Big Showdown Between U.S. and Canada

Besides the closing ceremony, one Super-Bowl-like event remains: the gold-medal hockey meeting between the United States and Canada.

Canada was the power of Olympic hockey in the early years, winning six golds, two silvers and a bronze in the nine Olympics in which hockey was contested from 1920 through 1960 (missing the war years of 1940 and ‘44). Its last gold medal was in 1952, and after winning a bronze in ‘56, it finished second to the United States in the 1960 Games at Squaw Valley. The Canadians’ only loss that year was to the U.S. team.

Many assumed the Canadians would come back strong, but they have not, boycotting a few Olympics out of anger at the Soviet bloc for sending its pro machine to face a field of Olympic amateurs, and then not getting it done when they returned in the ’80 Games in Lake Placid.

Not even in Nagano in ‘98, when pros were allowed officially, could the Canadians win. They were fourth there.

The U.S. has not lost an Olympic hockey game on home soil since the 1932 Games in Lake Placid. It was unbeaten in ’60 at Squaw Valley and ’80 at Lake Placid. In ’32 at Lake Placid, the Americans were beaten and tied by the same team. Canada.