Losing the gold medal game was painful for the Americans, and sure it was a hit to national pride, bu that game was without a doubt one of the top sporting events I’ve witnessed in a long, long time. Even after Sid Crosby won the game for Canada in OT I wasn’t all that upset. Sure I wanted to see the USA pull off the upset, but the pride I felt for our boys overcame any bad feelings about losing.
Canada was supposed to win that gold. They came in with the best team, and were playing on their home soil. They were favored by every expert heading into the tournament to walk away with the gold. The Americans were picked to finish in the middle of the pack, out of the medals.
But the youngest team in the tournament rode a fantastic showing by the MVP, goalie Ryan Miller, and just won and won and won. They played with heart, and moxie. I saw all but one of their games, and every time they were fun to watch.
And that gold medal game was epic. The first goal for Canada was a mistake by the Americans, turning the puck over deep in their own end. They should have tried to clear the puck out around the boards, but instead opted to try to go up the middle. Turnover, goal. Early in the second they were down 2-0, and things didn’t look good.
But the US boys had a ton of heart. They came right back to pull to within one and then tied it up with just under 25 seconds to play in regulation, when my favorite player on the team, Zach Parise, banged one home from the doorstep to send it to OT.
The overtime was just starting to get into that stressful stage when Crosby ended it. He took a little feed from Jerome Iginla and beat Miller through the five-hole with a snap shot from down low. Miller didn’t have time to close up and the best player in the world became an even bigger national hero in the Great White North.
To watch the Americans shed tears afterward, and the Canadian shed tears of joy, was special. That game meant so much to both parties. It was like a do-or-die Stanley Cup game, it just couldn’t have been any bigger, or been played at a higher level. If you didn’t get goose bumps as the fans sang “Oh Canada” well, you might want to see a doctor and have him check or a pulse. It was a special moment.
Now it’s back to the grind of the NHL for those guys, where the games don’t mean nearly as much for a few months.
But we’re left with the memory of one of the best sporting events of our lifetimes. Everyone that watched that game walked away with something, even if your team only took silver.
The views and opinions in the Enterprise blogs are those of the author and are not neccessarily shared by Falmouth Publishing.
