As Notre Dame fans are aware, just because you knock off number-one it doesn’t mean you’ve won the national championship. Seven year old me will one day get over what happened a week after beating No. 1 Florida State in 1993 but that day won’t be today.
Anyway.
The United States still had to beat Finland, a team that had beaten Sweden in the other semi-final to earn a spot in the gold medal game. Clearly a quality squad, Finland had beaten the only team that the United States failed to beat that tournament. It often gets forgotten about or at least not written about because it was by no means a monumental upset, but it was a championship round nonetheless that needed won.
Notre Dame on the other hand had five more regular season games to win in order to have a shot to the 1988 national championship. They did so in convincing fashion over Air Force, Navy, Rice, Penn State and in a 27-10 win at No. 2 USC to close the regular season.
Notre Dame then rolled No. 3 West Virginia 34-21 in the Fiesta Bowl to win what remains their last national championship, just like the USA Men’s Hockey team has not won a gold medal in the Olympics since 1980.
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