OLYMPIC UPDATE:CROSBY SCORES IN O.T TO GET CANADA A GOLD MEDAL!!!!!!!

USA AT CANADA

3 - 2
Final OT

Highlights

Today in Vancouver, Canada was on top of the hockey world with Sidney Crosby's overtime goal which gives Canada a Olympic record for gold medals with 14 gold. " I just shot it. That's all I remember. But I think it went five hole." Crosby said about his golden goal. But it wasn't all fine and dandy as Canada blew a 2-0 lead." Well it's not a good felling when you blow a 2 goal lead. But we still had a good chance. And we stuck to our game and finally got one in there," Crosby said. The other medal results are: USA will get the silver and Finland will get the Bronze.
In the loss, Kesler and Parise got the goals for the USA. As for Canada, Crosby, Toews and Perry scored for the gold medalists.

The goaltenders were also key parts of this game. As, Ryan Miller (USA) made 36 saves and Roberto Luongo made 34 saves in the 3-2 gold medal victory for Canada. This victory gives Canada's hockey team there 2nd gold medal in there last 3 Olympic winter games.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Video

• 
  CAN 3, US 2: Game winning-goal
• 
  Gold medal ceremony
• 
  Crosby post-game interview
• 
  Rick Nash post-game interview
• 
  Roberto Luongo post-game interview
• 
  Men's hockey: O Canada

GAME SUMMARY

SCORING
CAN 1 1 0 1 - 3
USA 0 1 1 0 - 2

First Period

1. CAN, Toews (Richards) 12:50

Penalties - Ryan USA (tripping) 14:02.


Second Period

2. CAN, Perry (Getzlaf, Keith) 7:13

3. USA, Kesler (Kane) 12:44

Penalties - Malone USA (high sticking) 2:33, Staal CAN (interference) 4:41, Toews CAN (tripping) 8:25


Third Period

4. USA, Parise (Langenbrunner, Kane) 19:35

Penalties - None


Overtime

5. CAN, Crosby (Iginla) 7:40

Penalties - None


SHOTS ON GOAL
CAN 10 15 7 7 - 39
USA 8 15 9 4 - 36

Goaltenders (goals-shots against) - CAN: Luongo (W, 2-36); USA: Miller (L, 3-39).

Power plays (goals-chances) - CAN: 0-2; USA: 0-2

OLYMPIC UPDATE:CANADA BEATS SLOVAKIA 3-2 AND ARE ON THERE WAY TO THE GOLD MEDAL GAME AGAINST THE USA

Last Night in Vancouver, Canada took an early 3-0 lead over Slovakia with goals by Marleau,Morrow and Getzlaf. But it wasn't over yet. As Jaroslav Halak kept them in it with save after save for a total of 25 saves. Slovakia came back in the third with 2 quick goals with just under 5 to play.But it wasn't enough. As Roberto Luongo made a highlight reel save with the glove on Pavel Demitra's shot on a wide open net. Due to that save Canada goals to the Gold Medal game against the USA (Who beat Finland 6-1 in the Semi-Final)."You know what, it's going to be intense; it's going to be emotional," Sidney Crosby told NHL.com. "Look at the tournament game (the 5-3 win by USA over Canada), that's a pretty good idea of what to expect and more here in the final."

In the victory, Luongo made 19 saves to lead to the gold Medal game."The Russian battle was very exciting just because that's what we grew up thinking about all the time, but I think the U.S.-Canada battle is reality," Canada coach Mike Babcock said. "I think you're going to see a lot of this in the future. They've got a good young team and they're rolling. They just crushed the other team today, so it should be a lot of fun and they must be the favorite coming in." The Canada v.s USA showdown will take place tomorrow at 12:00pm P.T and 3:00pm E.t on CTV and RDS.

But that's not the only game. As Slovakia and Finland still have one more game. That game is the Bronze Medal game which will be played sometime today on CTV,RDS or TSN.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

GAME HIGHLIGHTS

US ONLY:
WATCH NOW

CA ONLY:
WATCH NOW
FRANÇAIS

GAME SUMMARY

SCORING
SVK 0 0 2 - 2
CAN 2 1 0 - 3

First Period

1. CAN, Marleau (Weber, Niedermayer) 13:30

2. CAN, Morrow (Pronger, Getzlaf) 15:17


Penalties - None


Second Period

3. CAN, Getzlaf (Perry, Pronger) 16:54 (PPG)

Penalties - Doughty CAN (hooking) 1:29, Chara SVK (roughing) 6:08, Zednik SVK (holding the stick) 16:34.


