move game to night game and Russia opposed...Olympic authorities refused to move game time so it was a day game, broadcast tape delayed at night. I made a great effort not to know the outcome of the game before the broadcast. I do not know where I was when the game was played, but I was plastered in front of the family tv with my dad and mom during the broadcast. After the game, my mom said she heard the score on the radio earlier in the day...hats off to mom for keeping it to herself ** Edited by capitals1 at 2/4/2026, 6:46:25 AM

...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.