Canada wins gold:
Shutout of Sweden caps first unbeaten run since 1984
Goaltender Carey Price shuts out Sweden as Canada claims the gold medal.
Sidney Crosby skated in alone on Henrik Lund qvist, faking Sweden’s goalie to the ice with a textbookquality deke and sliding a perfect backhand into the net.
Canada did everything by the book at the Sochi Olympics, winning all six games with a ferocious commitment to defense and discipline. When Canada’s captain finally got his fi rst goal of the games Sunday, it had none of the dramatics of Crosby’s last Olympic goal four years ago in Vancouver.
But it was every bit as golden.
Jonathan Toews scored in the first period, Carey Price made 24 saves in his second consecutive shutout, and Canada defended its Olympic men’s hockey title with a 3- 0 victory over Sweden.
“We’re just an amazing team to watch, the way we work together,” Toews said. “We were just all over them. It’s fun to be a part of.”
Chris Kunitz also scored as the Canadians confirmed their worldwide dominance in their national game by winning gold for the third time in the last four Olympics. No team in the NHL era has controlled a tournament like this group, which allowed just three goals in six games and never trailed at any point in the 12- day tournament.
Canada became the only repeat Olympic champ in the NHL era and the first team to go unbeaten through the Olympic tournament since the Soviet Union in Sarajevo in 1984.
Canada won its record ninth Olympic hockey gold medal — its first outside North America since 1952 — and joined the women’s team to complete Canada’s second straight Olympic hockey sweep.
Lundqvist stopped 33 shots, but the depleted Swedes couldn’t keep pace with the new Big Red Machine in Russia.
While Canada got goals from its two best centers, Sweden had to play without its top three centers. With Henrik Sedin and Henrik Zetterberg already out for the tournament, Nicklas Backstrom was scratched shortly before game time. Swedish Olympic offi cials said Backstrom had a positive drug test because of an allergy medicine.
“I was ready to play the biggest game of my career,” Backstrom said. “And two and a half hours before the game, I got pulled aside. It’s sad.”
Tommy Boustedt, the Swedish hockey team’s general manager, lashed out at the International Olympic Committee about the timing of its decision, saying it was “political” because it would make news.
The governing body refused to fire back.
“We will not comment on any potential process until it has concluded,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.
Bobsledding: Alexander Zubkov droveRussia to victory in the four- man race, adding gold to his two- man win and making him the sixth pilot to sweep those events at an Olympics.
“We did the impossible,” Zubkov said.
Oskars Melbardis of Latvia drove to the silver medal, matching his nation’s best showing in a Winter Olympic event. Steven Holcomb, the 2010 four- man champion from Park City, Utah, piloted USA- 1 to bronze, ceding his Olympic title but winning his third career medal — tying the most by a U. S. bobsledder — and giving the Americans seven sliding medals at the games, tops among all nations.
“We came here to win a medal, and we did just that,” Holcomb said. “It was a tough race. It wasn’t easy. We kind of knew Zubkov was going to be fast and really hard to beat, and the Latvians had a great day today and pulled away, but to come away with a bronze medal, we’re pretty happy with it.”
USA- 2, piloted by Monterey’s Nick Cunningham, finished 12th.
Cross- country skiing: Alexander Legkov led a Russian medal sweep of the men’s 50- kilometer race. He was followed by Maxim Vylegzhanin and Ilia Chernousov. That assured Russia of finishing with the most medals. It was also the host nation’s first gold in the sport in Sochi.
“This is priceless,” Legkov said. “It’s more valuable than my life.”
Doping: Sochi had six doping cases; Vancouver had one four years ago. As IOC President Thomas Bach sees it, that’s good news — the drug cheats are getting caught. “The number of the cases for me is not really relevant,” he said.
Sunday, Austrian crosscountry skier Johannes Duerr was cited for the blood booster EPO, the most serious of the Sochi cases.
“It is a black day for us,” Austrian Olympic Committee President Karl Stoss said at a news conference.
Duerr fi nished eighth in the men’s skiathlon Feb. 9.