The nation’s hockey esteem is intact after a 3-2 overtime win over the United States in the gold-medal game. ‘A game for the ages,’ said Canadian Jonathan Toews. By Bill Plaschke
From Vancouver, Canada
O Canada, did it ever fill the arena, everyone singing, players with their thick arms draped around one another, fans weeping into their giant red jerseys, surely one of the loudest anthems ever.
You know what? Let Canada sing. It earned it. It needed it. The joy, the relief, the redemption, and, of course, the farewell.
On the final day of Canada’s official duties as Olympic hosts, its national sport survived America’s national grit Sunday, winning the gold-medal hockey game over the United States in overtime, 3-2, in front of a bouncing sea of braying red.
The winners celebrated with the game’s best ice dancing, nearly two dozen men locked in a jumping, board-rattling embrace.
“A game for the ages,” said Canadian Jonathan Toews.
The losers fell to their knees, to the cold reality of silver by a sliver.
“It stinks; I mean, it really stinks,” said American Patrick Kane.
It was a shame for the Americans that it ended this way, losing a game they had tied in the final 24 seconds of regulation, losing despite having the speed and the legs and momentum.
But maybe it ended the way it was supposed to end.
Sidney Crosby, Canada’s national hockey hero, sprinting in front of the net and poking the shot past goalie Ryan Miller barely seven minutes into the overtime, throwing out his mouthpiece, throwing down his gloves, hurling himself into the glass, all of Canada at once sighing and screaming.
“I literally did not see the shot go in, I just heard the roar of the crowd,” Crosby said.
It is a roar that Canadians will cherish forever, a loud return of hockey esteem that had been dented by last week’s loss to the U.S., a cheery departure of an Olympics that they had embraced with fervor.
“You dream of this moment 1,000 times growing up,” Crosby said. “Then to have it come true is pretty amazing.”
The victory gave Canada its 14th gold medal here, a record for any country in the Winter Olympics. The silver gave the U.S. 37 overall medals, also a Winter Games record.
Given that, could it be the outcome worked for both sides? is such a thing even possible in sports anymore? If so, then it happened here Sunday, Canada hockey saving face with U.S. hockey gaining heart.
“We’ve proved that it’s not just Canada’s game,” said American Ryan Kesler. “We played good enough to win it all.”
It indeed appeared that the U.S. was going to steal it all when it took advantage of a tentative Canada third period to sneak in a goal by Zach Parise, completing the only period in which the U.S. outshot its favored opponents.
“We had all the momentum,” said Kane, who helped set up that tying goal. “Everything was going for us, everyone was really pumped, sometimes you think you have all it, and then . . .”
Then somebody decides to protect his heritage.
It turns out that, as witnesses suspected, Canada spent most of that third period, well, choking.