Mike Eruzione and the Miracle on Ice as Team USA duels Canada on Feb. 22
mike eruzione’s role as captain of the 1980 U. S. Olympic hockey team and his semifinal winner over the Soviet Union are being invoked as the United States men prepare to face Canada for Olympic gold on February 22; Team USA women’s gold medalist Taylor Heise told News Digital she believed the men can replicate that success and said the date nearly made her "fall out of her chair. "
Feb. 22: A date that echoes 1980
February 22 is the anniversary of the "Miracle on Ice, " the medal-round game at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, when the Americans defeated the Soviet Union; Jim Craig celebrated that win on Feb. 22, 1980, and the victory helped immortalize names such as Eruzione, Craig, Johnson, and Schneider.
Mike Eruzione on the winning goal and life after 1980
Mike Eruzione was the captain of the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team and scored the winning goal against the Soviet Union in the semifinals, then led his team to a gold medal with a win over Finland. Eruzione described himself as not a very "deep" person, adding, "I was just enjoying it, " he said, laughing. He said it wasn’t until the team went to the White House that he had his "holy s— this thing is huge" moment, and he has emphasized that his sense of self didn’t come from Olympic success: "I was very happy with who I was before the Olympics and very happy with who I am today, " he said.
A team of collegiate amateurs and a ‘little cocoon’ in Lake Placid
Herb Brooks led a roster of actual amateurs from the collegiate ranks, players who set aside NCAA grudges and personal hardships to form a cohesive unit; netminder Jim Craig, for example, was dealing with the loss of his mother during the run. The Olympics were officially for amateurs, a classification that the Soviet Union only loosely followed, and Soviet names such as Boris Mikhailov, Sergei Makarov, and Vladislav Tretiak would have been NHL superstars if they had played in another era.
Eruzione recalled that the U. S. team stayed in a little village in Lake Placid, N. Y., where there were three TV stations and obviously no social media, and he called their living situation "a little cocoon. " The players weren’t going downtown to bars or restaurants; they stayed in the village and shared time with teammates while trying to enjoy the moment and avoid outside noise.
Lessons that matter for today’s squad
Eruzione said the cocoon and the team’s attitude were crucial because they fed off each other’s positive energy instead of spending time blocking out critics, and he urged modern players to find the same shelter from negative energy. "There’s always going to be somebody that doesn’t like something that you do or are doing, " he said. "You’re always going to find somebody that’s critical of you. So ignore it. People can be cruel. And jealous. But we can’t control any of that anyway. Laugh it off or smile and just move on with your life. "
Team USA women’s hockey gold medalist Taylor Heise told News Digital she believed the men can replicate the women’s success; she said she never subscribed to astrology or numerology but that learning the men’s gold-medal game would fall on Feb. 22 "almost made me fall out of my chair. "
Photography from 1980 captures the era’s texture: American hockey player Mike Eruzione #21 of Team USA is shown shaking hands with the Russian team during a Feb. 9, 1980, exhibition game against the Soviet Union at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York.
The Soviet–U. S. matchup took place at the height of the Cold War, adding geopolitical stakes to the on-ice David-and-Goliath story. With the men’s Olympic final scheduled for February 22, the next confirmed milestone is the United States’ gold-medal game against Canada on Feb. 22.
