Six hockey powers (Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden, and the United States) were automatically admitted to the final eight.

The other eight countries (Austria, Belarus, France, Germany, Latvia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Ukraine) played in a preliminary round in two pools.

[citation needed] Although it retained most of the players from the 1998 team which had performed below expectations, this time it was coached by Herb Brooks, who had been responsible for the "Miracle on Ice" over the Soviet Union during the 1980 Winter Olympics.

Despite being close to the ends of their NHL careers, Mike Richter and Phil Housley put up phenomenal performances.

Brett Hull, John LeClair, and Mike Modano formed the "Divine Line" which led the tournament in scoring.

The USA's victory over Russia came coincidentally on the 22-year anniversary of the "Miracle on Ice", the upset of the Soviet Union team, at Lake Placid in 1980 (also a Friday).

Russian coach Slava Fetisov, one of the stars for the 1980 Soviet squad, complained about the selection of NHL referees to officiate Olympic matches (a stipulation by the NHL if most Olympic players are NHLers) and charged that officials were trying to fix a Canada-USA final for North American audiences.

[4][5] Canada had a lackluster start, losing 5–2 to Sweden, only managing to defeat Germany by a score of 3–2, and drawing with the Czech Republic.

It was only the second time and first in 70 years that the US men's hockey team lost an Olympic game on home soil.

TV ratings for Canada vs USA gold medal matchup were the highest in Olympic history to that time.

[7] As the final seconds ticked away, veteran CBC Sports commentator Bob Cole called: "Now after 50 years, it's time for Canada to stand up and cheer.

[8][9] Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan became the second and third players to win the Olympic Gold Medal in hockey (with Team Canada) and the Stanley Cup (with the Detroit Red Wings) in the same year, the first to win an Olympic Gold and Stanley Cup was Ken Morrow in 1980.

Chris Chelios and Brett Hull became the second and third players to win Olympic Silver Medal in hockey (with Team USA) and Stanley Cup in the same year (Sergei Fedorov was the first in 1998).

This severely hampered the campaigns of Germany and Slovakia, although the former country managed to qualify for the final group stage.