Days of the Beer, February 22

The beer for today is Lake Placid Pub and Brewery Winter Lager.

On February 22, 1980, the United States hockey team defeated the Soviet Union 4-3, in what is considered to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history, called the "Miracle on Ice".

The US team was made up of amateur and collegiate players and was led by coach Herb Brooks. They defeated the Soviet team, who were considered to be the best ice hockey team in the world at the time.

USA went on to win the gold medal by beating Finland in it's last match. The Soviet Union took silver by beating Sweden in its final game.

The Soviets went into the Olympics as heavy favorites, having won the gold medal every year since 1964. Since 1960, that team had gone 27-1-1, and outscored their opponents 175-44. The Soviets were classed as amateurs, but they had jobs that allowed them to pretty much solely play hockey and train in world class facilities. In exhibitions that year, the Soviet team went 5-3-1 against NHL teams. A year earlier the Soviet team routed the NHL All-Stars 6-0.

The game started with a goal by Vladimir Krutov, giving the Soviets a 1-0 lead. Buzz Schneider scored for the US to tie the game, then Sergei Makarov gave the Russians a 2-1 lead. Mark Johnson tied the game at 2 with one second left in the first.

The Soviet coach replaced goalie Vladislav Tretiak (considered to be the best goaltender in the world at the time) with a backup after the second goal. He put in Vladimir Myshkin who allowed no goals in the second period. The Russians dominated the second outshooting the Americans 12-2 but scoring only once on a power play goal by Aleksandr Maltsev. After two, the Soviets led 3-2.

The US had a rare power play in the third, and Mark Johnson tied the game as the power play ended. With exactly ten minutes left, Mark Pavelich passed the puck to captain Mike Eruzione, who fireed a shot past back up goaltender Myshkin, giving the US its first lead of the game at 4-3.

As the game wound down, the Soviets began to attack furiously. All of these were turned away. With a minute left, the Soviets didn't pull the goalie for an extra defender, which caused disbelief in the Americans. The Russians never practiced 6 on 5. As the clock wound down, the crowd of 8,500 began counting down the seconds. Al Michaels, who called the game for ABC, picked up on the countdown.

"Eleven seconds, you've got ten seconds, the countdown goin on right now! Morrow, up to Silk. Five seconds left in the game. Do you Believe in miracles?... YES!"

As to the beer:

Lake Placid Pub and Brewery is located in Lake Placid New York. It's been around since 1996. They purchased a pub and renovated the upstairs and installed a seven barrel brewery. The operations were expanded several times, up to more than 5000 barrels per year. Most of their distributed beer is done at Matt Brewing Company in Utica NY (Saranac).

A medium-bodied bock beer, this brew uses biscuit and crystal malts as well as noble European hops. The resulting deep amber beer is dry and flavorful, perfect for a cold Lake Placid winter.

The beer comes in at 6.5% ABV.

It was recently reviewed on Beer Advocate, so you might be able to find some bottles of it floating around New York state.

So, for the Miracle on Ice, in the 1980 winter Olympics in Lake Placid New York, have a Lake Placid Winter Lager.