olympics

From the pall of a luger's death, from a series of embarrassing glitches, from a first half so disappointing that Canadian Olympic officials prematurely conceded the medals race, from the men's hockey team losing to the upstart Americans in a preliminary game.

All that was forgotten Sunday. Canada is the Olympic champion in men's hockey, and the whole nation can finally celebrate its Winter Olympics. The national honor is served. Canada survived one of the greatest games in Olympic history to beat the Americans 3-2 in overtime and cap the host country's record gold rush in the Vancouver Games. Crosby -- The Next One, hockey heir to Canada's own Great One, Wayne Gretzky -- won it when he whipped a shot past U.S. goalie 7:40 into overtime after the U.S. had tied it with 24.4 seconds left in regulation. Canada's collection of all-stars held off a young, desperate U.S. team that had beaten it a week ago and, after staging a furious comeback from down 2-0 on goals by and Corey Perry, almost beat the Canadians again.