February 1980, Part II

FEBRUARY 1980

The first human being received an implantable defibrillator at Johns Hopkins

A hotline between North Korea and South Korea reopened for the first time since 1976. 

Newsman Walter Cronkite announced his retirement. 

AC/DC singer Bon Scott died. 

US skater Eric Heiden became the first person to win 5 individual golds at the same Olympics. (Mark Spitz' seven included some relay medals.) 

WWE (then called WWF) was founded. 

Ronald Reagan, during a debate with George HW Bush, answered testily, "I paid for this microphone!," a line that would go down in political history. 

Reserving the Replayer's Right to Change His or Her Mind, I took out some fan made teams of the 1980 Men's Hockey Medal Round finalists, and decided to play them out using the delightful Hockey Blast Express game engine. After what turned out to be a dramatic round of overthinking, I finally figured out the round robin system. The four teams were Sweden, the USA, the USSR and Finland. Everyone plays everyone else once, with the results from group play included, 2 points for each win, 1 point for each draw. 

The included results are a 2-2 tie with the US and Sweden, and a 4-2 win for the USSR over Finland

So as play begins, the medal standings are as follows: 

USR 1-0-0 2pt gf4 ga2

SWE 0-0-1 1pt gf2 ga2

USA 0-0-1 1pt gf2 ga2

FIN 0-1-0 0pt gf2 ga4 

FIT TO BE TIED

Scrappy Americans knot Soviets

After the Soviet National Team surged out to leads of 2-1 and 4-3, left winger Rob McClanahan fired a one timer past Vladislav Tretiak to tie the game at 4 after 2 periods. When Slava Fetisov slid a pass to a charging Alexsandr Golikov near the middle of the third period, and the forward slammed the disk past goalie Jim Craig, the Russians seemed ready to assert their dominance over the scrappy US team. But charge after charge was turned away, until finally, with less than a minute to play, McClanahan flicked a wrister past a scrambling Tretiak to tie the score, the game ending with a 5-5 tie. 

USR 1-0-1

USA 0-0-2

SWE 0-0-1

FIN 0-1-0

LAND OF THE ICE AND SNOW

Swedes net three, hang on for medal round win

Three first period goals from the Swedish national team forecast a long day for the Finns, and even a pair of goals in the second wasn’t quite enough to stop Sweden from winning 4-3. 

USR 1-0-1

SWE 1-0-1

USA 0-0-2

FIN 0-2-0

NEW BACKSTOP, SAME RESULT 

New Russian goalie can’t stop Swedes

Russian backstop Vladimir Myshkin stepped in for Vladislav Tretiak, who struggled in allowing 5 goals to the Americans, and when his mates staked him to a 2-0 advantage, the move was looking pretty slick. But the Swedes worked their way back into the game, Thomas Eriksson giving Sweden a 3-2 advantage. But Helmuts Balderis slid a rebound into the twine as time wound down, tying the game at 3-3. 

USR 1-0-2

SWE 1-0-2

USA 0-0-2

FIN 0-2-0

ON GOLDEN POND

US wins gold in laugher

Needing a win to medal, the US shrugged off an early goal by the Finns to score 4 in the second period, and then four more in the third for an 8-1 pasting that sealed the gold medal for the US team, the country’s first in 20 years. 

USA 1-0-2 +7 goal differential

USR 1-0-2 +2 

SWE 1-0-2 +1

FIN 0-3-0 -10