What can be said about the Miracle on Ice? Sports Illustrated ran this cover with no words, under the logic that everyone in the country knew what they were looking at and needed no explanation. Your humble correspondent is almost tempted to do the same. This piece of modern American mythology is better summed up in a single image than any string of words could hope to do. But we write about things here, so let’s at least try.

A good place to start is a reminder that the U.S. Olympic hockey team did not win the gold medal when they took down the mighty Soviet Union on American soil during the Lake Placid Winter Games 35 years ago on February 22, 1980. You could be forgiven for assuming they had won the gold from this victory shot, but that didn’t happen until two days later when the U.S. beat Finland 4-2.

But nobody remembers that. What has lived on for more than three decades is the image of a bunch of college guys from Boston and Minnesota (average age 21) shocking a buzz-saw Soviet team that couldn’t have been more heavily favored if God Himself had been in goal. The Soviets had lost one Olympic hockey match in 20 years. They had pummeled the best professional players from the U.S. and Canada, beating the NHL All-Stars 6-0. Now they got the chance to face a pack of American amateurs, the same team they had laughed past in a 10-3 exhibition win just two weeks earlier. If the entire Cold War had hinged on this game, a smart gambler would have started polishing his Russian before the puck dropped.

The only real prayer for the Americans was to stick with a hard-hitting, physical style of play that coach Herb Brooks had instilled in them. And while the U.S. got in their share of blows and managed to get Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretiak pulled after a fluke goal tied the game at the end of the first period, they still entered the final period down 3-2. After a long offensive drought, the Americans tied the game on a power play equalizer against the USSR’s backup goalie, and took their first lead of the day on a shot by team captain Mike Eruzione with 10 minutes left.

The Soviets wouldn’t go quietly. They started shooting wildly in the game’s closing moments, looking to get anything past American goalie Jim Craig, who stopped 36 of 39 shots on goal. As the final seconds ticked down, ABC’s Al Michaels echoed the disbelief he was feeling, and helped coin the name that would stick to this game for over a generation, when he asked the TV audience “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” Another member of the broadcasting crew said it was like watching a bunch of Canadian college football players take down the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Cold War politics turned the game into a moment of national pride, at a moment when the real Cold War wasn’t going well for the West. Soviet tanks had rolled into Afghanistan two months earlier. There were also Americans being held hostage in Tehran. For Americans in need of a dose of national pride, it was the right result, against the right opponent, at the right time.

So those are a few words that can be said about the Miracle on Ice. But to be honest, you’ll probably still get just as much by looking at this picture with no words attached.

http://cdn-jpg.si.com/sites/default/files/si/2010/writers/joe_posnanski/02/22/miracle.on.ice/mi/ra/cl/miracle-cover.jpg