G
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Often forgotten trivia is that the Finland game was not actually...
...the "final" or even a gold medal game per se. The format that year was 2 groups playing round robin with the top 2 teams from each group advancing. The US and Sweden advanced from one group and the USSR and Finland from the other.
Then the medal round was *also* a round robin with the earlier group stage games between the qualified teams counting as part of that round robin. So, the earlier US/Sweden and USSR/Finland games counted and then everybody played two more games against the teams from the other group.
We needed to beat Finland to make the USSR/Sweden game irrelevant for gold medal purposes (thus, a gold medal clinching game for us), but Finland had no chance at the gold in that game. In fact, after losing they didn't even medal.
Thread Replies (3)
Miracle, The Boys of '80 on Netflix is phenomenal
-- BWS
Feb 03, 2026 at 04:15 PM ET
BWS
•
02/03/26 04:15 PM ET
I remember the game was not broadcast live...nbc wanted to
-- capitals1
Feb 04, 2026 at 06:42 AM ET
capitals1
•
02/04/26 06:42 AM ET
Often forgotten trivia is that the Finland game was not actually...
◄
-- Gobbler-100
Feb 04, 2026 at 12:39 AM ET
Gobbler-100
•
02/04/26 12:39 AM ET
Those Herbies will really git after ya**
-- Brown Water
Feb 03, 2026 at 05:06 PM ET
Brown Water
•
02/03/26 05:06 PM ET