With sport pundits calling today's Canada-U.S. hockey showdown "the biggest hockey game of all time," the stage was set for history-making heroics.
The players did not disappoint.
But after a hard-fought game full of heart-stopping moments, it was Canada's superstar forward, 22-year-old Sidney Crosby, who buried a pass from veteran linemate Jarome Iginla to deliver a 3-2 win in sudden death overtime, as well as a storybook ending to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games.
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It seems obvious now, but few could have called this outcome.
"I dreamed of this moment," Crosby, who has an Olympic gold to go with his Stanley Cup, told the Canadian Press. "It's pretty incredible.
"Our team worked unbelievably hard and today was really tough, especially when they got the goal in regulation," Crosby said. "But we came back and we got it in overtime. It's just a dream for us."
Originally seen as a shoe-in for the gold-medal game, the Canadians had faltered often in this tournament, barely defeating Switzerland and dropping a 5-3 decision to the U.S. in round robin play and tip-toeing past Slovakia in the semi-final.
The Americans, meanwhile, had finished eighth in Turin, and were seeded so low in Vancouver that the NHLPA scheduled the team's home-bound flights for Saturday. But they emerged as the No. 1 team in the tournament by outscoring their opponents 22-6 to compile a 5-0 record heading into the final.
Upping this game's ante still more was the fact that a win would earn Canada the Olympic record for highest number of gold medals with 14 first-place finishes. Canada ended up clinching that record with the hockey win, finishing the Games with 26 medals (14 gold, seven silver, five bronze).
The first 10 minutes of the matchup were fairly underwhelming. Neither team took command, though each earned a few scoring chances and laid a few big hits. Shea Weber and Drew Doughty nearly connected on a pretty passing play, and the crowd erupted after checks by Brent Seabrook and Mike Richards. At the other end, a loose puck nearly drifted over the goal line behind a prostrate Roberto Luongo, but Duncan Keith pressed the puck under his outstretched pad.
Early on, Canada showed some of the same shakiness that nearly cost the team its lead against Slovakia, but the Americans couldn't capitalize.
The home team struck first at 7:10 when Ryan Suter and Brian Rafalski were caught fiddling with the puck behind the U.S. goal. Mike Richards intercepted the puck and let fly, and Jonathan Toews was there to bang in the rebound.
The first period ended with U.S. troublemaker Jack Johnson laying a hit well after the buzzer, but the play failed to make the desired impact.
The Canadians hit their stride five minutes into the second frame, moving the puck confidently on the power play, owning the Americans on the penalty kill (Eric Staal for interference) and finally finding the back of net to make it 2-0 at 12:47 when Ryan Getzlaf fed a pass to Corey Perry, who put the puck past a screened Ryan Miller.
The undaunted Americans replied five minutes later, Ryan Kesler making good on the promise he made Saturday to score on Canucks teammate Roberto Luongo, tipping in a shot by Patrick Kane on the rush with just over seven minutes remaining in the period.
After that, the teams traded chances, but nobody could beat the two goalies battling to establish their reputations in international competition, Luongo and Miller, whose 1.04 goals-against average heading into the final made him the talk of the tournament.
Kesler commented between periods that Canada tends to lose momentum in the late part of the game. He underestimated the home team. Crosby won the opening faceoff at centre ice and the Canadians came out flying, hitting the post twice before two minutes were up.
The Canadians dominated most of the period, and with less than two minutes remaining, looked set to claim gold.
Crosby had a breakaway and an opportunity to assure the win, but failed to get wood on his shot. The Americans pulled Miller with 1:30 remaining, mounting a last, desperate attack, and with the man advantage and 24.4 left, Zach Parise buried a rebound and bought the U.S. another frame.
Overtime. Four on four. Sudden death.
Both teams played very solid hockey, but the Canadians had the momentum. At 7:40, Iginla beat two defenders down low and sent the puck to Crosby, who wristed it through Miller's pads.
In a moment, and at the tender age of 22, Sid the Kid joined Paul Henderson and Mario Lemieux in the pantheon of national hockey gods who clinched huge international decisions for Canada. Canada 3, U.S. 2.
With files from the Canadian Press
Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Great game, 2 great teams.....Congrats to both
WHOOOOHOOOO!!!....Canada's game!!!
Canada had 6 guys on the ice when they scored the goal, maybe 7. Dumb cheaters.
To eddie murphy...Dam Yankees are sore losers.
