Every USA Olympic hockey team, ranked by miracles on ice

12. Albertville Olympics, 1992

After back-to-back seventh-place finishes in 1984 and 1988, the 1992 team offered Americans a little bit of hope moving forward.

Coached by Dave Peterson, who also coached the 1988 roster, and captained by Clark Donatelli, Team USA finished fourth in the 1992 Olympics. Not only was it a bounce-back year from 1984 and 1988, it was a bounce-back year in France. The last time they were in France, 1968, they finished sixth.
Things were starting to look up for the ol’ Americans, it would seem. You would find out four years later how wrong we were. Let us enjoy 1992, OK?

There was a lot of future NHL talent on the 1992 squad. Scott Young, Bret Hedican, Sean Hill, Marty McInnis and Mike Dunham all turned out to have solid NHL careers. Keith Tkachuk is one of the greatest American hockey players in history.

Ted Donato and Tim Sweeney led the team in scoring with seven points in eight games. McInnis had six points, Young had four, and Tkachuk had two.

Despite turning into a serviceable NHL goalie, Dunham did not appear in the tournament for the Americans. Ray LeBlanc handled the goaltending duties for Team USA.

The Americans went 6-0 to start the tournament, but fell to the unfair Unified Team in the semifinals before losing to Czechoslovakia in the bronze medal game.

The Unified Team was just Team Russia under a different name, but they were still unfair. You’ll recognize them as the Olympic Athletes from Russia in this years Winter Olympics.