DannyDuberstein said:
The other footnote is that the Finland game was not technically a final/gold medal game. The prelims were made up of 2 divisions where the top 2 teams from each (4 total) then went on to play a 3 game round robin format - US, USSR, Sweden, and Finland. Now we needed to win to clinch gold because we had tied Sweden and had no margin for error, but Finland actually went 0-2-1 in the finals format and finished 4th - off the podium.
Not exactly.
The 2 top teams from each group went into a medal round -
but the game head to head with the team from your division carried over into the medal round.So we did not play Sweden again but our tie in the prelim round carried over. And Russias win over Finland carried over.
Wins = 2 points, ties = 1 point, loss = 0 points
So the standings before any medal round games were played was
Russia - 2
US - 1
Sweden - 1
Finland - 0
In the first matches we beat the Russia and Sweden and Finland tied so the standings were
US - 3
Russia - 2
Sweden - 2
Finland - 1
In the final games if Finland beat us they would have 3 points and hold the head to head tiebreaker over us and whoever won between the Russia and and Sweden would pass us at 4 points or a tie would leave everyone tied at 3 points assuming we lost. It was possible for us to not medal at all despite beating the Russians.
But a win locked in the gold as neither Russia nor Sweden could catch us. Our game was played first. And Russia crushed Sweden 9-2.
