Vancouver 2010 Hockey



Date
28 Feb 2020
Tags
Olympic News, Vancouver 2010, Ice Hockey, Canada
Vancouver
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  4. Emotions get the better of some of the competitors as the gold and silver medals are handed out for the men's ice hockey at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic.
Sidney Crosby’s golden goal in overtime against the USA secured victory for Canada in the final of the men’s ice hockey, on the day of the Closing Ceremony at the Vancouver Winter Games. The win on 28 February 2010 sparked scenes of joy in the city and throughout the country.

Highlights from the final of the men's ice hockey event where Canada defeat the USA 3-2 for the gold medal at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.


With only a few hours left before the Closing Ceremony, there was still one more event to go, and not just any event: the final of the men’s ice hockey, between Canada and the USA. At noon on Sunday 28 February 2010, the streets of Vancouver were practically deserted. Its inhabitants could be found gathered in bars or in their living rooms, surrounded by family and friends, determined not miss a single second of the match. At the Canada Hockey Place arena, nearly 18,000 spectators fortunate enough to get their hands on a ticket took their seats in the stands to support the Canadian cause.


“It's our Game”

Canada won six of the first seven Olympic tournaments (Antwerp 1920, Chamonix 1924, St Moritz 1928, Lake Placid 1932, St Moritz 1948 and Oslo 1952), before the Winter Games saw a period of domination by the Soviet Union, who, aside from two “Miracles on Ice” (the US victories at Squaw Valley 1960 and Lake Placid 1980), won eight gold medals between 1956 and 1992 – competing as the Unified Team in the last of these victories. At Lillehammer 1994, Canada lost to Sweden in the final on penalties, and the Nagano 1998 competition was won by the Czech Republic, with the Canadians failing to even make the podium. Canada finally claimed their seventh Olympic title at Salt Lake City 2002, 50 years after the previous one, before getting knocked out in the quarter-finals of Turin 2006 by Russia and finishing in seventh place, with Sweden once again clinching gold.

2010

In other words, in Vancouver – in a country in which the saying about ice hockey is “It’s our Game” – the importance of this final could not be overstated. The Canadian team were playing on home soil, and an entire nation, from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific, was swept up in the excitement. The atmosphere was exceptional in the arena itself, and the match was a particularly tense affair.

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The home side included several players who had also been part of the gold medal-winning team at Salt Lake City 2002 (Chris Pronger, captain Scott Niedermayer, Martin Brodeur and Jarome Iginla) and who were hungry for revenge after the disappointment of Turin. En route to the final, the Canadians finished second in their preliminary round group, beating Norway 8-0 and Switzerland 3-2 in a shootout before losing 5-3 to the USA, in what would prove to be only the first clash between the two teams. In the qualification playoffs, Canada dispatched Germany with an 8-2 victory, before defeating Russia 7-3 in the quarter-final and Slovakia 3-2 in the semi-final. Iginla was the team’s top scorer going into the final match with seven goals, one more than Crosby.

Crosby delivers to send country into frenzy

The crowd at Canada Hockey Place erupted for the first time after 12:50 in the first period of the gold-medal game, when Jonathan Toews opened the scoring following an assist from Mike Richards. The excitement in the arena cranked up a notch when Corey Perry doubled Canada’s lead in the second period. But the Americans regrouped and got a foothold back in the game. Five minutes after Perry’s goal, Ryan Kesler reduced the deficit after being set up by Patrick Kane. Then, with seconds to go until the end of normal time, Zach Parise silenced the crowd with an equaliser to take the score to 2-2 and the game to sudden death. The tension was palpable.

The Canadians went back on the attack. Seven minutes into overtime, Crosby exchanged passes with Iginla and slotted the puck between the legs of American goalkeeper Ryan Miller for a golden goal, delivering an Olympic title that produced joyous celebrations across the city and country. The streets of Vancouver were filled with ecstatic crowds who celebrated their team’s victory well into the night. The celebrations also made their way to BC Place Stadium, the enormous indoor arena that was serving as the venue for the Closing Ceremony. The win sparked joy across the whole of Canada, from Montreal and Toronto to Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton, and Crosby became a national hero. It was an unforgettable moment.

