Canada strikes hockey gold

their rivals and when Miller, the American hero in the 5-3 preliminary round win, spilled another shot play was halted as they bore down on his goal pushing the net off its anchors.

The break in play seemed to suit the Americans and soon after, the USA got a goal back as Patrick Kane centred to Ryan Kesler whose shot came off Vancouver team-mate Luongo's body and hit the net.

For the rest of the period it was all Canada as Rick Nash brought a save out of Miller from long-range and then passed to Staal from behind the goal line for another blocked shot to give the USA plenty to think about ahead of the final period.

Inevitably, it was the USA forwards that upped the tempo in the last 20 minutes but Canada defended successfully in numbers and when their defensive line was breached, Luongo made two key saves.

The more the USA pushed, the more the game opened up and Canada's star man Crosby had a chance to finish the game when he broke away with the puck on the red line only to lose his one-on-one duel with Miller.

USA made one last rally for a leveller, taking Miller out of goal for a six-man assault on Luongo's goal with 1:27 left. The gamble worked as Joe Pavelski forced a parry out of Luongo, Kane firing the puck back into the crease from where captain Jamie Langenbrunner pushed it to Zach Parise for the equaliser with just 24 seconds to go.

With 20 minutes of sudden-death overtime ahead and a 15-minute interval, Canada regrouped and came out attacking with Jarome Iginla and Crosby both forcing saves from close range and Nash testing Miller from further out.

Pavelski went close at the other end but back came the Canucks and it was Crosby, fed by Iginla, who grabbed the winner to send Canada into raptures.