The United States vs. Russia. Olympic hockey. On U.S. soil.
It happened late Saturday night in Utah. It happened 22 years ago in Lake Placid.
The Cold War ended. The memories never will.
Americans don’t want to forget it. A certain Russian goaltender can’t.
“The Soviet team made one mistake: It didn’t respect Team USA,” said Vladislav Tretiak, that certain goaltender for the Soviet Union that particular night. “Team USA had students. No professionals. The Soviet Union had played Team USA before the Games and beat them [10-3].”
Tretiak’s day job is being the Blackhawks’ goalie coach. He is moonlighting at the Olympics as an assistant coach for Team Russia.
In 1980, he started in net for the Soviet Union in the most famous hockey game ever. In 1980, he was regarded as the best goalie in the world–so great, in fact, the Montreal Canadiens once offered the Red Army $1 million for him.
In 1980, he never got to the second period.
The Soviet Union held a 2-1 lead over the United States when Tretiak was beaten for a surprising late goal to tie the score. In the dressing room, Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov announced that inexperienced backup Vladimir Myshkin would replace Tretiak.
“The big mistake was not playing me the second period,” Tretiak said.
“. . . The last goal was not good for me, but I am a top goalie. I showed character. I let in a bad goal, but I get better. [Years later] Team USA players asked me why I didn’t play the second period.”
He didn’t know why Tikhonov made the move then. Twenty-two years later, he still doesn’t.
“I didn’t ask,” Tretiak said. “Only Coach knows. For me, [it was a] shock. `What did you say? Tretiak isn’t playing the second period.’ Shock for team.”
The Americans, of course, won that semifinal game. U.S. captain Mike Eruzione shot a puck into history, the Americans came back in the third period for a 4-3 win, and ABC announcer Al Michaels asked the deathless question: “Do you believe in miracles?”
The United States completed the “Miracle on Ice” two days later, coming from behind to beat Finland 4-2 to claim only the second gold medal in hockey for America.
Coach Herb Brooks became a legend, to the point that the helpless United States asked him to coach a team of NHL pros this year, hoping he could resurrect the kind of otherworldly touch he found with the “students” Tretiak talked about.
That U.S. team earned all kinds of accolades in America. Eruzione made a career out of one goal. Goalie Jim Craig did commercials.
And Tretiak?
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“Bad,” Tretiak said of life in the Soviet Union after those Games. “For the Soviet Union, only gold medals. No silver. People were mad about us.
“I waited for the next Olympic Games to win a gold medal because for four years I have questions. On the steeet, in the bus. Questions.”
Tretiak talks without anger about those Olympics. He doesn’t try to avoid the matter. He couldn’t even if he did.
He wasn’t bothered when the 1980 team lit the Olympic cauldron in Salt Lake City–“For me, no big surprise because Team USA 1980 is a big hero. They beat us.”–and there would be no bad memories of 1980 when his Russian team faced off against the United States on Saturday night.
“Different game,” he said. “More professionals. All teams have professionals. Everybody knows who is who. No surprise.”
Tretiak gives that 1980 U.S. team its due. It might be a miracle to everyone else, but it was solid hockey to Tretiak.
“Team USA played very well,” Tretiak said.
“They beat the Swedes, Czechs, us, Finland. Their goalie played very well. We had 45 shots, they had 18 [in the Miracle game]. Plus, luck.”
Bad luck for Tretiak, who seems to endure these questions every Olympics and every time Brooks gets a new job. It cannot be easy, but he handles it with a smile.
Still, what must it be like, you wonder, to be considered one of the greatest goalies ever and constantly to be asked about one particular game–a game he never finished?
“That is hockey life,” Tretiak said.