A Miracle On Ice

Pre-game Against the Soviets

A couple days after their last trip, the players found themselves inside of the locker room at the University of Minnesota. They had just spent an entire day on the ice and were past the point of exhaustion. As always, the locker room was a circus with everyone yelling and jumping around.

"Hard workout.", one of the boys said, earning a bunch of agreeing grunts.

There were about a million different conversations going on around them and the only person who could get everyone to listen to them was none other than Jack O'Callahan.

OC yelled across the locker room: "Silk, you guys wanna grab something to eat?"

"Yeah, I'm starving.", Silky exclaimed: "Where you guys gonna go?"

"How about that Mario's place?", OC asked.

"Mario's?", Buzzy asked for approval: "Yeah, we can go ahead and save some seats."

Buzzy and Baker went ahead to the pizza place, while the others got dressed.

"Hey, Coach.", Bakes greeted as he passed Coach Patrick.

Craig looked uneasy, giving the guy a nod and continuing his way past the guys.

He stopped next to Ralph: "Coxy, Herb wants to see you."

Then he continued his way, clearly sad himself.

Coxy knew what was about to happen as he took one last look around the locker room.

When his and Rizzo's eyes met, Rizzo gave him a sorry look.

Coxy just smiled.

Shortly after, Coxy knocked on Herb's door: "Come in."

"Coach Patrick said you wanted to see me.", he entered the room.

Herb took a deep breath: "Why don't you have a seat there, Ralph?"

He did.

It was quiet for a second until Herb started speaking: "There's just no easy way of doing this. The rules say that we gotta be down to 20 men and right now we're at 21."

Coxy nodded at that.

"I wish like hell I could keep you, Ralph. I do.", Herb truthfully said. 

Ralph was in the situation Herb knew too well from 20 years ago.

"Yeah.", Coxy replied: "Yeah, I know."

Herb sighed, feeling bad for the guy: "You're one hell of a hockey player. This doesn't change that."

Coxy nodded: "Thanks. Thanks for giving me a shot, Coach."

Both of them got out of their seats to shake hands.

"Thanks for giving me your very best.", Herb ended their conversation before Ralph left the room.

When Herb was alone in the room again, the phone rang.

"Yeah?", he picked it up.

"Herb.", the voice on the other end answered.

"Walter.", he acknowledged him.

Walter sounded very excited: "Well, you've got your wish. Brezhnev's telling Carter to screw himself."

"Yeah, Walter, how's that?", Herb asked, sounding calmer than he was.

"The Kremlin released a statement today saying they're gonna prove how good they are by beating us over here on our own ice.", Walter explained: "They're all gonna play. The Soviets, the Czechs, the whole bunch of them. Have you got your roster finalized yet?"

Herb took a deep breath: "Yeah, I got my team."

"I still don't know why you scheduled this, but get your guys to New York. They've got a game to play.", Walter ended the call.

So three days later, the Olympic team found itself at Madison Square Garden to play a game against the Soviets. 

"Ladies and gentlemen, your 1980 US Olympic team.", the commentators voice blared through the rink: "As we await the opening face-off in this game between the Soviet Union and Team USA here at Madison Square Garden, the teams line up on their respective blue lines. And Soviet Union team captain Boris Mikhailov skating over to his bench to pick up that NHL Challenge trophy. The trophy that his team won here at Madison Square Garden last October, and won in decisive fashion, beating the NHL All-Stars."

The crowd was mostly booing at that.

"Getting a mixed reaction from the capacity audience here. Some cheers, but a few boos going through the crowd as well.", the commentator noticed: "The two teams clear the ice and repair to their respective goals as we get set for the opening face-off in this final tune-up for these two teams before the Olympic Games in Lake Placid."

The team surrounded their bench and they put their hands in: "One, two, three."

"USA!", they chanted.

"And as we get set to drop the puck for this contest, the Soviets starting their big line of Mikhailov between Kharlamov and Petrov. Team USA countering with Mark Johnson at center between McClanahan and Dave Silk.", the commentator built up the tension: "And we're ready to go with this warm-up contest."

"From the heart, boys.", Coach Brooks called out to his team right before the puck was dropped.

"It's the Soviet Union in control, making a charge into the Team USA zone. A shot from the point goes off the post and in behind the Team USA net. Puck comes back to the blue line. Moving in with a shot, stopped by Craig, and it goes into the corner. Finally, Team USA gets a stick on the puck as Ramsey brings it up to the blue line. He's absolutely flattened there by Kasatonov.", the commentators explain.

"Two on one. Two on one!", a player yelled out.

"Soviet Union turning it into a two on one.", the commentators observed.

"Back door, OC. Look out.", Jimmy called out to his defense.

"Get the puck.", Herb shouted from the bench but there was no way they could get it.

"Moving in. Shoots and scores.", it rang through the rink.

The Soviets had scored.

One of them skated into OC, who didn't like that at all: "Come on. Come on!"

Immediately a ref yelled: "Break it up. Break it up."

"That's it, let's go.", OC challenged the player, ignoring the refs.

"Nice expression on your face, you dummy.", OC provoked him.

Now the refs jumped in separating the two.

"Jack, you gotta listen to me.", Jimmy called after the fuming defensemen: "You gotta listen to me!"

But Jack O'Callahan rarely listened to anyone. He just did his thing and most of the time it worked.

"The Soviets breaking out of their own zone, up the ice to center. Krutov goes in over the US blue line. Shoots and scores.", the game continued.

"He shoots and scores.", it sounded a couple minutes later.

"Shoots. He scores.", they heard again.