Canada survived a late-game charge by Slovakia Friday night, setting up a dream gold-medal contest with the U.S. on Sunday.
In the third period, Slovakia outshot a Canadian team 12-7 that had dominated to that point but made the mistake of letting up.
Only an unbelievable glove save by Roberto Luongo in the dying seconds stopped the game from going to overtime.
As the clock ticked down, Pavol Demitra fired a shot that looked destined for the back of the net but a sprawled Luongo managed to get his glove on the shot and keep the puck out.
“They were throwing everything at the net—pucks, bodies, anything,” Luongo told reporters after the game.
“The good thing is I was feeling good all game even though I hadn’t seen much action. I felt comfortable and even though they made it 3-2 there was not a sense of panic that settled in, for myself or my teammates.”
Fans may have felt differently, as what looked like a walk in Stanley Park quickly turned to a nail-biter.
Slovakia was down 3-0 with just 10 minutes remaining. But they brought it to within two when Lubomir Visnovsky put a shot off Roberto Luongo’s leg and into the Canadian net with less than nine minutes to play.
Then Michal Handzus capitalized on some sloppy play in the Canadian end to bring the score to 3-2 with five minutes left.
Luongo described the surge that followed in the last five minutes as “the most fun I’ve ever had.”
“If we would have lost, I don’t know if I would be saying that, “ he added.
After the game, Team Canada players tried to explain the sudden collapse.
“Anyone will tell you when you get a lead in the third period it’s not easy to keep the press on,” said Ryan Getzlaf, who had a goal and an assist for Canada.
“The tendency is always to sit back and try not to make a mistake, instead of just pushing forward. We were able to get it done tonight. That’s the bottom line. They can score two goals as long as we get three.”
The upstart Slovak team, which has never finished higher than fifth in the Olympics, had been the surprise of the tournament. They upset Russia in round-robin play and then sent home defending gold medal winners Sweden in the quarterfinals.
But Friday night they entered a raucous Canada Hockey Place, with fans revved up by a Canadian team that finally seemed to be firing on all cylinders.
Slovakia took the crowd out of the game early, clogging the neutral zone and slowing down the play. The game was a sleeper compared to the high-flying match Canada played against Russia on Wednesday night.
Despite the slow pace, the depth of the Canadian attack proved to be too much for the Slovaks early in the game.
Matched against the much weaker fourth line of the Slovaks, Canada’s Shark line of Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton, and Dany Heatley produced the first goal. The three players form the top line on the NHL’s San Jose Sharks.
Thirteen and a half minutes into the first period, Marleau tipped a point shot from defenseman Shea Weber past Slovak goaltender Jaroslav Halak, who plays for the NHL’s Montreal Canadians.
The goal went to video review to see if Marleau’s stick was above the crossbar, but the stick was found to be low enough and the goal stood.
Less than two minutes later, Brenden Morrow tipped a shot by Chris Pronger into the net to put Canada up 2-0 before the first intermission.
The pace picked up late in the second period when Canada scored its third goal. On the power play Ryan Getzlaf scooped a rebound off a shot by Correy Perry and flipped the puck into the top of the net. Slovakia had entered the game with the best penalty killing and power play in the tournament.
But with the three-goal lead, Canada seemed to shift its focus to the gold-medal match on Sunday. The crowd began cheering, “We want USA!”
Clearly, it was too soon to forget Slovakia, and Canada was forced to endure a late-game nail-biter.
“That one seemed to go down pretty slow,” said Morrow. “It was kind of scoreboard clock watching, and it just seemed to take forever to get down.
“Our guys were pretty gassed out there for a while and they just couldn’t get the puck out of the zone to get a line change so they played desperate. They did a great job of getting in front of pucks and blocking those lanes.”
In the end, Canada earned its berth in the gold-medal game, and a rematch against the rival U.S. team.
Slovakia will play Finland for bronze on Saturday.
With reporting by Matthew Little from Canada Hockey Place in Vancouver.
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