I'll start by apologizing, I'm in the middle of moving and literally just packed my books up this morning, so my answer will not be as strong as I'd like. I thus won't be able to answer if the game was censored (though I don't believe it was; see below).

That said, the result was surprising of course. The Soviets went into the game having won five of the past six gold medals in Olympic hockey (their other loss was also to the US, in 1960, which ironically was the last time the US hosted). They had dominated the yearly world championships since making their international debut in 1953 as well, winning eight of the past nine titles, and overall just being the best team in international hockey. The US was not quite so strong, with the team comprised of university student-athletes (the Soviet team was "amateurs" who played for a handful of top teams and trained frequently for international tournaments. The quotes are because while they were technically employed elsewhere, their primary job was hockey), and had not finished better than 4th overall in an Olympics or World Championship since 1972.

It is important to note though that this game was not the gold-medal game. The tournament format had two groups of six play each other in a preliminary round, and the two best in each group went to a medal round, where they played each other once (with games carried over from the preliminary round). The final standings determined the medal winners, and so after the Miracle on Ice both the US and Soviets had a final game: the US played Finland two days later, winning and securing gold, while the Soviets played Sweden and won to earn silver. Had the US lost against the Finns, the result would have been a Soviet gold, and the US and Finland would have either had silver or bronze, depending on goal differential. That would certainly have put a damper on the whole thing.

Anyways, to the reaction of the Soviets. Officially there was nothing from what I understand. It was rough, and in the political climate I'm sure it was not ideal, but the government didn't do anything. The coaching staff, led by the notorious Viktor Tikhonov, was upset and singled out some star players, but they remained on the national team for years afterwards. Indeed most the team stayed intact, and they continued to dominate international tournaments throughout the 1980s. They would win the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, and while the USSR didn't exist in 1992 the Unified Team (as it was called) won gold there too; the Russian team has had trouble replicating that success, only winning gold in 2018 as the "Olympic Athletes from Russia" (in a tournament devoid of most good players).

The Russian public were shocked and confused some young US players just beat their veteran team. The game wasn’t censored and the Russian public did watch it. Much of the Soviet team wanted to quickly hide and avoid the public as much as possible as they were embarrassed by the game. They were trained as the best team in the world and up to that point they were. To lose to the Americans who they soundly beat at MSG a couple months ago was shameful and to take home anything less than Gold was terrible. There is one quote that I can’t completely confirm which is when Viktor Tikhonov, the head coach tries to explain to Premire Brezhnev on why he lost. Brezhnev just says “ Viktor, I know you’re stronger than Americans.”

The Soviet government did not punish the team or the coach, however Tikhonov apparently did punish the team and cut many of the players. He was livid about the loss and blamed them for losing against the US. There is one claim that on the plane ride home, one of the players attack Tikhonov and yelled “I’m going to kill you!” One player, “Slava” Fetisov was one of the few players to survive the cuts and he claims that Tikhonov rode and pushed them even further than before. He also blames Tikhonov for losing the game when he pulled Tretiak from the game. Though Tretiak was not unhappy about being pulled or had any grudge over it. Some believe Tikhonov’s harsh treatment led to many Russian players to go and defect to the NHL.

Overall the Soviet government and public response was mild and quickly forgotten. Many Russians forgot the whole game and just saw it as a fluke game. They had been dominant in every event in the Olympics, including Men’s Hockey. This was just one misstep and they would come back stronger. However the response by Tikhonov might have been the harshest out of any one.