From Boys to Men

The Day that Tretiak, the World's Star (Soviet) Goalie Sat Down

Here is Jim Craig standing in victory.

His counterpart the veritable iron curtain of a goaltender, Tretiak of the Russians, back on this date, sat down.

Near the very end of the first period of the Miracle Game at the Olympics between USA and the Russians, our player, Christian, blasted a long shot at Tretiak, and he blocked it rather easily and yet, he coughed up a rebound.

That's when American Mark Johnson spanked it in. There was controversy about the goal because it happened right near the time of the buzzer. After the officials conferred, the goal was confirmed a bona fide goal, and it was also ruled that there was one tick of the clock left for the end the first period.

The Soviets, who had skated off the ice for the intermission, thinking the period was over, were called back out for a faceoff. The one tick expired. But noticably absent was Vladislav Tretiak. He had been benched; the world's best goalie had been replaced by the Soviet's number two man. Wow.

Today marked the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Team's Miracle on Ice. The young Americans had upset the Soviet Union! Days later, TEAM USA won the gold medal at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, NY!!

I stopped over at the rink in Northeast Portland shortly thereafter and was beaming. It was a win that was way, way over the top.

My closest reach in trying to touch the 1980 Olympians was skating one scrimmage against Eric Stobel in 1976. Eric played forward for the Miracle Team. He's wearing number 19 in this picture above.

G. Mark Sumpter