United States men's national ice hockey team

The United States men's national ice hockey team is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with its U18 and U17 development program in Plymouth, Michigan. The team is controlled by USA Hockey, the governing body for amateur and international ice hockey in the United States. The US team is ranked 5th in the IIHF World Rankings.World Ranking 
The United States won gold medals at the 1960 and 1980 Winter Olympics and more recently, silver medals at the 2002 and 2010 Winter Olympics. The U.S. also won the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, defeating Canada in the finals. The team's most recent medal at the World Championships came with a bronze in 2021. They won the tournament in 1933 and 1960. Unlike other nations, the U.S. doesn't typically use its best NHL players in the World Championships. Instead, it provides the younger players with an opportunity to gain international experience. Overall, the team has collected eleven Olympic medals (two of them gold), nineteen World Championship medals (two of them gold), and it reached the semi-final round of the Canada Cup/World Cup five times, twice advancing to the finals and winning gold once. The U.S. has never reached a World Championship gold medal game, having lost in the semi-final round twelve times since the IIHF introduced a playoff system in 1992; including six semi-finals appearances in ten tournaments from 2013 through 2023, and three consecutive in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
The U.S. is one of the most successful national ice hockey teams in the world and a member of the so-called "Big Six", the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, and Sweden.
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==History==
The American ice hockey team's greatest success was the "Miracle on Ice" at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York when they defeated the heavily favored Soviet Union on the way to a gold medal. Though hockey is not a universally popular sport in the United States, the "Miracle" is often listed as one of the greatest achievements in the history of American sports. The United States also won the gold medal in the 1960 Games at Squaw Valley, California, defeating the Soviet Union, Canada, Czechoslovakia, and Sweden along the way. However, since this victory is not as well known as the 1980 win, it has come to be known as the "Forgotten Miracle".
U.S. hockey experienced a spike in talent in the 1980s and 1990s, with future National Hockey League (NHL) stars including Tony Amonte, Tom Barrasso, Chris Chelios, Brett Hull, Pat LaFontaine, John LeClair, Brian Leetch, Mike Modano, Mike Richter, Jeremy Roenick, Kevin Stevens, Keith Tkachuk, and Doug Weight. Although the United States finished no higher than fourth in any World or Olympic event from 1981 through 1994, the Americans did win the 1996 World Cup with a squad of NHL players. Six years later, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and NHL arranged to allow NHL players to participate in the Olympic Games, the United States earned a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics with a roster that included NHL stars Adam Deadmarsh, Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, Jamie Langenbrunner, and Brian Rafalski. But by 2006, many of these NHL All-Stars had retired or lost their skill with age. Though the 2006 Olympic team finished a disappointing 8th, it was more of a transitional team, featuring young NHL players like Rick DiPietro, John-Michael Liles, and Jordan Leopold.
The 2010 U.S. Olympic team was composed of much younger and faster players than teams of previous years, including David Backes, Dustin Brown, Jack Johnson, Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel, Zach Parise, Joe Pavelski, Bobby Ryan, Paul Stastny, and Ryan Suter. The team also had a solid group of veterans that included top NHL goalie Ryan Miller top defenseman Brian Rafalski and U.S. Olympic Team Captain Jamie Langenbrunner. The U.S. team upset team Canada 5–3 in the round-robin phase of the tournament and went into the single elimination phase of the tournament as the number-one seeded team. After beating Finland 6–1 the United States advanced to the gold medal game, where they lost in overtime 3–2 to Canada to claim the silver medal. The gold medal game between Canada and the United States was watched by an estimated 27.6 million U.S. households. This was the most watched hockey game in America since the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" game, including any Stanley Cup Final or NHL Winter Classic broadcast."Hockey Game Seen by 27.6 Million" New York Times, 1 March 2010. Retrieved 1 March 2010
However, several months later at the IIHF World Championship, the U.S. team posted the worst record in its history by losing all three of its games in the preliminary round. The losses eliminated the United States from medal contention and dropped them below 12th place. Only three wins in the relegation round, including a shootout win over Italy, prevented the United States from being relegated to Division I and gave Team USA a chance to play for the IIHF World Championship in 2011.
The NHL pulled out of the Olympics for the 2018 competition in a dispute over insurance and the IOC's ambush marketing restrictions, prohibiting the national teams from inviting any player it held under contract. The American team was put at a particular disadvantage, as more than 31% of NHL players are Americans (in comparison, only 4.1% are Russians). As a result, the U.S. had to enter the tournament with a hastily assembled team of free agents, players from European leagues, AHLers on one-way contracts, and college players. The team proved unsuccessful, losing to Slovenia and the Olympic Athletes from Russia in the preliminary round, and being eliminated by the Czechs in the quarterfinals.[15] The OAR team benefited most from NHL's absence and ultimately won the tournament with a team that was composed primarily of SKA Saint Petersburg and HC CSKA Moscow players from the Russia-based KHL and featured ex-NHL all-stars Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk and Vyacheslav Voynov (all SKA).