Third Period

4. SVK, Visnovsky (Stumpel) 11:35

5. SVK, Handzus (Zednik, Satan) 15:07

Penalties - None

SHOTS ON GOAL
SVK 4 5 12 - 21
CAN 10 11 7 - 28

Goaltenders (goals-shots against) - SVK: Halak (L, 3-28); CAN: Luongo (W, 2-21).

Power plays (goals-chances) - SVK: 0-1; CAN: 1-2.

OLYMPIC UPDATE: CANADA WINS GOLD IN WOMENS HOCKEY

Last night in Vancouver, the Womens hockey champion is Canada with a 2-0 win over the USA."We had to stay sharp," said Davidson, the first coach in Olympic history to win back-to-back championships. "We were winning 18-0 and 13-1." Marie-Philip Poulin scored both goals for Canada in the victory. And both of those goals were in the first period.

"We weren't afraid of blocking shots," Vaillancourt said, "and we knew that's what we had to do on five-on-threes." The Americans entered the game as the two-time world champions and the No. 1 ranked team in the world, but they received a lesson in winning from the home team. The Canadians were excellent across the board, and kept their arch-rivals off the top step of the podium - a place the U.S. has not been since the 1998 Nagano Games.This one takes the cake," said veteran defenceman Becky Kellar, who has played in all four women's Olympic tournaments. "We've been on the ice so much this year. We played 60 games, and we practised every situation that could be thrown at us. We were prepared for everything."

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

FINAL STANDINGS

Final classification of women's ice hockey tournament

1. Canada
2. United States
3. Finland
4. Sweden
5. Switzerland
6. Russia
7. China
8. Slovakia

CARBONNEAU ASKED TO COACH THE UNDER 18 CANADAIAN NATIONAL TEAM

Guy Carbonneau (Former Montreal coach) was asked on Thursday if he would want to coach the under-18 men`s hockey team. Carbonneau has not coached since former Canadiens Gm Bob Gainey let him go in March of 2009.Carbonneau's coaching record with Montreal was 124-83-23. I expect Carbonneau to take the job since he doesn't have a coaching job and he said when he was fired that he expects a chance to come up."But everybody that knows me knows I'm a pretty positive person. The sun always comes up, and gives you another chance." Carbonneau said on March 18th 2009.

But Carbonneau does have a job right now and that's with CBC as a broadcaster for the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

THE HABS HEAD INTO THE OLYMPIC BREAK WITH BACK TO BACK LOSSES AGAINST THE FLYERS

Coming off a 3-2 loss against the Flyers, the Canadiens were looking to get some revenge with a win in the second game of the home and home series. But that's not what happened at all. As the Flyers blew out Montreal by the score of 6-2(3 of those 6 goals were scored by Briere). "Obviously in Montreal it's a little extra special, there's no doubt about that," Briere said. "Having friends and family and all the people that are booing me, so it was a little special." The 2 goals that Montreal had scored were by Brian Gionta (17) and Scott Gomez (10)."We didn't have all 20 guys to chip in and play the whole 60 minutes, in Philly and today at home," said Canadiens defenceman Jaroslav Spacek. "We gave up easy goals and didn't recover from that."

Jaroslave Halak gave up 5 goals on 17 shots before Carey Price came in and made 8 saves on 9 shots. The total amount of shots were 28-26 in favour of the Habs but they only had 2 goals.But they had a few injury's. "You're never satisfied with where you are, but you have to be realistic," Martin said. "Sometimes it's not the number of injuries, but who is injured. With a player like (Andrei) Markov, for instance, you just don't replace a player like him. Up front we have three forwards out of our top six out, and it's not just missing a couple of games." The Canadiens next game will be after the Olympics against the Bruins lon March 2nd 2010.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

CANADIENS AQUIRE MOORE FROM PANTHERS

Last night the Canadiens Gm announced that Pierre Gauthier traded a second round pick (in the 2011 draft) for Dominic Moore. Moore will wear number 42 in the Habs next game aginst the Flyers."This might signal a lot of wholesale changes in Florida right now," said TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie. "They were not at all happy the other night with the performance they got against the Carolina Hurricanes in a 4-1 loss, and Panthers GM Randy Sexton has basically said that virtually everybody, including netminder Tomas Vokoun, is available.Will they get something else done before the (Olympic trade freeze) deadline of 3pm et Friday? They're certainly trying." In 48 games with the Panthers this season, Moore has 8 goals and 9 assist for a total of 17 points. He will hope to add some offense to a team that has struggled in scoring when it's 5 on 5. His first game is tonight against the Flyers.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

CANADIENS SNAP CAPITALS 14 GAME WIN STREAK BY THE SCORE OF 6-5 IN OT

Last night in Montreal, the Montreal Canadiens were the team that finally the team that snapped the Capitals long 14 game win streak. But it wasn't the best result that Montreal could have had, since they had a 5-2 lead going into the third before the Caps scored 3 straight goals to send the game to overtime (where Plekanec scored his second of the night and the game winner with 7 seconds left in O.t)."I liked the way we reacted in overtime," said Canadiens coach Jacques Martin. "After getting scored on with less than 20 seconds left, they never got a sniff in overtime." Scott Gomez, Tom Pyatt, Maxim Lapierre and Glen Metropolit also scored for Montreal in the 6-5 victory over the red hot Capitals.

