Crosby's OT goal stuns Team USA and earns gold for Canada
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Rest assured, Canada, the national honor is served.
With a flick of the wrist from The Next One, Sidney Crosby, Canadians found Olympic redemption yesterday.
The pall of a luger's death . . . a series of embarrassing glitches . . . a first half so dismal the hosts conceded the medals race . . . a loss to the upstart Americans in a preliminary game.
All but forgotten.
Canada survived one of the greatest games in Olympic history to beat the Americans, 3-2, in overtime.
Crosby - hockey heir to Canada's own Great One, Wayne Gretzky - won it when he whipped a shot past U.S. goalie Ryan Miller 7:40 into overtime after the U.S. tied it with 24.4 seconds left in regulation.
With Canada less than a minute away from celebrating the gold medal, Zach Parise - the son of a player who figured in Canada's finest hockey moment - tied it with Miller off the ice for an extra attacker.
The moment he scored, the groans of disappointed fans likely were heard from Vancouver to the Maritimes. But Crosby, scoreless the previous two games, brought back the cheers with a shot from the left circle that Miller failed to stop.
It was close. It was nerve-wracking. It was a game worthy of an Olympic hockey final.
Crosby joins Mario Lemieux, whose goal beat the Soviet Union in the 1987 World Cup, and Paul Henderson, who beat the Soviets with a goal in the 1972 Summit Series, among the national heroes of Canadian hockey. At age 22, he has won the Stanley Cup and the Olympics in less than a year's time.
Minutes after it ended, delirious fans chanted, "Crosby! Crosby! Crosby!" International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge paused before giving the final medal to Crosby as the crowd got even louder. Then he gestured with his right hand, calling for more cheers for Crosby.
"Our team worked so unbelievably hard," Crosby said. "Today was really tough, especially when they got a goal late in regulation. But we came back and got it in overtime."
To win, Canada withstood a remarkable and determined effort from a U.S. team that wasn't supposed to medal in Vancouver, much less roll through the tournament unbeaten before losing in the first overtime gold-medal game since NHL players joined the Olympics in 1998.
"No one knew our names. People know our names now," said the Rangers' Chris Drury, one of three holdovers from the 2002 U.S. team that also lost to Canada in the gold-medal game.
Tournament MVP Miller was exceptional, and Parise scored a goal that - if the U.S. had won - would rank among the storied moments in American Olympic history.
With less than a half-minute remaining and Miller off the ice for an extra attacker, Patrick Kane took a shot from the high slot that deflected off Jamie Langenbrunner to Parise, who shot it off Canadian goalie Roberto Luongo's blocker and into the net.
Parise is the son of J.P. Parise, who scored two goals for that 1972 Canada Summit Series team.
Luongo didn't outplay Miller, but he still proved he is a big-game goalie by making 34 saves in his own NHL arena.
Luongo went 5-0 in the tournament and 4-0 after replacing Martin Brodeur following America's 5-3 win the previous Sunday.
