After 22 years, Mike Eruzione is looking forward to having a beer with the boys.

	The 1980 U.S. Olympic team celebrated after upsetting the Soviets, but still had to beat Finland two days later for the gold.

On Friday, for the first time since Eruzione summoned his teammates to the highest podium during the medal ceremony in Lake Placid, the 20 members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic men's hockey team will be together again.

At least that's the plan.

"Pavelich isn't 100 percent," Eruzione said of Mark Pavelich, the player who set him up for the game-winning goal against the Soviets in the "Miracle on Ice," and hasn't been seen since he stood with a gold medal around his neck and "The Star Spangled Banner" was raised and played. "In fact, I just got off the phone with him. He's driving right now from Minnesota. He wants to come, but we'll see."

The actual head count is inconsequential. The most they've ever had at a get-together was 14, which was the same amount that attended the official 20th anniversary celebration of the Miracle -- a golf vacation in South Carolina -- two years ago.

"You should know that everyone understands Pav," Eruzione added. "He doesn't like to fly. He likes his privacy. He loves the guys on the team. It's just the way he chooses to live and we respect that."

In this day and age of market saturation, it's surprising the entire team hasn't been assembled since the gold-medal ceremony in Lake Placid. And while Allstate is the official sponsor of the reunion, it wasn't born as a corporate ploy, although that was the setting.

	ESPN Classic Special Presentation Miracle on Ice
	On Thursday, Feb. 7 at 9 p.m. ET, ESPN Classic will air Team USA's memorable upset victory over the USSR in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.

Five members of the team, including Eruzione and goaltender Jim Craig, gathered for a photo shoot for Allstate's Olympic advertising campaign, "Right hands make all the difference." During the shoot, Robert Apatoff, the company's senior vice president and chief marketing officer and highest-ranking hockey fan, asked Eruzione and Craig when the last time was the entire team got together. They hadn't.

"I couldn't believe it," Apatoff said. "But it just goes to show that they were just a bunch of college kids with their whole lives in front of them. It wasn't their whole lives."

Although 22 years isn't as tidy as 20 or 25, it is perhaps the most appropriate. This year's Games in Salt Lake City will be the first time the U.S. has hosted the event since 1980. Before then, it was 1960. Both times the U.S. won the gold medal.

"When people usually recall where they were for a certain event, it's because of something negative, like when Kennedy was shot," Apatoff said. "Few moments are because of something positive. It was a powerful moment."

And while the 1980 Games ended as a powerful moment, with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the American hostages in Iran as a context, the 2002 Games begin as one.

"No one will ever forget what happened on Sept. 11, nor should we," Eruzione said. "With the games in Salt Lake City, we as a country will be reminded that we are not afraid and how strong we are. In Olympic Games, athletes show their greatness to the world, ours will show the great pride in our country."

Eruzione and his teammates accomplished the same feat, they just didn't know it at the time.

"Obviously as a team, (winning the gold medal) is a great feeling of pride and knowing that you accomplished something that is so special. I was a great moment for us," he said. "Years later you realize it was a great moment for an entire country. It's that much nicer."

By scoring that one goal, Eruzione emerged as the spokesman of the team, the caretaker of the legacy.

"I didn't go in with that intention and I didn't feel that way all along," he said. "I happened to be the captain of the team, I happened to score the goal. I called everyone up on the podium, then retired.

"It's been my a responsibility to be a spokesman, but I've done it with the understanding that it was 20 guys, not just one."

Sherry Skalko is the NHL Editor for ESPN.com.