By Spencer
The golden year- In one indelible moment, the largest Canadian television audience in history was brought to its feet as a Canadian team of NHL superstars shot down 50 years of hockey history at the Salt Lake Olympic Games.
Sixteen minutes into the final period of a dream Canada-USA matchup, Jarome Iginla fired a shot at the net, and U.S. goalie Mike Richter gloved it. But the puck flipped out and into the air, fluttering just inside the post to record the knock-out shot Canada needed to harness Olympic hockey gold - something a Canadian team hadn't accomplished since the Edmonton Mercurys did it exactly 50 years to that day earlier.
For much of the game, it seemed as if victory could slip from Canada's grasp, as Canadians had so often experienced in international tournaments. The United States scored first, giving Canadian viewers that uneasy feeling. But Paul Kariya's goal tied it, and then Iginla's first goal of the game made it 2-1. The lead had no one resting easy, particularly after an energized U.S. team held off a five-on-three power play.
With the momentum behind them American Brian Rafalski scored to tie it 2-2, and the intensity swelled. The Canadian team needed a hero, and it got just that from tournament MVP Joe Sakic. He scored his first goal of the game to put Canada back in front 3-2 in the closing stages of the second period.
That's where Iginla took over with the goal that would send Canadians across the nation into unbridled displays of patriotism. Another empty netter cemented the score at 5-2, and the final buzzer made it official.
In 2002, the Canadian women's hockey team earned sweet golden revenge in Salt Lake. The 3-2 victory over the rival Americans in the gold medal game brought Canada its first Olympic hockey gold medal in 50 years, and its first ever in women's hockey. It was redemption in so many ways.
The Canadians had watched the U.S. skate off with gold in Nagano in 1998. Then after eight straight losses to the Americans leading up to the 2002 Games, the taunting was ripe at the Games. Some U.S. women had scribbled on photos of Canadian players in the athletes' village, and the Canadians heard reports of insulting comments. Rumours fueled the Canadian fire - although they were later proven to be untrue - that the Americans were disrespecting the Canadian flag in the U.S. dressing room.
The Canadians were as motivated as ever during the 2002 gold medal game. They were up against a boisterous partisan crowd and a U.S. squad that hadn't lost in its last 35 games. Canadian Caroline Oulette scored first just 1:45 into the game. Then despite the U.S. striking back early in the second, Hayley Wickenheiser quickly answered for Canada. Jayna Hefford added a third goal for Canada, and the U.S. responded with another to make it 3-2.
Canadian goalie Kim St. Pierre frustrated the American shooters with 25 saves. She dazzled with a highlight reel glove save that prevented what should have been a sure U.S. goal. Canada fought through an inordinate number of penalties in the game -- 13 for the Canadians to four for the U.S., including eight in a row against the Canadian side - called by an American referee. Although worked to the bone, the penalty-killing unit was at its finest and the team seemed energized rather than worn down.
When the final buzzer sounded, the Canadians piled onto St. Pierre in celebration. They later stood at the blue line arm in arm with their gold medals, crying tears of joy.
A Canadian one-dollar coin (commonly known as a "loonie" because its face shows the profile of a loon) lay buried in the Salt Lake City ice throughout the 2002 Olympic hockey tournament, its existence revealed after Canada's victory in the men's gold medal game. It is now on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame, as the most famous loonie in Canada.
The story begins with Trent Evans, the Edmonton ice technician who worked at the Games' primary hockey venue, the E Center. As the floor of the arena was being flooded and frozen in layers, a colleague mentioned that centre ice should be marked with a drop of paint, "about the size of a loonie."
The next day Evans fished a dollar coin from his pocket and dropped it at the centre spot, where it was cover by 5/8 inch of ice (later, when ordered to remove the coin by his superiors, Evans added a dab of paint for camouflage). The loonie bore silent witness as the Canadian men's and women's teams won their respective gold medals, after which Wayne Gretzky displayed it to a bemused international media.
With the focus on Evans and his talisman, this book provides only a perfunctory account of the games themselves. But the tale of the buried loonie neatly encapsulates the anticipation, despair, tension and exaltation of Canada's Olympic hockey experience. With its mythic qualities enhanced by a series of color illustrations, it is an ideal book for young readers, though anyone who cheered for Canada in 2002 will revel in the story.
While "A Loonie for Luck" does its job nicely, it makes you wish for the book that tells the broader and more compelling story of Olympic hockey gold: how the men evolved from underachievers to champions, how the women dramatically beat the odds and - most importantly - how the entire drama gripped Canadians from Kamloops to Kanduhar. That book might never be written, as the Salt Lake City Games already seem like a long time ago.
But Roy MacGregor's offering is a modest gem, a little piece of myth-making to fire the imaginations of a new generation of Canadian hockey fans and players.