==Tournament record==
===Olympic Games===
Year 	Result 	Result 	Result 	Result
1920 	 	 	 	
1924 	 	 	 	
1932 	 	 	 	
1936 	 	 	 	
1948 	disqualified	disqualified	disqualified	disqualified
1952 	 	 	 	
1956 	 	 	 	
1960 	 	 	 	
1964 	5th place 	5th place 	5th place 	5th place
1968 	6th place 	6th place 	6th place 	6th place
1972 	 	 	 	
1976 	5th place 	5th place 	5th place 	5th place
1980 	 	 	 	
1984 	7th place 	7th place 	7th place 	7th place
1988 	7th place 	7th place 	7th place 	7th place
1992 	4th place 	4th place 	4th place 	4th place
1994 	8th place 	8th place 	8th place 	8th place
1998 	6th place 	6th place 	6th place 	6th place
2002 	 	 	 	
2006 	8th place 	8th place 	8th place 	8th place
2010 	 	 	 	
2014 	4th place 	4th place 	4th place 	4th place
2018 	7th place 	7th place 	7th place 	7th place
2022 	5th place 	5th place 	5th place 	5th place
Totals	Totals 	Totals 	Totals 	Totals
Games 	Gold 	Silver 	Bronze 	Total
23 	2 	8 	1 	11
===World Championship===
:See: Ice Hockey World Championships and List of IIHF World Championship medalists
:Note: Between 1920 and 1968, the Olympic hockey tournament was also considered the World Championship for that year.See: Ice Hockey World Championships.
*1920 – Won medal
*1924 – Won medal
*1931 – Won medal
*1932 – Won medal
*1933 – Won medal
*1934 – Won medal
*1936 – Won medal
*1938 – Finished in 7th place
*1939 – Won medal
*1940–46 – Not heldSee Ice Hockey World Championships#1930–1953: Canadian dominance. World War II forced the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Winter Olympics and the world championships from 1941 to 1946. 
*1947 – Finished in 5th place
*1948 – Finished in 4th place
*1949 – Won medal
*1950 – Won medal
*1951 – Finished in 6th place
*1952 – Won medal
*1955 – Finished in 4th place
*1956 – Won medal
*1958 – Finished in 5th place
*1959 – Finished in 4th place
*1960 – medal
*1961 – Finished in 6th place
*1962 – Won medal
*1963 – Finished in 8th place
*1964 – Finished in 5th place
*1965 – Finished in 6th place
*1966 – Finished in 6th place
*1967 – Finished in 5th place
*1968 – Finished in 6th place
*1969 – Finished in 6th place
*1970 – Finished in 7th place (Won "Pool B")
*1971 – Finished in 6th place
*1972 – Finished in 8th place (2nd in "Pool B")See: 1972 World Ice Hockey Championships. For the first time, a separate tournament is held for both the World Championships and the Winter Olympics. Previously, the Winter Olympics tournament was held in lieu of a world championships, with the winner being declared world champion for that year. It also marked the first time in international ice hockey that all goaltenders were required to wear face masks.
*1973 – Finished in 8th place (2nd in "Pool B")
*1974 – Finished in 7th place (Won "Pool B")
*1975 – Finished in 6th place
*1976 – Finished in 4th place
*1977 – Finished in 6th place
*1978 – Finished in 6th place
*1979 – Finished in 7th place
*1980 – Not heldNo championships were held during the Olympic years 1980, 1984, and 1988. See: Ice Hockey World Championships#1976–1987: First years of open competition and List of IIHF World Championship medalists.
*1981 – Finished in 5th place
*1982 – Finished in 8th place
*1983 – Finished in 9th place (Won "Pool B")
*1984 – Not held
*1985 – Finished in 4th place
*1986 – Finished in 6th place
*1987 – Finished in 7th place
*1988 – Not held
*1989 – Finished in 6th place
*1990 – Finished in 5th place
*1991 – Finished in 4th place
*1992 – Finished in 7th place
*1993 – Finished in 6th place
*1994 – Finished in 4th place
*1995 – Finished in 6th place
*1996 – Won medal
*1997 – Finished in 6th place
*1998 – Finished in 12th place
*1999 – Finished in 6th place
*2000 – Finished in 5th place
*2001 – Finished in 4th place
*2002 – Finished in 7th place
*2003 – Finished in 13th place
*2004 – Won medal
*2005 – Finished in 6th place
*2006 – Finished in 7th place
*2007 – Finished in 5th place
*2008 – Finished in 6th place
*2009 – Finished in 4th place
*2010 – Finished in 13th place
*2011 – Finished in 8th place
*2012 – Finished in 7th place
*2013 – Won medal
*2014 – Finished in 6th place
*2015 – Won medal
*2016 – 4th place
*2017 – 5th place
*2018 – 
*2019 – 7th place
*2021 – 
*2022 – 4th place
*2023 – 4th place
*2024 – 5th place
===Canada Cup===
*1976 – Finished in 5th place
*1981 – Finished in 4th place, lost semi-final
*1984 – Finished in 4th place, lost semi-final
*1987 – Finished in 5th place
*1991 – Finished in 2nd place, lost final
===World Cup===
*1996 – Won World Cup
*2004 – Lost semi-final
*2016 - Finished in 7th place
==References==
==External links==
*Official website
*IIHF profile
Category:National ice hockey teams