Miracle in Lake Placid by John Gilbert

Author:John Gilbert
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781683583073
Publisher: Sports Publishing
Published: 2019-03-01T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

Time for a Comeback

JIM CRAIG HAD NOT BEEN at his sharpest throughout the Blue Pool games, but he was sharp when he had to be in the first two games, the tie against Sweden and the 7–3 romp over Czechoslovakia. It was beginning to look like chances were fading that coach Herb Brooks would give Craig a day off and give goaltender Steve Janaszak a chance, unless it was against West Germany. There was little chance he would make such a move once in the medal round.

While Brooks didn’t want to alter the focus on the game, he decided to tell the team before the game that if they make the medal round tied with Sweden at 4–0–1, the No. 1 seed out of the Blue Division would be decided on goal differential, since the two had tied 2–2. To overtake Sweden’s goal-differential edge meant the US would have to beat West Germany by seven goals. That was a pretty good challenge, since West Germany had beaten the Brooks-coached US twice in the 1979 World Championships, 6–3 and 5–2. But that was just one of the challenges.

Getting to the press box early was no problem on that day, which I had filled by watching the two earlier games, and I always enjoyed watching warm-ups. This time, it resulted in some pregame drama. The players went through their usual routine, handling the puck and getting both their shots and their goaltenders ready. Suddenly, a hard wrist shot by Mike Eruzione hit Craig up high, and he dropped to the ice at the crease. He appeared to be out, and it took a couple of minutes while he was tended to before he got up.

That was a relief, although I couldn’t tell if he’d been hit on the facemask, on the helmet, or maybe in the throat or upper shoulder. In any case, Janaszak went into the goal and kicked out everything he could, trying to shake off 10 days of dust. Janaszak, who hadn’t played since relieving Craig when the US was hammered, 10–3, by the Russians in Madison Square Garden, was the highly competitive goaltender who took Brooks’s University of Minnesota to the NCAA championship the previous year.

As a close observer, I believed that the US would have been just as successful had Brooks chosen Janaszak as No. 1, or alternated them, and the players were all behind him. Nobody wanted to see him go in this way, but he was ready.

The teams lined up, and Craig was announced as the starter, leaving me slightly surprised. Craig looked a little unsteady, but maybe I was looking too closely. Then, at 1:50, the West Germans attacked, and from outside the blue line, Horst-Peter Kretschmer flung a 65-footer, and Craig didn’t move. The unscreened shot went in!

The US dominated play after that, but after killing a penalty to Jack O’Callahan, the US was given two penalties—to lightly penalized Mark Johnson and David Christian—to one for West Germany. The penalties came at 19:41.

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