VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Back seven years ago, when this coastal city was awarded these Olympic Games, this would have been how nearly any denizen of any province — from the cosmopolitan city of Vancouver to the tiny town of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia — would have drawn up the final play on the final day.

The gold medal hockey game. An arena full of maple leafs on flags, on jackets, on hats, and

in hearts. Overtime, with all the angst that implies — times 10. And a puck dug out of

the corner, onto the stick of Sidney Crosby.

Maybe a few of the fans who packed Canada Hockey Place on Sunday might have chosen a

different path, particularly when Zach Parise of the United States scored to tie things up as

the entire host nation counted down to gold, delaying the moment. But in the end, it was

Crosby, the kid who, almost before he became a pro, became a national hero.

What will become of him now? Seven minutes and 40 seconds into sudden-death overtime

— in the gold medal game, in his home country — Crosby yelled for a pass from

Jarome Iginla, took that puck down low, and fired a shot that somehow found its way between

the pads of U.S. goaltender Ryan Miller, precisely the kind of play Miller had prevented from

occurring so often over the previous two weeks.

The horn sounded. A country screamed. Crosby dropped his stick to the ice, threw his gloves

to the air. Canada 3, United States 2, in overtime.

"Every kid dreams of that opportunity," Crosby said afterward. "It could have been anybody

else. It could have been any other guy in that room."

Yet it wasn't. It was Crosby, the 22-year-old captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the kid

who came to these Games entrusted with protecting Canada's pride in a game it considers its

own. And for all the joy this goal brought to Canada — throngs danced in the streets in

Whistler and Vancouver, just as a brilliant Olympics prepared to close — it brought

misery to Team USA, a young group that arrived here with nothing expected of it, yet nearly

won gold.

"We're pretty devastated," American defenseman Jack Johnson said. "In any hockey event, you

lose a silver medal. You don't win it. You win a gold, and you win a bronze. You lose a

silver."

What they came here to do was take the performance Miller gave them — saves on 36 of

the first 38 shots he faced — and ride it to the gold. When the Americans delivered

Canada a stunning loss a week earlier, Miller stopped 42 of 45 shots, and Canada clutched its

collective chest.

Sunday was different. The Americans fell behind, 2-0, on a goal in the first from Jonathan

Toews and another in the second from Corey Perry. But for the most part, the United States

skated evenly with Canada. And when Ryan Kesler deflected Patrick Kane's shot past Canadian

goalie Roberto Luongo with just more than seven minutes left in the second, the United States

made it clear: No gold would be simply granted to Canada.

"We felt we definitely had them on the ropes," U.S. captain Jamie Langenbrunner said.

That felt more like the case late in the third. With Miller on the bench and the Americans

attacking, Kane fired a shot from the right circle that hit off Langenbrunner first, then

found its way to Parise's stick.

"You got the whole country watching," Crosby said. "You want to win so bad. You're staring

at the clock. It's ticking away slowly."

With 24.4 seconds remaining, Parise buried it. Tie game. On to overtime, in which the

Americans believed the game would be theirs.

"We dominated in overtime," Kesler said.

Not enough. The game-winning play began with Crosby's linemate, Iginla, controlling a puck

in the corner that might have been turned over to the Americans. When Iginla gained

possession, he heard a voice. It was Crosby's.

"He was yelling pretty urgently," Iginla said.

Iginla found Crosby, who by then was alone, bearing in. Miller stepped toward the Canadian

star.

"I've been aggressive all tournament," Miller said, "and I wasn't going to change my game

just because we were in overtime."

To that point, Miller had faced 146 shots in the six games of this tournament. He had saved

139 of them. But when Crosby fired this time, Miller couldn't close his pads quickly enough.

The puck trickled through, and all of Canada screamed.

"You never know when you're going to get a chance, and obviously, being in Canada that's an

opportunity of a lifetime to play in the Olympics here and try to win a gold medal," Crosby

said. "You dream of that 1,000 times growing up, and for it to come true is pretty amazing."