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1980 Pre Olympic Tour Schedule/Results


1980 USA Pre-Olympic Ticket Brochure

The 1980 U.S. hockey team played a total of 61 pre-Olympic games, beginning in Europe on Sept. 3, 1979 and ending Feb. 9, 1980 at Madison Square Garden in New York.  The U.S. team played their home pre-Olympic games at the Met Center in Bloomington, MN.  The team finished with a record of 41 wins, 17 losses and 3 ties.

In regards to the 1980 USA team Pre-Olympic results: The US squad was winless in 4 games against NHL teams in September exhibition games, being outscored by a margin of 24-8. Of interest, the 1980 US team won only 3 of 7 games against Canada, despite outscoring the Canadian National Team: 28-22.

The U.S. Olympic team also played a series of home and home games with each team in the Central Hockey League (Salt Lake City Golden Eagles, Indianapolis Checkers, Fort Worth Texans, Birmingham Bulls, Tulsa Ice Oilers, Houston Apollos, Oklahoma City Stars, Dallas Blackhawks and Cincinnati Stingers). In the 18 games vs. CHL teams, the U.S. Olympians record was: 14 wins,1 tie, 3 losses and outscored their opponents 85-57. In December, 1979 at Lake Placid, the U.S. team won the Pre-Olympic tournament going undefeated in 4 games and outscoring their opposition 15-6 with the results as follows:

USA (win) 4:2 Sweden "B" team (Goals: Broten, Strobel, Harrington, Eruzione)
USA (win) 3:1 Canada (Goals: McClanahan, Strobel, Verchota)
USA (win) 3:0 Czechoslovakia "B" team (Goals: Cox, Ramsey, McClanahan)
USA (win) 5:3 Soviet Union "B" team (Goals: Johnson (3), Cox, Strobel)


1980 Pre-Olympic Team Photo at St. Paul Auditorium

Pre-Olympic Tour Results

Date Played Opponent Score Win/Loss Home/Road
Sept. 3, 1979 Holland National Team 8-1 W Road
Sept. 5, 1979 Holland National Team 11-4 W Road
Sept. 6, 1979 Finland - Reipas Lahti 1-2 L Road
Sept. 7, 1979 Finland - Saipa 4-1 W Road
Sept. 9, 1979 Finland - Savonlinnan Pallokerho 6-0 W Road
Sept. 11, 1979 Finland - Oulun Karpat 5-4 W Road
Sept. 12, 1979 Finland - Raumen Lukko 5-3 W Road
Sept. 14, 1979 Finland - Jokerit 1-4 L Road
Sept. 17, 1979 Norway National Team 3-3 Tie Road (Herbies AGAIN Night Game)
Sept. 18, 1979 Norway National Team 9-0 W Road
Sept. 29, 1979 Minnesota North Stars 2-4 L Home
Sept. 30, 1979 St. Louis Blues 1-9 L Road (Played in Des Moines, IA)
Oct. 3, 1979 Atlanta Flames 1-6 L Road (Played in Grand Forks, ND)
Oct. 7, 1979 Washington Capitals 4-5 L Road
Oct. 8, 1979 Maine Mariners 4-2 W Road
Oct. 13, 1979 Canada National Team 7-2 W Road (Played at Hibbing Memorial)
Oct. 14, 1979 Canada National Team 6-0 W Home
Oct. 17, 1979 Salt Lake City Golden Eagles 7-5 W Road (Played at Salt Palace)
Oct. 18, 1979 Colorado College 10-1 W Road
Oct. 20, 1979 University of Minnesota Duluth 4-0 W Road (Played at Eveleth Hippodrome)
Oct. 23, 1979 University of Minnesota 8-2 W Home (Played at St. Paul Civic Center)
Oct. 25, 1979 Indianapolis Checkers 1-0 W Road
Oct. 30, 1979 Flint Generals 15-0 W Road
Nov. 4, 1979 Birmingham Bulls 5-2 W Home
Nov. 7, 1979 Houston Apollos 4-3 L Road
Nov. 8, 1979 Birmingham Bulls 6-4 W Road
Nov. 10, 1979 Harvard 5-0 W Road (Played at Bright-Landry Hockey Center)
Nov. 11, 1979 RPI 9-3 W Road
Nov. 14, 1979 Cincinnati Stingers 3-2 W Road
Nov. 20, 1979 Salt Lake City Golden Eagles 6-4 W Home
Nov. 21, 1979 Canada National Team 6-7 L Road
Nov. 23, 1979 Canada National Team 2-6 L Road
Nov. 24, 1979 Canada National Team 3-4 L Road
Nov. 27, 1979 Canada National Team 1-2 L Home
Dec. 2, 1979 Cincinnati Stingers 6-1 W Home
Dec. 4, 1979 University of North Dakota 6-1 W Road
Dec. 6, 1979 Oklahoma City Stars 5-3 W Home
Dec. 8, 1979 Yale 6-1 W Road
Dec. 11, 1979 Adirondack Red Wings 0-1 L Road (Played in Glens Falls, NY)
Dec. 16, 1979 Sweden (Pre-Olympic "B team" tourney in Lake Placid) 4-2 W Road (Lake Placid Int. Invitational)
Dec. 17, 1979 Canada (Pre-Olympic "B team" tourney in Lake Placid) 3-1 W Road (Lake Placid Int. Invitational)
Dec. 20, 1979 Czechoslovakia (Pre-Olympic "B team" tourney in Lake Placid) 3-0 W Road (Lake Placid Int. Invitational)
Dec. 22, 1979 Soviet Union (Pre-Olympic "B team" tourney in Lake Placid) 5-3 W Road (Lake Placid Int. Invitational)
Dec. 26, 1979 Gorky Torpedo 5-1 W Road (Played in Omaha, NB)
Dec. 27, 1979 Gorky Torpedo 4-2 W Road (Played in Colorado Springs)
Dec. 30, 1979 Gorky Torpedo 10-3 W Home
Jan. 3, 1980 Indianapolis Checkers 2-2 Tie Road
Jan. 5, 1980 Gorky Torpedo 2-3 L Road (Played at Rochester, MN Graham Arena)
Jan. 8, 1980 Oklahoma City Stars 4-3 W Road
Jan. 9, 1980 Tulsa Oilers 5-2 W Road
Jan. 10, 1980 Houston Apollos 5-3 W Road
Jan. 12, 1980 Tulsa Oilers 7-4 W Road
Jan. 15, 1980 University of Wisconsin 6-2 W Home
Jan. 16, 1980 Fort Worth Texans 4-3 L Road
Jan. 18, 1980 Dallas Blackhawks 4-3 W Road
Jan. 21, 1980 IHL All-Stars 4-4 Tie Road (Played in Milwaukee Arena, WI)
Jan. 22, 1980 University of Wisconsin 4-2 W Road
Jan. 25, 1980 Fort Worth Texans 3-5 L Home
Jan. 31, 1980 Dallas Blackhawks 10-6 W Home
Feb. 3, 1980 Warroad Lakers 10-0 W Road (Played at Warroad Memorial)
Feb. 5, 1980 Canada National Team - - (1 Period Exhibition Game played preceding NHL All-Star Game at Joe Louis Arena)
Feb. 9, 1980 Soviet Union 3-10 L Road (Played at Madison Square Garden, NY)

