Storybook ending for Canada
March 2, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE Vancouver Olympics ended in ecstasy for the host Canadians when the men's ice hockey team beat the United States 3-2 in overtime on Sunday to win the country's record 14th gold medal.
Sidney Crosby, Canada's biggest star on the ice but relatively quiet all through the hockey tournament, scored the winning goal to set off the celebrations in the hockey-mad country.
"It doesn't feel real. It feels like a dream," Crosby said. "It just feels like a dream."
After entering the Vancouver Games without ever having won a gold medal on home soil, Canada won its 14th in the sport they all wanted to win the most.
Canada finished at the top of the medals table with 14 gold, followed by Germany with 10. The United States and Norway both had nine. The Americans, however, won the most medals overall with 37, followed by Germany with 30 and Canada with 26.
The previous record for golds at a single Olympics was the 13 won by Norway at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games and by The Soviet Union at the 1976 Innsbruck Games.
Earlier, Petter Northug added a second gold to his tally by winning the 50K cross-country race. The big Norwegian, who had already won a medal of each color in Whistler, used his famous final kick to beat Axel Teichmann of Germany in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 35.5 seconds.
"To be the Olympic champion in the 50K is the biggest boyhood dream of my life," Northug said.
Northug also won gold in the team sprint, when he again left Teichmann behind near the finish. He earned a silver medal with Norway in the 4x10K relay and collected a bronze in the sprint.
On Sunday, Northug entered the stadium for the final loop with Teichmann ahead of him, but went side by side with the German after the final curve and steadily pushed ahead, blowing a kiss toward the sky after crossing the finish.
"I knew I could take him," Northug said. "But I didn't know who was behind me."
At a packed Canada Hockey Place, Crosby scored with a wrist shot in overtime after Zach Parise had evened the score with a near-miraculous goal for the Americans with 24.4 seconds left in regulation.
Jonathan Toews gave Canada a 1-0 lead in the first period, and Corey Perry added a second in the next. But the Americans bounced back into the game when Ryan Kesler scored to make it 2-1.
"Our guys did a great job to win in overtime in Canada," Canada coach Mike Babcock said, "it is a dream come true."
Also, Slovakian men's hockey player Lubomir Visnovsky was reprimanded for a minor doping violation.
Visnovsky, who plays for the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL, tested positive for the stimulant pseudoephdrine, which is contained in a cold medication, the International Olympic Committee said.
The player was given only a reprimand.
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