Crosby comes through, leads Canada to victory over the Swiss

Sidney Crosby may not have put up any points during regulation, but he scored the most important goal in the shootout to lead Canada to a 3-2 win against Switzerland.

After being denied on his first shootout attempt Crosby was given a second opportunity.  In international rules after the initial three shooters have shot, both teams are allowed to choose any player they want, even if they have already gone.

The obvious choice for Canada was the country’s golden boy, who did not let his homeland down.

“I was lucky to get a second crack at it, I’m glad to make the most of it,” Crosby told CTV.

Though the goal put Canada up in the shootout, it did not secure the victory.  That distinction went to goaltender Martin Brodeur, who made a huge save with his glove to give Canada redemption over Switzerland.

Brodeur had a respectable outing stopping 21 of the shots fired his way, which was just under half of what his counterpart across the ice made.

It had been 4 years to the day since Canada suffered a huge upset when they lost 2-0 to Switzerland in Turin. Swiss goaltender Jonas Hiller must have made Canada feel a little bit of déjà vu after stopping 43 of their shots, including a number of key saves late in the third period.

Dany Heatley scored his third goal of the tournament midway through the first period when he put the puck just passed Hiller’s pad after recieving a Patrick Marleau pass.  Marleau would then score a power play goal in the opening minute of the second period to give Canada a 2-0 lead.  Heatley got an assist on the play.

From that point on Switzerland turned their game around, for the period at least, and scored their first goal of the game just over eight minutes later.  The Europeans would then tie the game with ten seconds remaining in the middle period after a centring pass hit off of Marleau’s skate and passed Brodeur.

That goal tied the game, but it seemed to take the life out of the crowd who could do nothing but stare in disbelief.

The third period was pure Canadian domination, outshooting the Swiss 18-3, but Hiller played as if was a lose-or-go-home situation.  Canada was given a power play with 2:51 left in the game, which they were unable to capitalize on, despite a flurry of chances that Hiller denied.

The inability to score on the power play left Canada 1/7 on with the man advantage.

Canada’s next game is the last one of the round robin as they face the U.S. on Sunday to determine the top team in group A.

About this article

By: Matt Shott
Posted: Feb 18 2010 10:55 pm
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Filed under: Winter Games
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2 Comments on "Crosby comes through, leads Canada to victory over the Swiss"

  1. I liked your recap.it\’s dead on. That performance was an embarrassment for Canada.

  2. Moses Goldman | February 19, 2010 at 5:09 pm |

    Good commentary.

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