"I felt good," said Price. "It felt like it was a football game, with a week of practice before the game. I just tried to take what I've been working on in practice and apply it directly to the game."Late in the first the Canadiens were killing a penalty and Gorges dove to block the puck and it hit him the back of the head. He was down for several minutes. He will most likely be out with a concussion."That was scary," Green said. "I didn't know where it had hit him or what and I was just glad he got up."

In the loss, Brooks Laich and Nicklas Backstrom scored in the first 2 periods. Then the players that scored in the 3 goal comeback are Mike Green,Brooks Laich(2nd of the night) and Brooks Laich again for the Hattrick. The Capitals should be happy with there effort but if it wasn't for the call late in the second that disallowed a goal due to Ovechkin knocking Gill into Price along with the uck but Gill never touched it. So the call was no goal. The Canadiens will have 2 more games before the Olympics and both are against the Flyers( who are one point back of Montreal).

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Gainey Stepts down as Canadiens G.M

Today in Montreal the Canadiens announced that Bob Gainey has stepped down as Gm and will be replaced by the assistant Gm Pierre Gauthier."I've done my best and now it's time for me to pass the torch," Gainey said on Monday. "I believe that the general manager position requires a long-term vision and a long-term commitment. At this point, I'm not prepared to make a commitment of four or five or six more years in this position."The Habs also announced that Bob Gainey will remain apart of the Canadiens as special Advisor to the General Manager. "I'm leaving the team I love the most in the hands of the man I trust the most," said Gainey. "I look forward to assisting Pierre and the team in our pursuit of our 25th Stanley Cup."

Bob Gainey joined the Canadiens in 2003 as the Canadiens 15th GM in franchise history and helped the Canadiens improve from being a really bad team to a average team."I would say one of the happiest, nicest things has been to see the new generation of Montreal Canadiens fans," said Gainey. "The youth and the enthusiasm and the passion, the joy in the building when we play, by people who are hoping for the same experience their parents had or their grandparents had. That was a bridge that I think I was lucky enough to approach six years ago and participate with a bigger organization...for me, that's a very special thing." The Canadiens new GM Pierre Gauthier joined the Canadiens in the summer of 2003 as Director of the Canadiens Scouting and then he went up to a assistant Gm in 2006. As of today he has now been moved up to GM of the Habs.

"I like this team and I like the coaching staff," said Gauthier. "I've worked with Jacques Martin before, I'm very comfortable with this group. As soon as I leave this room today, I'm going to roll up my sleeves and get the job done." He also said that he wants to make the Canadiens a team that finishes in first year after year."That's the objective - to get to the top tier of the league and to do that consistently," said Gauthier. He was asked a question about whether or not Halak would be delt by the trade deadline and he simply said:"We believe we can go far with these two young men,.You can never say never, but that's a strong position and we would like to keep it strong." So far this season the Canadiens are in 6th place with a record of 28-26-6 this season. As you can see in the stats below the Canadiens have not past the second round under Gainey.

Season	W	L	T	OT	Place	Playoffs
2003-04	41	30	7	4	7th in East	Eliminated in 2nd round
2005-06	42	31	-	9	7th in East	Eliminated in 1st round
2006-07	42	34	-	6	10th in East	Did not qualify
2007-08	47	25	-	10	1st in East	Eliminated in 2nd round
2008-09	41	30	-	11	8th in East	Eliminated in 1st round
2009-10*	28	26	-	6	6th in East	N/A

*After 60 games

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

CANADIENS OVER POWER THE DEAFENDING CHAMPS 5-3 THE FINAL

Today in Montreal, Brian Gionta scored two goals (15th,16th) and Jaroslav Halak made 17 saves to get the Canadiens a 5-3 win over the defending champs (Pittsburgh Penguins)."Halak made some huge saves for us right after they scored that late goal to put them down by two, they had another chance that could have made it a one-goal game," Gionta said. "So I don't know if we didn't rely on him, but I thought it was a better defensive effort. We didn't give up too many chances. Especially against a talented team like that.But we got the win and that's what we needed." Who also scored for Montreal was: Scott Gomez (8),Tomas Plekanec (15) and Mathieu Darche (2).

