From time to time, TheIHLC.com will feature detailed recaps and boxscores of some of the most legendary games in international hockey history, considered to be “IHLC Classics.” Today, in honour of the upcoming Olympics, we feature the first of Canada’s four consecutive Gold Medal victories, the thrilling showdown against the United States at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

🇨🇦 Canada 3-2 United States 🇺🇸
Olympic Gold Medal Game
E Center, West Valley City 🇺🇸
Thursday, 21 February 2002

For more than a week, they bore their opponents’ taunts with smiles and silence. They talked instead about how much they respected the U.S. women’s Olympic hockey team. They said nothing about the little things that were being done to irritate and belittle them; little things such as having their photographs at the athletes village scribbled on and autographed by the American players.
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From time to time, TheIHLC.com will feature detailed recaps and boxscores of some of the most legendary games in international hockey history, considered to be “IHLC Classics.” Today, in honour of Canada Day, we look back at the end of Canada’s Olympic Gold Medal drought in 2002, where 50 years of futility was put to rest in Salt Lake City.

🇨🇦 Canada 5-2 United States 🇺🇸
Olympic Gold Medal Game
E Center, West Valley City 🇺🇸
Sunday, 24 February 2002

After the great disappointment of Nagano, when Canada failed to win a medal despite a tremendous lineup and Gold medal expectations, Canada was leaving nothing to chance four years later. Wayne Gretzky, who was not selected in the shootout against the Czechs in 1998, had retired and been named Canada’s general manager, and he surrounded himself with a roster of executives unlike anything in Canada’s hockey history.

Collectively, they chose the 20 skaters and three goalies who would try to bring their country Olympic glory for the first time since 1952.
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