It's really time Americans realized that the world finds them to be arrogant winners and extremely ungracious loosers. There is a difference between Nationalism and arrogance, and Americans just don't get it.
LMFAO, canada wins and you murphy is a loser!!! does silver, and bronze enough already for you people? canadians are proud to have bronze, and silver medals too, man, i don't know why you guys are so upset of that.. they gave their best.
You must have bad eyes, usually if its too many men on the ice it would be 6 if its 5 on 5 or 5 players if its 4 on 4. Im pretty sure the goal wouldnt of counted if there was 7 players on the ice with 4 on 4. Your Americans are still good Hockey players, and you should be proud of them, so insted of making lame excuses that you guys were treated unfairly take the loss like a man and SUCK IT UP!!!!!!
yea 1 goalie and 2 defense and 3 fowards equals 6... hah you must be american cuz ur a poor loser.. you should be happy they even got a medal they wernt even suppose to win a medal haha CANADA RULES
everywhere else in the world lists the medal board by reference to the number of golds not the total of medals. why don't you? you won these games canada and we in britain are bloody proud of you
Thank you! I have asked the same thing myself! As a British born Canadian I was upset by some of the comments from British Media - this comment makes up for it!
So, what's the big deal? Canada was heavily favored to win, and almost blew it in the final minutes. The disgrace if they lost would have been a national disaster, after all, you get nothing but it's THEIR game. So, they won. But not the World Juniors, and for a long time now, they haven't even been in the running for Lord Stanley's Cup. And THAT is a big deal. Salve your wounds with the Gold. You earned it. And we'll see how long you can keep it. Like the Stanley Cup, there are a LOT of teams out there that are capable of seeing that it'll be a LONG time before you see that again!
Check NHL Team rosters to see who wins your Lord Stanley's Cup for your teams. It sure as hell is not USA born players that do it all.
WOW - poor loser! Talk about taking something good that both countries should be proud of and twisting it into something spiteful - actually you should be ashamed of yourself..and just for the record, you're right Canada didn't win the World Juniors - THIS year (how quickly those like you forget the five years previous and their outcome), and the Stanley Cup? Well, I would hope that you aren't actually naive enough to believe that you alone as Americans can soley take credit for the teams and the players that have put their heart and sole into winning the Stanley Cup......Get a grip.
ELVANN, what kind of an uninformed idiot are you? Saying USA wins the Stanley Cup? WHERE do you think Sidney Crosby is from?
Oh, the nastys! If you are so naive that you think the world revolves around hockey.. well, maybe in Canada it does. We have the same idiocy with baseball, basketball,and football. (Wait, isn't baseball a Canadian-claimed game?) But it seems that YOUR players go where the money is. Where's the patriotism? The love of country?
The Cup belongs to the team that wins it, regardless of what country the players are from. And yes, there are more American teams (stocked by Canadians) than in Canada. But is is still a CANADIAN trophy. Just ask any Canadian, whereas a lot of Americans have no interest in it at all.
But, that begs the question: why can't you get and keep enough of YOUR best players on your Canadian teams? Surely they value honor over profit?
As anyone who watched knows, Canada was on the ropes TWICE, and, but for a bit of luck, might not have even made it into the medal games. So what! They were expected to beat the Americans handily. But they almost blew that one, too!
The hockey medals are being played for by professionals. Frankly, the Olympics should have been left to the amateurs.
And yes, I know who won when that was the way it was. And I think it was better that way. I see no great honor where professionals are competing in amateur games.
stanley cup is not about whay country wins it. Chicago black hawks have more canadians on that team than any other team in the nhl including canadian teams. understand hockey before posting.
Hey "ifished",
Man you’re a moron. The reason why there are so many Canadian players on US teams is because there are so many; they can't possibly all fit on the Canadian teams.
So the market has been expanded to the US- and the Canadian born players fill the void left by the US born player's inadequacy
thats dumb the american nhl teams have canadian,and european players on them, so when the stanley cup is won, for instantance pittsburg won and crosby {who is canadian} lead them to the cup.
I am not so sure that Canada was favoured to win the Gold. The Russians were considered the Gold Medal favourite with Sweden second. Canada was rated as low as third. I am very happy it was a good game, worthy of a Gold Medal.
Congrats CA. It was a good game. Thankfully Sid the Kid was able to pull it out for you. Enjoy the celebration!
I am so glad Canada won the gold medal. But now it's back to real hockey that matters. To bad for me as I live in Toronto