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Team Canada team of the year

Thirteen days of anxiety and expectation exploded in a coast-to-coast roar of joy as Sidney Crosby scored in overtime to give Canada the medal it wanted most at the 2010 Winter Olympics — the men’s hockey gold.
Crosby Pronger
Sidney Crosby and Chris Pronger won gold together as part of Team Canada at the 2010 Olympics

Thirteen days of anxiety and expectation exploded in a coast-to-coast roar of joy as Sidney Crosby scored in overtime to give Canada the medal it wanted most at the 2010 Winter Olympics — the men’s hockey gold.

That moment in Vancouver and the victory in the sport on which so much Canadian pride rests has led the men’s Olympic hockey squad to be named the team of the year in an annual survey of the country’s newsrooms by The Canadian Press.

It came on the final day in Vancouver as a flood of medals went to the host country. The men’s hockey medal was Canada’s 14th gold of the Games, a record for a country at a single Winter Olympics.

”The pressure of the world and the entire country was on us to go out and not disappoint,“ Team Canada centre Jonathan Toews said in an interview. ”To beat some pretty good teams on the way to the gold medal was amazing. Everyone’s trying to knock you off and the pressure’s all on you, so for us to find a way to win was amazing.”

Peak television ratings had more than 80 per cent of Canadians watching as their team pulled out a 3-2 victory in the final against an opportunistic American squad that had chilled a country’s heart with an upset 5-3 win in the preliminary round.

Team Canada easily took first place in a survey of sports editors and broadcasters with 279 points, including a majority of the first-place votes.

“The team fought through enormous pressure, the highest of expectations, early adversity and won — with teamwork,” said Phil Andrews of the Guelph Mercury. “It delivered a where-were-you-when Canadian moment as well.”

The Grey Cup-champion Montreal Alouettes were a distant second with 75 points, followed by the Olympic women’s hockey team at 63 points.

“Not even close when one considers the depth of talent in international hockey and the fine line between winning and losing,” said Carl Fleming of the Truro Daily News. “Aside from an early loss to the USA, the Canadian men’s hockey team was borderline brilliant.”

On Sunday, the Olympics were voted The Canadian Press news story of the year.

Figure skater Joannie Rochette was chosen the female athlete of the year Tuesday while the male athlete of the year will be announced Thursday.

For the first time in 2010, The Canadian Press conducted a people’s choice poll for its annual awards, along with Yahoo! Canada. Team Canada was also the public’s first pick, with 54 per cent of the vote, ahead of the Olympic women’s hockey team at 12 per cent.

With Canada leading 2-1 in the gold medal game, U.S. coach Ron Wilson pulled goaltender Ryan Miller for an extra attacker and Zach Parise scored to force overtime with 25 seconds left in regulation time.

After Canada survived a close call in the extra period, Crosby barrelled into the American zone and put the puck into the left corner, then shouted ”Iggy!” as he broke toward Miller and fired Jarome Iginla’s pass into the net.

Crosby threw his stick and gloves in the air in triumph before he was mobbed on the ice by his teammates, while red-and-white clad fans leapt and hugged each other after a goal that became a classic. The puck eventually made its way to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“To win at home was special,” said Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson.

“To win gold in Salt Lake (in 2002) for the first time in 50 years was special.

”To win at home with 27.5-million people watching the game (on television), that was special.”

But much more than one goal and one game went into the gold medal from a team anointed as the favourite but which took a few games to find itself.

It was the first time the Olympic hockey tournament was played on the smaller NHL-size ice surface, which favoured Canada and the United States even though many European teams had mostly NHL players.

The league shut down for 16 days, and to comply with Olympic rules, GM Place was renamed Canada Hockey Place. The host team also had to replace its traditional Hockey Canada jersey, which was deemed a commercial product, for a new design.

For more than a year, pundits had been speculating on which 23 players would be picked by executive director Steve Yzerman, head coach Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings and a blue-chip staff of NHL GMs.

There were a few surprises as versatile Boston centre Patrice Bergeron, gritty Dallas winger Brenden Morrow and 19-year-old Los Angeles defenceman Drew Doughty made the team.

It came down to one goal in overtime, and who else to score it but Canada’s most watched, publicized and talented player — Crosby.

“There wasn’t a better way to end the tournament than to have him score the goal,” said Toews.

There was little time to celebrate. The NHL resumed play two days after the final and players had to hurry back to their clubs. Toews and the stalwart defence pair of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook went back to Chicago and won a Stanley Cup only four months later.

But a Team Canada get-together was arranged in Edmonton during the summer and the players got to reunite and toast their accomplishment as a group.