Every USA Olympic hockey team, ranked by miracles on ice

7. Oslo Olympics, 1952

Following the 1948 DQ where Team USA tried to bend the rules by bringing two teams to the tournament, the Americans had a lot of prove in 1952. This year, they played by the rules and only brought one team with them.

They were fortunate enough to bring one.

You see, hockey was dropped from the Winter Olympics in 1951 due to Team USA bending the rules in 1948. Don’t ever tell me Americans are not the most petty people in the world. We couldn’t beat Canada for years in hockey, so we tried to cheat. That failed and we almost killed the entire sport in the Olympics. You don’t see Spain going to these lengths to get basketball taken out of the Summer Olympics, do you? No, you don’t. Because Spain is not that petty.

Fortunately, the IOC came to their senses and reinstated hockey so Canada could keep winning gold. The joke was on them as this was Canada’s last gold for 50 years.

This ranks higher on the the list because it was a miracle that the games even happened following the 1948 controversy and 1951 dropping.

As for the actual tournament, Team USA finished with the silver medal. Arnold Oss led the team in scoring with 11 points in eight games. They opened the tournament with a 3-2 victory over Norway and followed that up with three straight 8-2 victories, routing Germany, Finland, and Switzerland. A 4-2 loss against Sweden was their only mark in that column. A 3-3 tie against Canada prevented them from gold.