Vancouver 2010 Hockey

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Ninth title at Sochi 2014

Canada, without a World Championship title since 2007, were back to defend their Olympic crown at the Sochi Winter Games in February 2014. Crosby was named captain. At the tournament, the Canadians won all their matches en route to the final, without the captain scoring a single goal. It was on 23 February, on the ice at the Bolshoy Ice Dome in the gold-medal game, which Canada won 3-0 against Sweden, that the famous no. 87 opened his account with his team’s second goal in the second period. Canada claimed their ninth Olympic title, and Crosby his second successive gold medal.

Women

“It’s amazing!” said Crosby following Canada’s victory. “Listen, in Vancouver there was nothing in it; we won in overtime. Since then, lots of things have happened. To be in the same situation again, alongside lots of guys who were part of the team in Vancouver, is really special.”

We all believed in each other, and in our style of play. Sidney Crosby

Canada went on to win two consecutive world titles in 2015 and 2016 but had to settle for bronze at the PyeongChang 2018 Games after a 4-3 semi-final defeat to Germany, followed by a 6-4 victory against the Czech Republic in the bronze-medal match. With a total of nine gold, four silver and three bronze medals, Canada are the most successful ice hockey team in Olympic history.

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The triumph at Vancouver 2010, though, was particularly special – a mission accomplished on home soil and an achievement celebrated by an entire nation.

The Vancouver Winter Olympics went out with a bang as the networks of NBC Universal and the Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium registered huge ratings in the final days of Games, highlighted by Team Canada’s 3-2 overtime victory against the U.S. in the gold medal men’s hockey game.

Sunday afternoon’s gold medal hockey game was the most-watched hockey game in 30 years, as NBC drew an average viewership of 27.6 million. That represents the most watched hockey broadcast of any kind since the USA vs. Finland 1980 gold medal game in Lake Placid in 1980 (32.8 million). For historical comparison, the “Miracle on Ice” USA-Russia semifinal game that aired on tape delay in 1980 from the Lake Placid Games drew 34.2 million average viewers. The audience peaked at 34.8 million viewers (18.6 rating) from 5:30-6 p.m. ET, when the USA’s Zach Parise sent the game to overtime with the tying goal with just 24.4 seconds left in regulation.

As expected, the game was an even bigger event in Canada. The gold medal showdown was the most-watched television broadcast ever in Canadian history, with an average audience of 16.6 million viewers. Nearly half of the Canadian population watched the entire game on average, while 80% of Canadians watched some part of the game (26.5 million). The game aired live on nine television networks in eight languages via Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium.

About 22 million people – or two thirds of the Canadian population – were watching when Sidney Crosby scored in overtime that sealed the gold for Canada. In addition, 20 million viewers were watching the medal ceremony in which Team Canada received the record 14th gold medal of the Games, peaking at 20.5 million viewers when Sidney Crosby was presented with his medal from IOC President Jacques Rogge.

Overall, 190 million Americans watched the Vancouver Olympics on the networks of NBC Universal, making them the second-most watched Winter Olympics ever, surpassing Salt Lake City (187 million) and ranked behind only the tabloid-fueled 1994 Lillehammer Games. Through the 17 nights of the Vancouver Olympics, NBC drew more viewers than the other three major networks combined (9 percent advantage). The Vancouver Olympics averaged 24.4 million viewers in primetime, more than doubling Fox, tripling CBS and quadrupling ABC over that span.

Vancouver 2010 Canada Hockey Team

The men’s hockey final also capped off a record Olympics for Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, which delivered the top five most-watched television events in recorded history in Canada. Canadians consumed 1.25 billion hours of Vancouver 2010 coverage on television alone, with the average viewer watching 38 hours of content throughout the Games. In prime time, Vancouver 2010 (5.8 million) delivered 66% more viewers than Salt Lake City 2002 (3.5 million). Overall television viewing in Canada increased 22% during the Games versus the preceding
five weeks, with CTV tripling its average full-day audience. CTV won every timeslot in prime time on every day of the Games, for both total viewers and the prime selling demos of A25-54 and A18-49. Meanwhile, TSN also tripled its full-day audience to become the 2nd most-watched network in Canada during the Games, with Rogers Sportsnet right behind at No. 3.