Team USA enters the 4 Nations Face-Off seeking hockey supremacy. The Americans’ 1996 World Cup team paved the way.

Mike Richter wasn’t always a goalie.

As a kid in the 1970s, the future New York Rangers great and U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer pretended he was one of the Flyers’ Stanley Cup champions like Bobby Clarke, Rick MacLeish, or Reggie Leach. Playing ball hockey in his driveway in Flourtown with his brother, Joseph, the duo would flip between forward and goalie. Of course, whoever was in net was Bernie Parent.

But after Feb. 22, 1980, they became Mike Eruzione and Jim Craig.

“It was David versus Goliath. ... It was unexpected. And for us, we had to get into our mind, you don’t have to repeat the miracle but you have to play your game and play it hard,” Richter told The Inquirer. “These are the best in the world; that [1996] Canadian team was one of the best teams ever assembled in the history of the sport. And so, yeah, you better come with everything you have.”

And the Americans did.

Sixteen years after the Miracle on Ice, American kids started pretending to be Richter, John LeClair, Mike Modano, or Keith Tkachuk in their driveways when playing ball hockey. Putting on an MVP performance between the pipes, the Pennsylvanian helped drive the bus straight through the heart of Canada as the U.S. upset the heavy favorites to win the 1996 World Cup.

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This team was all about driving the bus. According to former Flyers forward Joel Otto, at the first meeting before training camp in Providence, R.I., coach Ron Wilson told his players it was “time for the U.S. to drive the bus and not be a passenger.”

Just like Herb Brooks’ famous speech in 1980 pointed at the Russians, in 1996, the focus was on Canada’s time being over. It seemed like the Canadians always drove the bus leading up to that tournament. After all, hockey was their game.

While 1980 was a pinnacle moment — remember, they still had to beat Finland in the round-robin tournament — the Americans struggled to compete thereafter. Zero Olympic medals, two World Junior medals (none gold), and just one bronze World Championship medal that spring. The Americans were 0-7-1 in Canada Cups against the Canadians and had not beaten them at a World Championship in 20 years.

“We took a back seat both skill-wise and physically to the Canadians. That was just a fact,” Keith Tkachuk told The Inquirer. “Until you beat them, you’re always going to be their stepbrother, or the second child, or whatever you want to call it. And it hurt a lot of us. We wanted to take that next step.”

There was something different about this 1996 team. Maybe it was because the players had competed together before. Maybe it was because some of them were on the 1991 Canada Cup team that lost in the final to Canada. Maybe it was because Wilson’s message was that he didn’t want to hear of miracles or of slaying dragons.

Or just maybe, it was because, as Otto said, “we knew we were a team to be reckoned with.”

As the kids would say today, the vibes were immaculate.

“We just had a group that was committed to each other, had fun, and just believed in each other, and then the end result took care of itself,” Lou Lamoriello, the team’s general manager, told The Inquirer. “It wasn’t easy by any means, but we rose to every occasion. I know we had a team that was built with the skill, grit, and togetherness that you need to have success.”

The Americans came ready to play. According to Tkachuk, the speech Wilson gave before the first game made them feel like they were “caged animals getting out for the first time.” They set the tone with a 5-3 victory against Canada in Philadelphia’s new arena by playing a gritty, physical game with Tkachuk and Bill Guerin leading the way.

“Bottom line is Billy and I were full of piss and vinegar,” Tkachuk said. “I’ll never forget that first game of the tournament in Philly, we’re the first-ever hockey game there, and it was just as crazy as crazy could be. Canada had — they still have — the best players in the world. But me and Billy, we knew what our role was. Obviously, we had to use our size and strength.”

The win was no small feat considering Canada had won four of the five previous tournaments featuring NHL players and counted 10 future Hockey Hall of Famers among its 26-man roster, including the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman, and Paul Coffey.

Using that victory as a jumping-off point, the U.S. steamrolled its way through the preliminary round, beating Russia 5-2 and Slovakia 9-3, and earning a bye to the semifinal. In the Final Four, the U.S. easily stopped the Russians 5-2 while Canada sent Sweden packing. It set up the ultimate showdown in the best-of-three finale with Game 1 in the brand-new CoreStates Center (now the Wells Fargo Center) in Philly.

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Despite having the fans behind them, they came out like the old U.S. teams and trailed 1-0 after 20 minutes with a familiar five shots on goal. The Americans ended up battling back but lost 4-3 in overtime after the Flyers’ LeClair had tied the game with 7 seconds left in regulation.

“We put pressure on ourselves. We felt we were just as good as them and, yes, deflating when you lose the game — oh, by the way, it was offside [on] the overtime goal — but we believed in each other,“ Tkachuk said.

“We weren’t scared,” added LeClair, now an adviser for the Flyers, while fittingly standing in the press box of the Wells Fargo Center. “We knew that we were there. We lost the first one but that’s why you’re playing three; it’s not a one-game series. ... We just believed the whole time.”

They did not have an easy road. The team jumped on a plane and headed to a hostile Montreal for the second and, if necessary, third game — needing to win both. They had to put the past — and not just that first game — behind them. It was time to bury the ghosts and the decades of Canadian domination.

