Couple of crazy facts about that game. USSR had beat USA 10–3 in an exhibition just a few months earlier. And that game didn’t win the gold medal. USA had to beat Finland a few day later.
Oh it was even worse than that. It was
13 days before the Miracle on Ice.
So to get to the medal round, the USA had to play the silver favorite Czech team and the bronze favorite Swede team.
They tied Sweden 2-2, then beat the Czechs 7-3. They beat Norway, West Germany and Romania to go 4-0-1 in pool play. The medal round was not a tournament. The USA had to play the USSR and Finland (the Finland match was not a gold medal match per se). The match with Sweden counted in the standings, so the medal round opened:
USSR 1-0 (4-2 goal differential)
USA 0-0-1 (2-2)
SWE 0-0-1 (2-2)
FIN 0-1 (2-4)
USA beat USSR 4-3 and Finland and Sweden tied 3-3, so after the "Miracle on Ice," the standings were
USA 1-0-1 (6-5)
USSR 1-1 (7-6)
SWE 0-0-2 (5-5)
FIN 0-1-1 (5-7)
It was technically possible for the USA to not medal at all if Finland would have won by 2 goals. USSR beat Sweden 9-2 (when they played, Silver and Bronze were guaranteed regardless of outcome) and USA beat Finland 4-2, so the final standings were
USA 2-0-1 (10-7)
USSR 2-1 (16-8)
SWE 0-1-2 (7-14)
FIN 0-2-1 (7-11)
Had Finland won, the USSR would have still won gold.
Another interesting point - the game was played at 5 pm ET and wasn't broadcast until 8 pm ET. People following closely knew the result before it aired. ABC aired the Pink Panther at 7 pm. because they had no idea how to handle it, as they had not planned to air the entire game.
