And then there were 14 — 14 gold medals — to set an all-time record for most gold medals in a Winter Olympics. Canada now has the mark, but it had to work for it in the end.
Okay, so Canada didn't win a medal in the 50K cross country skiing final, so it came down to men's hockey to win it all and set the record.
Men's hockey was going to win Canada its 26th medal; the only question was whether it would be gold or silver.
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Sidney Crosby, who hadn't scored a point for Team Canada, since the Germany game, came through when he had too — taking the pass from Jarome Iginla in overtime to drive the puck past U.S. goalie Ryan Miller at 7:40 in overtime to give Canada the heralded gold medal in men's hockey.
Canada jumped out to a 2-0 lead, adding Jonathan Toews' (Chicago Blackhawks) first goal of the tournament, but Toews' 8th point of the series at 12:50 in the first period.
Corey Perry (Anaheim) added a second period goal with assists from his Anaheim teammate Ryan Getzlaf along with Duncan Keith (Chicago). And for awhile, Roberto Luongo didn't seem like he needed any more goals.
But true to drama, Luongo's Vancouver teammate Ryan Kesler scored in the second period from an assist from Patrick Kane (Chicago). Then again, if the referees had called offsides, the U.S. rally would have been thwarted.
The score stayed that way until 24 seconds left in regulation when Zach Parise scored to tie the game at 2.
Winning gold medal goalie Roberto Luongo stopped 34 shots, Ryan Miller (Buffalo), who played one tremendous series, stopped 36 shots.
Both countries should be very proud of how they played. But there is room for only one gold medal. In 2010, on home soil, that honor belongs to Canada.
Canada won its 8th gold medal in men's hockey, tying Canada with the Russia/Soviet Union unified team. But a lot of those gold medals came early on: Canada's previous two gold medals were in 1952 and 2002.
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The talk was on how great it was for Canada and the United States to meet in the gold medal game in both men's hockey and women's hockey. But doing so in Vancouver had more significant meaning for having these two countries meet.
There can't have been too many Olympics in a country where it was close to another country. The distance between Vancouver and the U.S. border is about 40 km, or 25 miles. These two gold medal games were between the two best friends, country-wise, in the world as close as you can get to the other country. Well, if the Olympics ever came to Detroit and Windsor, you might see a repeat. But that would have to be summer, not winter games.
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Canada, the United States, and Finland — finished in this order in men's hockey and women's hockey. The Finnish women got their bronze medals on the ice with the other women's teams. The Finnish men received their bronze medals after its game.
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Canada finished third in the overall medal count in Vancouver, as it did in Torino in 2006. This year, Canada had a breakdown of 14-7-5 for 26 medals. The United States (9-15-13 37) and Germany (10-13-7 30) finished ahead of Canada. Team Canada may not have owned the podium, but they did make regular visits. And no country spent more time at the top of the podium than Canada in 2010 — on its home soil.
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With Canada and the United States involved in the two hockey gold medal games, wagers were made between the two governments.
For the women's game, the bet was between Prime Minister’s spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, and White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. So now Gibbs has to wear a Team Canada jersey at his next press briefing.
For the men's game, the bet was between their bosses, Prime Minster Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama. The bet was a case — or in Canadian terms, a 2-4 — of beer with either Yuengling (U.S.) or Molson (Canada).
Obama now owes Harper a case of Molson.
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The Closing Ceremony in BC Place got off to a classy start. Catriona LeMay Doan, the one final torch bearer who didn't get to light the torch because of the mechanical failure in the Opening Ceremony, got to light the torch at the Closing Ceremony, all by herself.
Winnipeg band Inward Eye performed next with the snowboarders. Joanie Rochette ended up carrying in the flag for Canada, not Charles Hamelin as had been previously reported.
Canadian native Neil Young played out the extinguishing of the torch with "Long May You Run."
There were so nice tributes to what it means to be a Canadian from acting legends, and Canadians all, William Shatner (Montréal), Catherine O'Hara (Toronto), and Michael J. Fox (Vancouver). Martin Short also gave his tribute, but his performance was left out of the NBC telecast.
Vancouver native Michael Bublé did a magnificent job with his singing during the Closing Ceremony.
The production at the end with giant Mounties, hockey players, beavers, and moose seemed silly, but could be seen as a spectacle of images people have about Canadians. All we needed were giant replicas of maple syrup and Tim Horton donuts.
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One of the pseudo controversies from the Opening Ceremony was there wasn't enough French. The Closing Ceremony was supposed to have more French. One solution seemed to be to start off announcements in French and then have them in English. Whether that accomplished what it set out to do may depend on the beholder.
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NBC had the Closing Party, excerpts from the Closing Ceremony that it didn't want to carry live so it could show the debut of a show we won't give them the pleasure of promoting. So it ran the rest of the celebration an hour later.
This in itself wasn't so bad an idea, though the Opening Ceremony ran live, so it seemed like live made sense.
That hour featured a number of Canadian music artists: Nickleback, Avril Lavigne, Alanis Morissette, Simple Plan (Montréal), Hedley (Vancouver), and Marie-Mai. Perhaps there were more, but that was all NBC showed.
And a gigantic Boo to NBC for interrupting Morissette with athlete interviews during her song. You are covering an event. This isn't a party where people are just talking during the music. If you don't want to cover the event, shuffle it off to one of your cable channels. Otherwise, show the music.
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A final reminder that even if the Vancouver Olympics are finished, the Paralympics are still to come. More sports action will take place in Vancouver from March 12-21.