1979-80 U.S. Olympic Team (Pre-Olympic & Olympic Games Final Statistics)

# Name Games Played Goals Assists Points Penalty Minutes
10 Mark Johnson 60 38 54 92 31
7 Rob McClanahan 63 34 36 70 38
11 Steve Christoff 64 37 27 64 30
9 Neal Broten 62 27 31 58 32
16 Mark Pavelich 60 16 36 52 14
8 Dave Silk 56 12 36 48 32
21 Mike Eruzione 50 21 25 46 22
27 Phil Verchota 61 19 24 43 56
25 William Schneider 62 27 15 42 48
19 Eric Strobel 56 15 26 41 24
23 Dave Christian 66 10 28 38 30
28 John Harrington 58 14 23 37 16
17 Jack O'Callahan 55 7 30 37 85
5 Mike Ramsey 63 11 24 35 63
6 Bill Baker 60 5 25 30 74
14 Ralph Cox 31 13 13 26 27
3 Ken Morrow 65 5 20 25 12
20 Bob Suter 38 7 11 18 67
12 Jack Hughes 49 3 15 18 62
15 Mark Wells 29 9 7 16 2
2 Les Auge 29 0 14 14 14
4 Gary Ross 12 1 6 7 4
22 Dave Delich 13 4 2 6 4
18 Tim Harrer 4 1 3 4 0
30 Jim Craig 48 0 3 3 28
1 Steve Janaszak 17 0 1 1 0
22 Aaron Broten 1 0 1 1 0
31 Bruce Horsch 9 0 0 0 0
Bench Penalty Min 8
Totals: 336 536 872 823

Goaltenders Statistics (Pre-Olympic Games)

Goalie Games Played Minutes Played W-L-T Record Goals Against GAA %
Jim Craig 41 2371 30-8-1 95 2.40
Steve Janaszak 17 894 9-5-1 47 3.15
Bruce Horsch 9 410 3-3-1 25 3.66

Jim Craig Statistics (Pre-Olympic and Olympic Games Combined)

Goalie Games Played Minutes Goals Against W-L-T Record GAA
Jim Craig 48 2791 110 36-8-2 2.36

Jim Craig Statistics (Olympic Games)

Goalie Games Played Minutes Goals Against W-L-T Record GAA Save %
Jim Craig 7 420 15 6-0-1 2.14 .924