From the opening faceoff, today's gold medal game looked and felt like a classic. Today, the Russian stars played better than the Canadian stars and that was difference between silver and gold. You can only imagine how good this game would have been if the two teams had all their best players in their lineups - Sidney Crosby, Roberto Luongo, Mike Richards, Brendan Morrow, Pavel Datsyuk, Evgeny Malkin, Sergei Zubov.
Although Canada had a two goal lead with a little over a half period remaining, you could feel that they might not be able to hold it. And they didn't. Ilya Kovalchuk tied the game less than six minute left in the game to send the team into overtime. He scored again early in overtime with Rick Nash in the penalty box. The depth of these two teams really showed because these were Kovalchuk's first two goals of the tournament but they got to the gold medal game without his offense.
You had to be really impressed with two young defensemen for Canada - Mike Green and Brent Burns. I didn't even know what NHL team Burns played for. I can't wait for the rematch at the 2010 Olympics.
