"We proved that it's not just Canada's game," forward Ryan Kesler said. "We took them to overtime. We beat them once already. It was anybody's game in overtime. They played a good game and I thought we played a good game, too. To come up short definitely hurts. We deserved better."
But this was a story so good and so fitting, it demanded to be written this way. Sidney Crosby, the most scrutinized player on the team under the most pressure, fired the shot that kids all over Canada will be re-creating on ponds and in local rinks for years.
It was a beautiful little example of a North American hockey play, and the two players who made it never saw how it ended.
Crosby slapped the puck back toward the corner. Teammate Jarome Iginla and American defenseman Ryan Suter went in after it. Crosby started moving toward the net a split-second before Brian Rafalski, the other defenseman on the ice, could react.
"He outmuscled the guy [Suter]," Crosby said. "That's what it came down to, a little one-on-one battle. He won it and we were able to capitalize."
Iginla heard Crosby yelling for the puck.
"He was screaming, 'Here, Iggy!' " Iginla said. "He was yelling pretty urgently."
Crosby took the pass, centered it on his stick, and turned. Standing between him and hockey history was Ryan Miller, who was voted MVP of the Olympic tournament. Crosby shot.
Iginla, knocked down by Suter, didn't see it. Crosby didn't see where it went. Judging by the way the puck spiraled through the gap between his pads, Miller didn't see it, either.
A rink away, Canadian goalie Roberto Luongo saw it. Sort of.
"I didn't know for sure," Luongo said. "I've seen that release before. It's hard to pick up. When you shoot it real quick like that, it's hard to close it. The feeling that goes through your body when Sid scores like that, it's unreal."
