Short answers, pulled from the story.
The United States team won the gold medal by defeating the Soviet Union in the Miracle on Ice game. This victory marked a historic upset as the Soviets had not lost an Olympic game since 1968.
The American and Soviet teams met in an exhibition game on February 9, but the actual Olympic match occurred later during the Lake Placid games. The final score of the famous game is recorded within the context of the 1980 Winter Olympics held that year.
Thirteen of the twenty players who made the final Olympic roster went on to play professional hockey in the National Hockey League. Five of those players appeared in over 500 NHL games while three others played more than 1,000 games.
ABC requested to reschedule the broadcast from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST to air live in primetime but the IIHF declined due to complaints about Moscow Time scheduling. Consequently ABC decided not to broadcast the game live for the U.S. audience and instead taped it for their primetime block.
U.S. head coach Herb Brooks held tryouts in Colorado Springs during the summer of 1979 to select the final roster. He implemented a psychological test involving 300 questions and instilled a European style of play emphasizing wide-open action with body contact.