Remembering the ‘Golden Goal’ 10 years later

Ten years ago today, Canada got its “Golden Goal” in Vancouver.

On Feb. 28, 2010, Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby scored one of the most iconic goals in Canadian sports history.

With 7:40 to go in overtime — the whole country sitting on the edge of their seat — Crosby brought Canadians to their feet when he scored the winning goal on United States goalie Ryan Miller to close out the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Everyone remembers Crosby’s iconic yell “Iggy, Iggy” to linemate and former Calgary Flames captain Jarome Iginla.

With Crosby making his way to the United States net, Iginlia found Crosby’s stick, and then the puck was in the back of the net.

Squeezing it past Miller seemed impossible from Crosby’s angle, but he made it happen. Canada had become Olympic champions.

Canada led the gold medal game, 1-0 and 2-1, but with 30 seconds left, a scramble in front of Canadian goalie Roberto Luongo led to the States tying the game.

Overtime was a whole new game that was either team’s to win. But “Sid the Kid” came through and tallied what will forever be known as the “Golden Goal.”

More than 26 million viewers tuned in to some part of the gold-medal contest, and 16.4 million saw the overtime winner, according to Hockey Canada. It was the most-watched hockey game in Canada in close to 30 years at the time.

Just three days earlier on Feb. 25, 2010, Canada’s National Women’s Team beat the U.S. 2-0 in the gold medal final.

Marie-Philip Poulin tallied both goals for Canada. They became back-to-back-to-back champions, winning gold in 2002 (Salt Lake City) and 2006 (Turin, Italy) — the previous two Winter Olympics. The men then followed in their footsteps bringing home gold on home soil.