Defence driven Canadian’s successfully defend gold medal

by Evan Mathias

The Canadian Olympic men’s hockey team proved the adage that defence wins championships true in their final two games against the U.S and Sweden.

Once again Canada defeated their rival American counterparts Feb. 21 by a score of 1-0. Despite a low scoring game, Canada dominated flow of play, holding the American snipers of Phil Kessel and Zach Parise at bay for most of the game.

Carey Price was phenomenal in goal stopping 31 shots for his first shutout of the Olympic tournament.

Jamie Benn had the lone goal for Canada who advanced to the gold medal game for the second straight Olympics.

Canada’s defence shined again in the gold medal game against Sweden Feb. 23.

Carey Price recorded his second shutout of the tournament stopping all 24 shots he faced.

Jonathan Toews opened the scoring for Canada with the eventual game winner. “Captain Canada”, Sidney Crosby and his Pittsburgh Penguin teammate Chris Kunitz scored the other goals for Canada who successfully claimed their second straight Olympic gold medal. All three scorers recorded their first tallies of the Olympic tournament
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Team Canada wasn’t the offensive powerhouse they were expected to be before the tournament began scoring just 17 goals in the six games they played. However, their defence is what led the defending Olympic champions to gold again this year allowing just three goals over that six game span.

Price was the story for Team Canada ending their Olympic run on a shutout streak of 164 minutes, 19 seconds. He was unbeaten over eight periods of play.

The gold medal win boosted the Canadian Olympic team to third overall in medal standings with 10 gold, 10 silver and five bronze, behind Russia (33) and Norway (26).