United States men's national ice hockey team

Medal record
	Olympic Games
	World Championship
	Canada Cup / World Cup

USA Hockey
Nickname(s)	Team U.S.A., Ice Yanks
Association	USA Hockey
Most games	Mark Johnson (151)
Most points	Mark Johnson (146)
IIHF code	USA
IIHF ranking	6 1
Highest IIHF ranking	4 (first in 2016)
Lowest IIHF ranking	7 (first in 2003)
Team colors
First international
	United States 29–0 Switzerland ; (Antwerp, Belgium; April 23, 1920)
Biggest win
	United States 31–1 Italy ; (St. Moritz, Switzerland; February 1, 1948)
Biggest defeat
	Sweden 17–2 United States ; (Stockholm, Sweden; March 12, 1963); Soviet Union 17–2 United States ; (Stockholm, Sweden; March 15, 1969)
IIHF World Championships
Appearances	75 (first in 1930)
Best result	Gold (1933)
Canada Cup / World Cup
Appearances	8 (first in 1976)
Best result	Winner: (1996)
Olympics
Appearances	24 (first in 1920)
Medals	Gold (1960, 1980); Silver (1920, 1924, 1932, 1952, 1956, 1972, 2002, 2010); Bronze: (1936)
International record (W–L–T)
	914–471–86

main

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.^[1]

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.^[2] 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.^[3] 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.^[4]^[5]^[6]

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.^[7]

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
1920
1924
1932
1936
1948	disqualified
1952
1956
1960
1964	5th place
1968	6th place
1972
1976	5th place
1980
1984	7th place
1988	7th place
1992	4th place
1994	8th place
1998	6th place
2002
2006	8th place
2010
2014	4th place
2018	7th place
2022	5th place
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.^[8]

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 held^[9]
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")^[10]
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 held^[11]
1981 – Finished in 5th place
1982 – Finished in 8th place
1983 – Finished in 9th place (Won "Pool B")
1984 – Not held^[11]
1985 – Finished in 4th place
1986 – Finished in 6th place
1987 – Finished in 7th place
1988 – Not held^[11]
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

↑ World Ranking
↑ Mount, Dan (May 6, 2019). "Team USA IIHF Roster for Worlds Full of Promise". https://lastwordonhockey.com/2019/05/06/team-iihf-usa-roster-for-worlds-full-of-promise/.
↑ "Men's Teams and Events". https://teamusa.usahockey.com/page/show/2328356-men-s-teams-and-events.
↑ "NHL announces World Cup of Hockey for 2016", January 24, 2015.
↑ "Membership Statistics". https://www.usahockey.com/membershipstats.
↑ Peters, Chris (June 18, 2014). "U.S. Hockey Participation Numbers for 2013–14". https://unitedstatesofhockey.com/2014/06/17/u-s-hockey-participation-numbers-for-2013-14/.
↑ "Hockey Game Seen by 27.6 Million" New York Times, 1 March 2010. Retrieved 1 March 2010
↑ See: Ice Hockey World Championships.
↑ See 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. "International hockey timeline". International Ice Hockey Federation. http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/history/the-iihf/timeline.html. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
↑ 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.
↑ ^11.0 ^11.1 ^11.2 No 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.

External links

Men's National teams
Armenia - Australia - Austria - Belgium - Belarus - Bosnia - Bulgaria
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Estonia - Finland - France - Germany - Georgia - Greece - Great Britain
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Sweden - Switzerland - Thailand - Turkey - Turkmenistan - Ukraine - UAE
United States
Defunct teams: Bohemia - - Bohemia and Moravia - CIS - Czechoslovakia
East Germany - Serbia and Montenegro - U.S.S.R. - West Germany - Yugoslavia
Teams that do not participate in IIHF competitions:
Algeria - Andorra - Argentina - Azerbaijan - Brazil - Chile - Colombia - Egypt
India - Jamaica - Lebanon - Liechtenstein - Morocco - North Macedonia
Oman - Portugal - Puerto Rico - Tunisia - - Qatar - Uzbekistan
Non IIHF members: Bahrain - Costa Rica - Haiti - Falkland Islands - Saudi Arabia - Venezuela
Other teams: Basque Country - Catalonia - - England - Northern Ireland - - Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Scotland - Team Europe - Team North America