As for the Pens, Malkin, Dupuis and Guerin all scored in the 5-3 lose."Montreal's a tough place to play with a tough crowd," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. "We didn't have our game at an execution level, we didn't have our brains into how we needed to play and that was evident." With the win, the Canadiens are in 6th in the Eastern Conference.But there just ahead of the Flyers by 3 points. The Flyers next game is tonight at 8pm E.t against the Wild and the Canadiens next game will be tomorrow against the Bruins at 3pm E.t.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

GIONTA SCORES SHOOTOUT WINNING GOAL TO PUT MONTREAL IN 6TH PLACE

Last night in Boston, the Canadiens were looking for there third straight win against the Bruins and there second straight overal and they did by coming back from 2 down to tie the game and force it to O.t and then a shootout(where they would go onto win with the only goal by Gionta).A But not every thing was positive for Montreal, as Halak was forced to make 45 saves on 47 shots while Rask of the Bruins was only forced to stop 23 of 25 shots."As long as we win, it doesn't matter how many shots they have and we have," Halak said. "It would be nice to get more shots on net, but we have to find our game." In the victory, Glen Metropolit and Roman Hamirlik scored for Montreal.

As for the Bruins, Mark Recchi and Blake Wheeler acored in the shootout loss."We wound up in a shootout and we shouldn't have gotten there," Boston coach Claude Julien said. With the win the Habs are now in 6th place. But just by 1 point as the Flyers and Lightning are tied for 7th. The Canadiens will look to get a 3 point advantage with a victory over the Pens on Saturday.

Shootout
Tomas Plekanec MTL Save
David Krejci BOS Save
Scott Gomez MTL Save
Michael Ryder BOS Save
Brian Gionta MTL Goal
Marc Savard BOS Save

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

CANADIENS DEAFEAT THE CANUCKS 3-2

Last night in Montreal, the Canucks were looking for there 8th straight win with a victory over Montreal. But that didn't happen due to amazing goaltending by Jaroslav Halak (who made 45 saves on 47 shots in the 3-2 victory)."I tried to do my best," added Halak. "You need to get lucky on some shots and that's what I was." S.Kostitsyn, M.Lapierre and T. Plekanec all scored for Montreal in the victory. All the goals scored by Montreal were on 5 on 5. Which means this is the first time in 11 periods since Mike Cammalleri scored that the Canadiens had a atleast a goal that's on 5 on 5."With Cammalleri out,others have to step up," said Sergei Kostitsyn. "I think I have to play like that every game, especially with Andrei and Cammalleri out." The Canadiens next game will be on Thursday against the Bruins on RDS and NESN.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

CAMMALLERI OUT FOR 6-8 WEEKS

Today in Montreal, the Canadiens announced that there top goal scored Mike Cammalleri (who has 26 goals this season) will be out with a torn Mcl. But luckily for Montreal the Olympics are coming up in a week and it will give Cammalleri time to rest. So because of the Olympics he will just miss 14 games instead of 25 games (which is how much he would miss in a year without Olympics). He tore his MCL on Saturday against the Senators when Anton Volchenkov sent Cammalleri flying hard into the boards and his right leg went in first.

"I've always had respect for Volchenkov.He's a real honest player," Cammalleri said. "He's a real honest player, the kind who wouldn't hit you from behind or elbowing you or anything like that. But I kinda let my guard down and never touched the puck. "The Canadiens will play there first game without Cammalleri tonight against the Vancouver Canucks.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Update:

TRADE UPDATE:
Today in Toronto, Leafs GM Brian Burk announced that he has traded defenceman Ian White and forwards Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman and Jamal Mayers to Calgary for defenceman Dion Phaneuf, Keith Aulie and winger Fredrik Sjostrom."It was definitely a shock, but I'm very excited about going to Toronto and being a Maple Leaf," said Phaneuf."It's a cliche. If Wayne Gretzky can get traded, anyone can get traded. I was very surprised, but on the other hand I'm very excited to be going to the biggest hockey market in the world." The Leafs also traded Goalie Vesa Toskala and winger Jason Blake to Anaheim for Jean-Sebastien Giguere. The Leafs are doing everything they can from letting Boston use there first round pick (that they got in the Kessel trade) to get a top 5 choice in the 2010 draft.

"We've got to create tension where there's enough talent on the roster and a high enough battle level that the coach has decisions to make," Burke said. "Right now he doesn't have decisions to make. It's these guys who got to go on the ice. We're trying to change that. Today is an important part of changing that."

Written By Andrew Di Pardo