(ABC 6 News) – It’s a hockey game that many Minnesotans and Americans will never forget, and Feb. 22 marks its 44-year anniversary.

In 1980, Team USA defeated the Soviet Union 4-3 at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid New York.

“After Mike Eruzione scored the fourth goal to go up 4-3 with exactly 10 minutes to go in the game, for a player, it was the longest 10 minutes of my life and our life,” said Rob McClanahan, one of the players on Team USA back in 1980. “The clock did not tick, and the Soviets were capable of scoring in bunches and somehow we kept them off the board.”

The Soviet Union dominated the Olympic hockey games for years, winning five of the six previous winter games.

“As Herbie would say, you know, ‘we play them ten times they’d beat us nine’,” said McClanahan. “Hell, if we played them 100 times they’d beat us 99 times, but we won the right game.”

The game, however, was not the gold medal game. That match was played two days later against Finland with Team USA victorious with a final score of 4-2.

The game winning goal was scored by none other, than former NHL player, Rob McClanahan.

McClanahan says regardless of if they won or lost that game, the lessons learned on that team still stick with him and his teammates.

“We used what we learned not just during the Olympics, but that year, we still apply those lessons to this very day,” said McClanahan. “One of the biggest messages I try to give my players is that they’re capable of far more than they realize, and it’s not without sacrifice.”

McClanahan still resides in Minnesota and currently coaches The Blake School’s boys’ varsity hockey team.