Jason La Rose & Jessica Gowans
2010 – CANADA 2, UNITED STATES 0 Marie-Philip Poulin and Shannon Szabados booked their places in Canadian hockey lore, combining to lead Canada to a home-ice Olympic gold with a 2-0 win over the Americans in Vancouver.
Poulin, at 18 the youngest player on the Canadian roster, scored both goals, while Szabados, who started the centralization year third on the depth chart behind decorated puck-stoppers Kim St-Pierre and Charline Labonté, posted a 28-save shutout.
"I was standing there on the blue-line after and I thought to myself, 'I can't believe I got a shutout,'" Szabados told CBC after the game. "But I would have been satisfied with a 9-8 score, as long as we won."
The win capped an impressive run through the tournament for Canada, which captured its third-consecutive Olympic gold by outscoring its opposition 48-2, including back-to-back shutouts in the medal round.
Meghan Agosta did the heavy lifting up front, earning MVP honours after a 15-point performance (including a record-setting nine goals), but it was Poulin who stole the show with 7.5 million Canadians watching.
She opened the scoring with 6:05 remaining in the first period, quickly one-timing a feed from Jennifer Botterill over the glove of U.S. goaltender Jessie Vetter, and buried a chance right off the face-off less than three minutes later to double the advantage.
That was all the offence Szabados needed, and as the seconds ticked away the celebration was on – on the bench, in Canada Hockey Place and in every corner of the country.
"I looked up in the stands and saw a sign that said ‘Proud to be Canadian’ and that's what I am today.”
OTHER GAMES
1960 – Jim Connelly scored the lone goal for Canada in a 2-1 medal-round loss to the United States. A first-period American goal ended Don Head’s shutout streak at 164:19, the fourth-longest run in Canadian Olympic history.
1994 – Finland took an early 2-0 lead, but Canada stormed back with goals from Todd Hlushko, Petr Nedved, Brad Werenka, Jean-Yves Roy and Greg Parks to earn a 5-3 semifinal win over the Finns and advance to the gold medal game for the second-consecutive Olympics.