“Yesterday never got in the way. Tomorrow never got in the way. It was all about today,” Lamoriello said.

“I don’t think anybody hung their head and said, ‘Oh, wow, here we go again. Or Canada is so good, we can’t find a way,‘” Richter recalled. “The team knows how to win. We’ll be fine, and, you know, you can’t win two games before you win one. We really were focused on winning that game in Canada — and then we did.”

On Sept. 12, the Americans righted the ship. LeClair scored twice and Tkachuk, Hull, and Scott Young chipped in a goal each. Sporting his trademark Statue of Liberty mask and red, white, and blue pads, Richter was a brick wall in net. The No. 1 star of the game, he allowed a pair of power-play goals — Flyers forward Eric Lindros got the primary assist on each — but fittingly stopped the other 35 shots he faced, including 17 in the third period.

It then came down to a game Richter said was “for all the marbles.” The mad-for-hockey Canadians against the upstart Americans. It was a hostile environment, even on the walk over to rink. Tkachuk joked that he, Guerin, and Doug Weight almost got in a few scraps on the way to the game with some Team Canada fans who gave them a hard time.

“As much as the chaos was going into that game, with the atmosphere, there was nothing better than walking out. It was like a ghost town,” Tkachuk said so emphatically you could hear the grin through the phone. “It was awesome. I’m not going to lie to you, it was awesome.”

Down 2-1 in the third with less than 8 minutes to go, everyone watching figured the Canadians had it wrapped up. The U.S. was once again close but not good enough to take down Goliath.

But this was not an American team of the past.

This team was different.

In the final 3 minutes, 18 seconds, Hull and Tony Amonte scored less than a minute apart to give the U.S. a 3-2 lead and Derian Hatcher and Adam Deadmarsh added goals in the last minute to solidify what USA Hockey has called “the country’s greatest tournament victory since the 1980 Miracle on Ice.”

To top it off, the guy who wears No. 35 would stop another 35 shots in the game, securing the MVP award. “Let’s call it what it is,” Otto said of Richter. “He was incredible.”

“To win a short tournament like that, you need great goaltending, that’s going to be a key for any team going into it, and we had it,” LeClair said. “Ricky was tremendous from start to finish.”

“It was so much emotion from everybody. It was two or three weeks of just sticking together,” Tkachuk said. “I know that trophy was so darn heavy, it was unbelievable to skate around with. ... It was an incredible journey that, honestly, it [stunk] that it ended. But it was finally getting over the hump against the greatest team probably ever assembled.”

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Added Otto: “Just a lot of emotions go through your head [about] all the times you lost before. Listening to the U.S. anthem, knowing that your country and USA is on top of the world of hockey at that moment. It’s quite prideful. It sure gives me chills and it’s giving me chills right now thinking about how great that tournament was.”

The U.S. finished the tournament with six wins and one overtime loss. They outscored opponents 37-18, so it’s no surprise that the 1996 roster is a who’s who of American hockey. Of the 18 U.S.-born players in the Hockey Hall of Fame, Leetch, Pat LaFontaine, Phil Housley, Mike Modano, and Chris Chelios were on the team. Richter and Tkachuk should be in hockey’s hallowed halls. Hull, who is in and led the tournament with 11 points, was a dual citizen with Canada but always represented the U.S.

The tournament seemed to springboard the U.S. into hockey’s top echelon. That same year as the World Cup win, the U.S. National Development Team was created. Since then, Team USA has won five bronze medals at World Championships, silver medals at the 2002 and 2010 Olympics, and in 2004 beat Canada to win the first-ever gold at that World Juniors. The kids have been more than all right since, winning six more World Juniors, including the past two.

Today, 28.7% of the NHL is American — the number didn’t crack the 20% mark until the 2000s. And heading into the 4 Nations Face-Off, the U.S. is one of the favorites to win.

“There is no question, [American hockey has] grown year after year. And statistics just verify that with the increase of players from the U.S. in the National Hockey League,” Lamoriello said recently as he watched the New York Islanders and Brock Nelson, who will play for the U.S. in the first best-on-best tournament in years.

“To me it’s simplistic: ’80 recognized them, ’96 solidified that they’re here.”

Now it is time for the U.S. to take another step. The U.S. has become a powerhouse and has closed the gap some with Canada, particularly at underage levels. That said, this year’s 4 Nations Face-Off is the first chance in almost a decade for the Americans to measure themselves “best-on-best” against the Canadians.

A U.S. win would lay down a significant marker one year ahead of the NHL returning to the Olympic Games for the first time since 2014, but another disappointing finish would represent yet another setback and maintiain the status quo. Although eight players on the U.S. 4 Nations roster were born before that 1996 World Cup victory, they were all too young to truly grasp what it meant for American hockey fans. These players have never known an American squad that cannot compete and go toe-to-toe with Canada’s elite.

It is time for the next generation to leave its mark with the hope that kids in Philly will pretend to be Connor Hellebuyck, Auston Matthews, and, Keith Tkachuk’s boys, Matthew and Brady. And while they will face another Canadian powerhouse with a superstar lineup — Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Cale Makar to name a few — and also Swedish stars and Finnish stars, the landscape has changed but the goal remains the same: It’s time to drive the bus.