“If it wasn’t for Don really stressing a system like that with us, especially in the ‘70s – he made no bones about coming up the boards. We wanted to force another team to come up the boards and have our defensemen pinch in,” Middleton said.
“We looked at tapes, Tom and I, and discovered that they did not have a system. We ran scrimmages, and they were all over the place. We decided that we had to somewhat instill a system because their abilities were really A to Z. It had to be a simple enough system that they could all grasp and learn in six months.”
Team USA took that game plan and put it into action at the Paralympics. And, to most’s surprise, it worked. Middleton’s group went unbeaten in the tournament, outscoring opponents 26-6. They trailed for the first time in the gold-medal matchup, and ultimately went to overtime and a shootout tied 3–3. The U.S. and Norway each scored twice in the first three rounds of the five-round affair. St. Germaine potted what would turn out to be the game-winning goal before Guerra stopped the final opponent shot.
“Once you get into the shootout, as a shooter, you have the advantage over the goalies, because once you get them moving, they have to drop their hands to move, and it opens up the entire top half of the net,” St. Germaine said. “It is something we practice even as kids in youth hockey, you know, pretending you’re going to score the game-winning goal. I am fortunate that I had the opportunity.”
By the end of his career, St. Germaine was heavily decorated. He competed as a player in four World Championships (1996, 2000, 2004 – silver, 2009 – gold) and three Paralympic Winter Games (1998, 2002 – gold, 2006 – bronze). The win in 2002, though, meant a little more.
“I just wanted to be accepted as a hockey player. I had been a hockey player growing up, and then when I had my injury, I kind of thought that I had lost that identity,” St. Germaine said. “And then to find sled hockey, and the international competition, and that whole level of it, it gave me something to strive for. It gave me that piece of my life that I had lost with my injury. I was able to recreate my identity in a new form.”
Since Middleton led the U.S. to the top of the podium, Team USA sled hockey earned bronze in 2006 and gold in the last four Paralympic Winter Games (2010, 2014, 2018, 2022). The 2002 team was inducted into the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2022; it marked the first time a Paralympic team earned that accolade. The team was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2024.
