Whoa, Canada, That Was a Heckuva Game

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Do you believe in millionaires? Yes!

Sorry, Al Michaels. Despite a thrilling last-second comeback by a plucky U.S. team, there would be no dramatic repeat of Lake Placid in Vancouver on Sunday—no David high-sticking Goliath. Under the comically stressful pressure of a hockey-mad nation—and the loving gaze of Star Trek superfan William Shatner—Canada's starry and starrily compensated Olympic team topped the U.S. in sudden death overtime, 3-2, in an exhilarating men's hockey gold-medal final.

The loss ended a spectacular Cinderella fortnight for the U.S. team, which had outplayed the expectations of the hockey cognoscenti. Despite fielding a young squad of lesser-known, less-expensive—though not exactly destitute—NHL stars, the U.S. had sailed through the two-week Olympic tournament without a loss—or even falling behind in a game. It had even stunned mighty Canada—a Dream Team that makes a combined $128 million in the NHL—in an early round shocker.

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But that remarkable run ended Sunday afternoon on a balmy day in British Columbia, when Canada's wavy-haired superphenom Sidney Crosby zipped a puck past U.S. goalie Ryan Miller to give Canada the win. Mr. Crosby has lifted a Stanley Cup and will pocket nine million smackers this season from the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, but it will be a goal he scored for free—for his homeland—that he'll surely remember the most.

 

Canadians Bid Farewell to Olympics

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The Vancouver Olympics closed on Sunday with a spectacular finale of fireworks and a star-studded celebration. Video courtesy of AFP.

It was a heartbreaker for the U.S. team, especially for Mr. Miller, who'd been so valiant in net. But be happy for Canadians. They wanted this game more than Brett Favre wants to wave a Super Bowl ring at Green Bay. Hockey is a national identity here; and losing may have sent this country in an unfathomable funk. Nobody is supposed to beat Canada in hockey, just like nobody is supposed to beat the U.S. in basketball, or Kardashians.

And it felt like a deserved finale for Vancouver, which had begun these Olympic games on a grim note with the death of a Georgian luger and endured henpecky criticisms about opening-ceremony glitches and its gray, temperate weather. Much of the complaining was absurd. Nobody controls the weather—not even Tom Brokaw.

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Sidney Crosby and Scott Niedermayer celebrate after Crosby's winning goal.

The gripes will be forgotten in the glow of Mr. Crosby's OT goal. The gold-medal final will be one of those games that people will lie about being at for the rest of their lives. However, we have a feeling most of Canada actually was here—along with the sui generis Mr. Shatner, who hails from a galaxy called Montreal.

We weren't among the celebrities or Maple Leaf plutocrats who plunked down as many as 4,000 loonies for a seat inside Canada's Hockey Place. We opted for the cozier—and possibly louder—surroundings of the Saskatchewan House, a fabulous white party tent, put on by that province's tourism ministry, not far from the waterside arena. It may have had wobbly tables and a no-frills green carpet, but inside was everything a discerning hockey fan needed: BBQ bison burgers, Saskatoon berry tarts, pierogies and sour cream, and plastic cups of Molson Canadian. You could also buy white wine, if you didn't mind being incarcerated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

We'd heard lots about how edgy the Great White North had been over the previous two weeks; how they panicked after the early-round loss to the U.S., how they sat on their red mittens when Slovakia narrowed a 3-0 lead to 3-2 in the medal-round semifinals. But the fans inside Saskatchewan House—or Sassy Haus, as we preferred to call it—weren't those skittish fans. They were happy, they were double-fisting Molsons and they were ready for a coronation. Word was they started lining up to enter before daylight; several told us they lustily booed the actor Vince Vaughn when he strutted past in a Team USA jersey. And they hadn't even seen "Couples Retreat."

And that Canada red? It was everywhere; it felt like a sartorial mandate from the prime minister. We wore a bland black windbreaker and got threatened with a 10-minute penalty for a fashion misconduct.

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U.S.'s Ryan Miller sits on the ice as his net is pushed aside.

Inside Sassy Haus, two widescreens carried the live Canadian feed of the game. This was a cultural adjustment for us, as we are accustomed to watching our Olympic events interspersed with delightful lumberjack features, and to watching our live events on tape sometime around 9 p.m. As the slogan goes, What Happens in Vancouver Happens on NBC Four Hours Later.

But enough of those gripes. The Peacock wisely went live on Sunday, for what proved to be the marquee drama of the Olympics. We'd seen thrills from Bode, Shaun, Lindsey and Julia—and let's not forget those icy-hot Nordic combined fellows—but Vancouver's last puff from the Olympic flame was its best.

Sassy Haus raised its first celebratory toast 12:50 into the first period, when Canada's Jonathan Toews scored. The wobbly tables wobbled, and cups of Molson splashed onto the carpet. Canada's Corey Perry added a score in the second period to make it 2-0. Sassy Haus shook again. Even when the U.S. narrowed the lead to 2-1 on a goal by Ryan Kesler, these fans kept eating bison burgers, unworried. The U.S. was just doing its job—making it lively.

OLYMPIC VITALS: Click on the interactive to see data from Olympic countries -- from average amount of alcohol consumed to the number of McDonald's restaurants they have in their countries.

With two minutes to go in regulation, we wiggled to the front of Sassy Haus, turned the back of our head to the TV screen and pulled out a camera. We wanted to record history; we wanted to catch those ecstatic faces when Canada took hockey gold. What we saw instead was 500 jaws drop: with 25 seconds left, the U.S.'s Zach Parise knocked the puck past Canada goalie Roberto Luongo to knot the game at two and send it into a stomach-churning sudden death.

We watched a Sassy Haus official breeze by and shake his head. "Well that didn't go according to the script," he said.

For weeks, we'd been warned about what might happen if Canada didn't take gold in men's hockey. Would it spoil the country's record gold-medal haul in other Olympic sports? We briefly imagined having to hitchhike home from Vancouver, with Canadian pilots refusing to transport Americans south in a national period of mourning.

But Mr. Crosby put an end to that panic, 7:40 into OT. When the 22-year-old from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia—a Gretzky heir apparent since his age was in single digits—scored his golden goal, the Sassy House roared, just like all of the country. It made a Super Bowl sound like a Masters golf clap.

It didn't go according to the script. For Canada, these Olympics went better.
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