Yea I know. But with one more we will have won the most gold ever. No qualifiers (as the host nation) required.

Canadian men’s hockey has a golden Olympic shimmer once again.

The Canadian national team hung on for a stressful 3-2 victory in overtime to give the country a second Olympic gold medal to celebrate in eight years.

Sidney Crosby provide the heroics Sunday, seven minutes and 40 seconds into the extra period. He capped off a give-and-go with Jarome Iginla for the winner.

This time around, it obviously wasn’t as easy as when Mario Lemieux, Joe Sakic and Co. stormed to a 5-2 victory in Salt Lake City. But winning at home at Canada Hockey Place was more satisfying and ignited one heck of a party nationwide.

The hockey win also gave Canada an Olympic-record 14 gold medals by a country in a single Winter Games.

The Canadians held a one-goal advantage entering the final 20 minutes. To protect the lead, they sat back and played a 1-2-2 trap that the Americans simply couldn’t penetrate until the final seconds.

U.S. forward Patrick Kane fired a shot at the net that hit teammate Jamie Langenbrunner’s skate and went on the Canadian goal. Zach Parise was Johnny-on-the-spot to knock in the rebound with 24.4 seconds left in regulation time.

Crosby had a breakaway with slightly more than three minutes left, but the puck was bouncing on him and he couldn’t get a shot off on U.S. goalie Ryan Miller.

NHL legend Gordie Howe, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and singer Michael Buble were just many of the VIPs in the building. Of course, there also were a number of gold-medal-winning Canadian athletes like skeleton’s Jon Montgomery and the gold-medal-winning women’s hockey team captain, Hayley Wickenheiser.

Canada strikes 1st

Canada had a 1-0 lead after the first period and held a 2-1 advantage following 40 minutes.

The atmosphere was electric once game time arrived and the Canadians wanted to keep the raucous environment alive. That was something they failed to accomplish in their preliminary-round match against the U.S. a week ago, when the U.S. scored on the first shift.

The game was fierce and physical in the first period as both teams tried to establish themselves in that department. U.S. defenceman Brooks Orpik was among the most physical. He almost deposited Canadian forward Dany Heatley into the U.S. bench with a bone-crunching hit.

Orpik, along with his defence partner, Jack Johnson, received the checking assignment on Canada’s line of Crosby, Eric Staal and Iginla.

There weren’t many excellent scoring chances early on. But with 7:10 remaining in the first period, Canadian forward Mike Richards stripped U.S. defenceman Brian Rafalski at the side of the U.S. goal. Richards put a shot on goal that produced a rebound his linemate Jonathan Toews lifted over Miller’s left pad.

Although Canada did not have last change, the Toews, Richards and Rick Nash trio were out on most shifts against the dangerous U.S. line of Paul Stastny, Parise and Jamie Langenbrunner.

U.S. on the board

Canada went ahead by two goals after a pass attempt from Canada’s Ryan Getzlaf to Patrick Marleau hit U.S. defenceman Ryan Whitney and bounded to a trailing Corey Perry for a goal.

The U.S. finally got on the board when a crease-crashing Ryan Kesler redirected a pass from his linemate Patrick Kane and squeezed past Canadian goalie Roberto Luongo, who is Kesler’s teammate with the Vancouver Canucks.

The U.S. had an opportunity to tie the game on a two-on-one break shortly a few shifts later, but Parise held onto the puck and Luongo made the save.

Kesler remarked in a second intermission interview that Luongo was fighting the puck and the Canadians were tightening up.

Canada hit two posts early in the third period on shots from defencemen Shea Weber and Chris Pronger. Patrick Marleau and Heatley had two excellent chances off a Marleau steal, but Miller made stops on both close calls.

The Olympic tournament all-star team was Miller, Ralfaski, Weber, Slovakia's Pavol Demitra, Toews and Parise, with Miller earning MVP honours. Rafalski was named the tournament's top defenceman, while Toews was named the top forward.

Joannie Rochette will carry the Canadian flag into tonight's closing ceremony for the Vancouver Olympics.

The 24-year-old figure skater from Ile-Dupas, Que., won a bronze medal less than a week after her mom Therese died of a heart attack.

Rochette said she was "surprised and touched" to be selected. "Why me'" she said with a smile noting that she had only won a bronze. She said she wanted the closing ceremony to be a celebration of how Canada did at the games.

"I want to walk into that stadium with a big smile on my face."

The decision was made by chef de mission Nathalie Lambert and her assistants Joe Juneau and Steve Podborski.

Long-track speedskater Clara Hughes carried the Canadian flag at the opening ceremonies.

Barack Obama will have to shell out $45.40 for a case of 24 Molson Canadian, after losing a bet to Stephen Harper.

The U.S. President can blame Sidney Crosby, who scored the winning goal in overtime to win the Olympic gold medal in men's hockey on Sunday.

In American dollars, that would be about $43.20.

After the game, the Prime Minister visited the Canadian locker room, telling the players that he’s looking forward to receiving that case of Molson.

Mr. Harper also told the team, “Guys, we’re really proud of you all. You’ve done a great job on behalf of the country, not just this gold - which we all wanted so bad - but 14 gold, an Olympic record for any country in the Winter Olympics.”

The statement was provided by the PMO.

Mr. Harper and Mr. Obama had laid it on the line for the epic match. This being hockey, beer was involved.

If the U.S. men’s hockey team had won, Mr. Harper would have had to purchase a case of Yuengling for his U.S. counterpart. Yuengling, based in Pennsylvania, is the oldest brewery in the United States.

The leaders' wager, meanwhile, follows a bet between White House spokesman Robert Gibbs and the Prime Minister’s spokesman, Dimitri Soudas. They bet on the outcome of the women’s gold-medal hockey game.

The Canadians prevailed, and Mr. Gibbs must wear a Team Canada jersey at his next press gaggle.

“Red and white bring out the colour of Robert’s eyes,” Mr. Soudas joked Sunday after the men’s game.

“I’ll be sending Robert a Team Canada jersey to remember and cherish for the rest of his life the closest friendship between any two countries in the world,” said Mr. Soudas.

“I look forward to seeing him wear the jersey of the True North Strong and Free!”

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister and his son, Ben, attended the game with Wayne and Janet Gretzky. Mr. Harper also sat with the Gretzkys for the gold-medal final that saw the Canadian women’s team beat the U.S.

Mr. Harper has been everywhere at these Games over the weekend. On Saturday, he attended two gold-medal finals: men’s curling and long-track speed skating team pursuit. The Canadians won those, too.

A student of hockey and a big fan, however, Mr. Harper had said in an interview Saturday night that the Canadian men’s team “should win.”

“Man for man, our team is the superior team,” he told CTV’s Olympic sportscaster Brian Williams.

“But let’s not kid ourselves the most consistent team in this tournament to date has been Team U.S.A. So our guys have to come ready to play, 60 minutes, every man, if we do that, we will win and we should win.”

He was right.