Sidney Crosby didn’t even see his game-winning overtime goal that captured gold for Canada yesterday in men’s ice hockey.
He just heard the screaming.
“I just shot it and didn’t see it after that,” said Crosby, who took a feed from a falling Jarome Ignila and whistled it past tournament MVP Ryan Miller as Canada beat the U.S. 3-2 and won the final gold medal of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Crosby skated into the corner as 16,000 raucous fans in Canada Hockey Place, who spent much of the game chanting, cheering, dancing and waving flags, erupted in a roar. Crosby was engulfed by his teammates as they streamed off the bench.
“I dreamed of this moment,” Crosby said afterwards. “It’s pretty incredible.”
The win marks the first time since the 1980 “miracle on ice,” when the U.S. beat Russia, that a host country has won hockey gold.
“It’s unreal,” said goaltender Roberto Luongo. “You work hard your whole life for something like this and it’s nice to get rewarded. This medal is not for myself, but for Canada and for the people of Vancouver and the fans that have supported me since the first day I got here.”
Canada, which sported a 2-0 lead halfway through the second period on goals from Jonathan Toews and Corey Perry, watched in dismay as Zach Parise, untouched in front of the net, pounced on a rebound to beat Luongo with only 24 seconds remaining in the final period.
“I thought we deserved better,” said U.S. forward Ryan Kesler, who deflected a weak shot by Patrick Kane past Luongo to score America’s first goal.
“We proved that it’s not just Canada’s game. We took them to overtime. We beat them once already. It was anybody’s game in overtime.”
Obama’s bet
• It seems U.S. President Barack Obama owes Prime Minister Stephen Harper a few cold ones. The two leaders had a friendly bet on the outcome of yesterday’s gold-medal Olympic hockey game.
• Team Canada came out on top, so Obama will have to pick up a 24-pack of Molson Canadian for the prime minister. Harper would have had to buy Obama a case of Yuengling beer if the U.S. had taken the top honour at the tournament.
– The Canadian Press
