"We were really nervous and excited to play the Soviets in Madison Square Garden and we got smacked in front of everybody," recalled Jack O'Callahan. "I don't know why, but we woke up the next morning very relaxed. For some reason, it seemed to take the pressure off."

Brooks had passed over many leading American amateur players, including Les Auge, Jack Hughes, Ralph Cox, Doug Woog and Gary Ross in favor of a group of younger players he believed could handle his intensive conditioning program and would buy into his plan of attack. They had six months to learn a hybrid Soviet-European-North American system they had never played.

The Soviets scored first, but Buzz Schneider tied it with a slap shot. Then the Russians scored again and were headed for the dressing room with the lead when Mark Johnson beat Tretiak with one second remaining in the first period. When the teams returned, Tikhonov had replaced Tretiak with Vladimir Myshkin, who would lead the Soviets to the gold medal at Sarajevo in 1984, but not at Lake Placid.

"Gentlemen, they just benched the best goaltender in the world," Brooks told his team. Ken Dryden, the hero of the 1971 Stanley Cup and then recently retired from the NHL, was an ABC analyst on the broadcast. He said later that he thought Tretiak was off his game throughout the tournament.

The Soviets led 3-2 in the third period when Mark Johnson scored the tying goal, two minutes before captain Mike Eruzione cashed in the game winner. About seven minutes remained and the Soviets challenged repeatedly but couldn't beat American goalie Jim Craig. The Americans' superior conditioning helped keep the wolf at bay.

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As the final seconds wound down, ABC announcer Al Michaels voiced the words forever associated with the game, "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!"

Two days later, the U.S. team came from behind again to defeat Finland and won the gold medal.

The victories were enough for the American players, who were not caught up in the international politics.

"We were just hockey players who wanted to win and we weren't thinking about the politics," Rob McClanahan said. "We knew the Soviets were good and we just wanted to beat them."

"To us, it was just a hockey game," Schneider said. "Honestly, we were shooting for third, but then we beat the Czechs who were supposed to be the second-best team. Mentally, Herb had us ready and physically, we were over the top. There's no question that we were the best-conditioned team."

"You were born to play this game," Brooks told his team before the Soviet game. "You were meant to be here."

Many of the players went on to careers in the NHL, including Ken Morrow who won the first of four Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders a few months later. Mike Ramsay, the youngest member of the team, would play 17 NHL seasons and is assistant coach of the Minnesota Wild. Neal Broten played in two Stanley Cup Finals before winning with New Jersey in 1995. Brooks would coach three NHL teams. Eruzione never played another game or watched the video of the 1980 Olympics.

"Just because I'd be afraid a buddy would come over and see me and tell me to get over myself," he laughed.

The 1980 U.S. Olympic team, with position, hometown and college attended: