It has now been 45 years since the United States men’s hockey team delivered the iconic Miracle on Ice, defeating the Soviet Union at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York.

That game, played on Feb. 22, 1980, has gone down in history as one of the most famous moments in sports. It is such a memorable moment that it is often forgotten that Team USA did not even win the gold medal that game.

But 45 years later, that unforgettable miracle remains the last great achievement for the U.S. men’s hockey team.

Time and again, on the world’s biggest stages, Team USA has faltered, while coming tantalizingly close to sharing the glory of the Miracle on Ice. But the unkillable giant has gone from the Red Menace in the East to the Friendly Neighbor to the North. In 2002, in the gold medal game at the Salt Lake City Olympics and in front of a raucous home crowd, Team USA fell to Canada in a game that featured rosters full of NHL stars. Eight years later, with a chance at revenge on Canadian soil in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Team USA again fell to Canada, losing in an overtime thriller.

The memory of that painful loss and a subsequent defeat to Canada in the 2014 Sochi Olympics loomed over this year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, an event hosted by the National Hockey League in place of its annual All-Star game that marked the first major competition between national teams in more than a decade.

Amid the specter of a trade war between the U.S. and Canada, this one-off event rekindled a cross-border rivalry and reminded Americans that, no matter how friendly or unfriendly our political relationship with Canada may be, we have a burning need to remind our neighbors to the north which country rules the North American continent. And to beat them in their national sport would make it all the sweeter.

After Team USA delivered a physical beatdown of Team Canada in a 3-1 victory in Montreal during the tournament’s round-robin, the focus shifted to Boston, where the rematch for the championship took place.

Across the fruited plain, the anticipation for the game reached a fever pitch. The Team USA goal song, “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, became a social media marker for support of the team, with even the White House getting in on the action.

Tickets to the game at Boston’s TD Garden soared to nearly $1,500 for the cheapest option. A raucous and patriotic crowd greeted the teams as they took to the ice, eager for Team USA to show the world that it can once again be the greatest hockey team in the world, eager to see another team join the Miracle on Ice in U.S. hockey glory.

The blockbuster TV ratings delivered the second-most watched hockey game of the past decade and the largest audience for a hockey game on ESPN, with some 9.3 million Americans tuning in to watch the game at one point or another. The viewing numbers in the U.S. outpaced the Canadian audience of 6.3 million.

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After three periods of evenly matched play, the game went to overtime. And at 8:18 of the overtime period, Canadian star Connor McDavid whistled a shot past Team USA goaltender Connor Hellebuyck for the winning goal.

And for another year, America is left yearning for another frozen moment that can stand next to our Miracle on Ice.