that TV room as well.. USA!! USA!! USA!!

I remember the game was shown on tape delay. They played the game at 5:00 in the afternoon, I believe, and while I was waiting for the game to come on the local ABC station, it displayed a message as a scrolling marquee at the bottom of the TV screen... "USA 4 USSR 3". I knew what happened before I got to watch the game. It was still worth watching.

Baloney. Myshkin had shut out the NHL All-Stars the previous year, 6-0. He was very good, not on Tretiak's level, but still very good. The Russian weren't panicking, they were overconfident. Tikhonov felt (correctly) that Tretiak was having a bad game, and he was. Both of the goals he let in were unbelievably soft. Don't forget the Russians had spotted Canada and Finland with early leads, only to take over in the 3rd period. They were confident, and they were overconfident. Besides that the level of competition was putting the Russians to sleep. They'd annihilated Japan (seriously, Japan?!) and the Netherlands by an aggregate score of like 34-3. So Tikhonov pulled Tretiak, figuring they'd still finish like 8-2. And Brooks had done his part lulling the Russians by sending a somewhat tired team against the USSR at Madison Square Garden 10 days before. But even that didn't tell the whole story. It was a Russian cakewalk the first two periods, but the Americans' level of fitness showed when they kept up with the Russians in the 3rd. The Soviets' guard was down at Lake Placed, and they were ripe for the taking.

I never knew growing up that Herb Brooks was the last player cut before the USA won the gold in '60. When I learned the rest of the story that he became the coach that led the USA to gold in '80, I teach my kids to always do your best because some day you will win despite impossible odds! What a life lesson.

Bob, I agree. Additionally, I believe pulling Tretjak was Tikhanov's way of thumbing his nose at the us while sending a message to his team. Its almost like he is saying to us that we are of no consequence and it is more important for him to to fix this broken part of his machine than it is to take us seriously-It was his way of saying "this little bit of momentum you have is of no concern to me, we can beat you with our backup goalie". Obviously the move back fired and the move wound up motivating us but I seriously believe his arrogance and his certainty made him believe that it didn't matter if it motivated us or not, he was going to crush us.

The first time I saw a person hold up a phone(old land line) to share the crowd noise. Now that is not unusual.

Seemed as though the earth shivered.

Something like that will never happen again

USSR was the most successful, Strongest and dominant team ever in both Winter and Summer Olympic Games from 1952-88

Tikhonov pulling out Vladislav Tretiak underscored Herb Brooks accomplishment. It doesn't matter what would have happened or why Tretiak was pulled from the game, he was pulled from the game. Herb Brooks outcoached him his ass to the nth degree, which was good, Tikhonov pulling Tretiak underscores this. You win as a team and lose as a team and the Coach, Herb Brooks, may not have been on the ice but that was his team. Brooks taught them how to do it, trained them to do it, but most of all: got them to believe they could do it. And this is why his advice and observations on leadership and coaching was revered until the day he died.

Wow did you see the part with shjon podien he was my coach for like 3 years

I saw this game I was 12 and played hockey. Cant even describe what it was like the revelry but I will try . The Russians tried to drive out of the arena in there huge bus and hundreds of people rocked bus backed and forth as the players inside were getting thrown around like rag dolls ,faces pressed up against glass with each rock back and forth all while chanting USA .. the whole experience ,never seen anything like it before or after . that was one wild party in the streets of lake placid hjag nogjt

@.35: love the Adidas skates. Never saw them in North America when I sold skates.

I subscribed

It should be noted that the country was not in very good shape then people's moral was very low. and this was uplifting. A few antidotes that I remember from back then was Sports writer Hubert Mizel wrote that somewhere in the second period one of the older staid Sports writers stood up on the writers table and announced "Gentlemen there will cheering in the writer section tonight" and there was from atop of their tables. The other incident I remember reading about in Washington DC there was a Fire House across from the Russian Embassy and the Firefighters put a sign up in their window that read USA 4 Soviets 3!

Communism Blows

I think too much is made of Tikhonov pulling out Vladislav Tretiak after that First Period vs the United States. I remember in 1979-80 Tretiak was in a major Goaltending Slump and that not only showed in the U.S. Game but other Games also. Since the U.S. had the best Goalie that 1980 Olympic Year in Jim Craig that helped the U.S. situation even more and Herb Brooks the U.S. Coach knew what He was doing in the U.S. preparation for the Winter Olympic Games.

Soviet Union studied Eddie Shore hockey. A tribute to Eddie Shore who I had the pleasure I meet. Taking Tretiak out of the game was the mistake thats obvious.

5:25 goalie flop

Ob Myshkin auch den Puck vor dem 2:2 nach vorne hätte abprallen lassen (DIE entscheidende Szene des Spiels)? Myshkin hat keinen großen Fehler begangen (obwohl der Siegtreffer wohl haltbar war). Was hätte Tretjak da besser machen können?

USA!

Tretiak choke in 72 - Choke in 1980 - worlds greatest my ass

Даааа

10 Russians watched this video...

Russian coach says win or it's Siberia for you

"...no issue in front of us that's too hard..." unlike what Jimmy was spewing then.

After all those years living under the threat of doom, under our desks in an air raid drill in school, and billions of dollars spent on both sides, what brought down the Russian empire and communism? A bunch of amateur hockey players!

Ussr wasn't the same team as they where b4. Canada almost beat them and so did other countries. After the coach change in ussr the players didnt have passion for the game anymore. The new coach imprisoned the team for 9 months a year couldn't even see their family's. They ate slept and shit hockey 24/7

BALONEY. Please. Pulling Tretiak was the greatest move for American hockey that has ever been done. Thank you very much Tikhonov. Tretiak would have shut out the Americans after the first period. After all these years, I still feel this way.

4 Russians....ok.

Why didn't the Russians pull the goalie? i think they never pulled the goalie in any game..

After that year the coach cut every single player and put together a new team and ended up winning a few more gold metals I believe