For Boston, the ‘Miracle on Ice’ has always been a proud story of local heroes
"Together, they celebrated their own global Beanpot, as the Russians filed tight-lipped into their dressing room."
While the “Miracle on Ice” is, by definition, a national story, it has always had distinctly regional roots. Minnesota, home of coach Herb Brooks and many players from the famous team, is one of those places. And Boston, the age-old epicenter of college hockey, is the other.
The historic 4-3 victory, which occurred on February 22, 1980, brought out the best in Jack O’Callahan, goalie Jim Craig, Mike Eruzione, and Dave Silk. Though numbering only four out of 20 players on the roster, the Massachusetts (specifically Boston University) contingent factored disproportionately in the outcome.
Here’s how The Boston Globe‘s John Powers described the group in his recap of the “Miracle”:
There was Scituate’s Dave Silk, who assisted on two tying goals last night. There was Winthrop’s Eruzione, who scored the winner and then went off screaming and dancing into the corner, pursued by the entire US team. There was Jack O’Callahan, whose knee had been caved in by Soviet defenseman Valeri Vasiliev at Madison Square Garden and who had nearly been written off and sent home the weekend before the Games began.
And there was Craig, who had played the whole week with a head full of penicillin and kept the Americans in the building during a second period when they were outshot, 12-2.
“I said, Hell, if I’m gonna be sick, I’ll wait until next week,’ ” Craig reasoned. “I just won’t believe I’m sick.”
Together, they celebrated their own global Beanpot, as the Russians filed tight-lipped into their dressing room. “Just like BU,” Craig told the Terriers. O’Callahan nodded. “Sometimes you gotta get regional.”
Eruzione, the team’s captain, fittingly scored the winner, creating what Al Michaels famously described as “bedlam”:
Prior to the game, which was the most highly anticipated Olympic moment to that point in Lake Placid, Eruzione had made an usually prescient prediction.
“I think the game could go two ways,” Eruzione told the Globe‘s Leigh Montville the day before. “One is that the Russians just come out and blow us apart. The other is that we hang on. We hang on and hang on and then, at the end, well … anything can happen.”
Since the Americans’ previous experience playing the Soviets had ended in a 10-3 rout in Madison Square Garden on February 10 (not even two weeks before the “Miracle”), the latter prediction seemed like wishful thinking. In reality, it turned out to be almost completely accurate.
As it played out, the U.S. team worked its magic almost too quickly, taking a 4-3 lead with plenty of time remaining in the final period. The final minutes went by agonizingly slow for American fans, coaches, and players. Yet Craig rose to the occasion.
“I kept telling myself that if we’re going to lose in the end, if the Russians are going to come back—and I’ve seen them do it a thousand times—then I was going to make sure it wasn’t going to be a bad goal,” Craig said afterward. “I didn’t want anyone to say I was nervous or this or that. I didn’t want anyone saying I couldn’t play the big games.”
By game’s end, the Soviets had out-shot the Americans by a 39-16 margin. It didn’t matter. Craig’s play forced a previously unseen trait to emerge in the perpetually precise opposition.
“You know, though, for the first time since I’ve been watching the Soviets, they panicked this time,” Craig explained to Montville. “I don’t know why. They skate better than anyone else in the world, they pass better than anyone else in the world, and yet they started throwing the puck in and hoping someone would get it. They panicked.”
When it was all over, O’Callahan was asked if he wanted to get some food and relax. The pride of Charlestown, Massachusetts said he couldn’t eat. He was still too wound up. Of course, there was one thing he was in the mood for.
“I need a beer,” O’Callahan exclaimed. “I need a lot of beers.”
Here’s the final minute (and immediate aftermath) of the “Miracle on Ice”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gfD134ED54
