The United States won its second gold medal, including a win over the heavily favored Soviet Union that became known as the "Miracle on Ice".

Nations that did not participate in the Lake Placid Olympics were invited to compete in the inaugural Thayer Tutt Trophy in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.

The total ranking was: Soviet Union (1), Czechoslovakia (2), Sweden (3), Canada (4), Finland (5), West Germany (6), United States (7), Netherlands (8), Poland (9), Romania (10), Norway (11), Japan (12).

The Soviet Union had won the gold medal in five of the six previous Winter Olympic Games, and were the favorites to win once more in Lake Placid.

In the group stage, both the Soviet and U.S. teams were unbeaten; the U.S. achieved several notable results, including a 2–2 draw against Sweden, and a 7–3 upset victory over second-place favorites Czechoslovakia.

Equally well-known was the television call of the final seconds of the game by Al Michaels for ABC, in which he declared: "Do you believe in miracles?!

[6] Bill BakerNeal BrotenDave ChristianSteve ChristoffJim CraigMike EruzioneJohn HarringtonSteve JanaszakMark JohnsonRob McClanahanKen MorrowJack O'CallahanMark PavelichMike RamseyBuzz SchneiderDave SilkEric StrobelBob SuterPhil VerchotaMark Wells Helmuts BalderisZinetula BilyaletdinovViacheslav FetisovAlexander GolikovVladimir Golikov Alexei KasatonovValeri KharlamovVladimir KrutovYuri LebedevSergei MakarovAlexander MaltsevBoris MikhailovVladimir MyshkinVasili PervukhinVladimir PetrovAlexander SkvortsovSergei StarikovVladislav TretiakValeri VasilievViktor Zhluktov Mats ÅhlbergSture AnderssonBo BerglundHåkan ErikssonJan ErikssonThomas ErikssonLeif HolmgrenTomas JonssonPelle LindberghWilliam LöfqvistHarald LücknerBengt LundholmPer LundqvistLars MolinMats NäslundLennart NorbergTommy SamuelssonDan SöderströmMats WaltinUlf Weinstock All times are local (UTC–5).