The pressure on Team Canada was never higher than it was at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Watch a replay of Canada vs. USA in the 2002 Olympic Gold Medal game Wednesday at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt on TSN.
Canada entered the men's hockey competition with a series of failures haunting the nation's storied hockey history.
The nation was reeling from a series of losses: A shootout loss to Dominik?Hasek and the Czech Republic at the 1998 Olympics, a loss to the USA in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, four straight years without a medal at the IIHF World Championships, five years without a World Junior gold and ? most tellingly ? 50 years without an Olympic gold.
To make matters worse, Team Canada stumbled out of the gate in Salt Lake City, finishing the preliminary round with a 1-1-1 record and only a win over Germany to its credit.
"They're loving us not doing well," general manager Wayne?Gretzky famously told the press after the team's early struggles.
His comments would prove just the spark that the team and the nation needed.
Canada would top Finland in the quarters before thumping the upstart team from Belarus 7-1 to make the gold medal match.
Awaiting them there were the unbeaten Americans, who had scored a tournament-high 24 goals in six games.
Only Canada stood in the way of the Americans' third consecutive hockey gold as Olympic hosts (after winning in 1960 and 1980) and another potential "Miracle on Ice".
With the nation riding an emotional high from the womens' team winning gold over their American rivals just three days earlier, Canada took to the ice at the E Center looking to end the dry spell.
Unfortunately, the team would hit some early turbulence after Tony?Amonte put the Americans up mid-way through the first.
The response would come in the form of one of the most clever hockey plays since the turn of the Century. Chris?Pronger's pass from the blue line would head right for a gliding Mario?Lemieux in the slot. Instead of taking the shot, he faked out almost everyone on the ice by letting it pass through his legs to a waiting Paul?Kariya, who would bury the equalizer.
Joe?Sakic would find Jarome?Iginla on the doorstep before the first period finished to give Canada a 2-1 lead going into the intermission.
Brian?Rafalski would get the Americans back in it late in the second when his power play wrister from the top of the circle tied the game once more.
From then on in, however, the game belonged to Canada's top talents.
Joe?Sakic's wrister with just under two minutes left in the second would provide Canada with its second lead of the game, one it would not relinquish.
A flurry of U.S. pressure throughout the third period would be eased when Jarome?Iginla's shot was too much for Mike?Richter to handle with just under five minutes to go in the third.
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With just over a minute left, Sakic would once again break in alone and clinch the gold that Canada had waited half a Century to celebrate.
Re-live all the emotion and history of Canada's 2002 Olympic gold medal win with Team Canada Rewind, only on TSN.
Source: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=409466
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