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Vladislav Tretiak, and fall into the endboards. Esposito snared the puck when a defenceman mishandled it and shot just as Henderson was scrambling for the front of the net. Tretiak stopped that shot and another one by Henderson on the rebound. But then Henderson snared his own rebound and fired it past the valiant Soviet goalie to win the series.
    JUST COLLEGE KIDS
    Many of the Soviet players from the 1972 Summit Series also traveled to the Lake Placid Olympics eight years later. The U.S. team of college players, coached by the hard-driving Herb Brooks, fought its way to a shot at a medal. And even though the Soviets were considered a lock for the gold, as the tournament progressed, it became obvious that the swift, skilled American kids had a real chance.
    The key game was the semi-final round: Team USA versus theSoviets. After the first period, with the score tied, 2–2, Coach Viktor Tikhonov pulled Tretiak, replacing him with Vladimir Myshkin. That seemed to give the Americans a shot of adrenaline, and with U.S. goalie Jim Craig stopping most of the what the Soviets threw at him, the Americans were in a 3–3 tie halfway through the third period. Eruzione, the only non-college player on the U.S. roster (he played minor-pro), snapped home a 25-foot shot that led to broadcaster Al Michael’s famous line: “Do you believe in miracles?” The U.S. Team clinched the gold medal by defeating Finland 4–2 in final to join the ranks of the most-revered sports heroes in American history.
    AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!
    By 2010, America’s place as a contender in international hockey was long established, but the country had a new rival: Team Canada. The neighbors met in the men’s hockey final at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
    That year, Team Canada was favored to win hockey gold, and having the homefield advantage certainly couldn’t hurt. But the Canadians started off slowly, losing a preliminary game to the Americans, and one of their stars Sidney Crosby (nicknamed “Sid the Kid” and “the Next One”) was pointless in both the quarter and semifinal rounds. Still, during the final game, with just 24.4 seconds left, the Canadians were up 2–1 and winning seemed assured…until the Americans pulled their goalie and managed to flip a tying goal into the Canadian net. While the Americans celebrated, Team Canada (and their red-and-white-clad fans in the arena and on the streets of Vancouver) was stunned. Were the Canadians—hockey’s elite—really going to lose Olympic gold on their own turf to the U.S.?
    The game went into sudden-death overtime, and after just seven-and-a-half minutes came the shot all of Canada was waiting for: Jarome Iginla fed Sidney Crosby the puck, “the Kid” shot…and scored, sending fans all across Canada to their feet. For Crosby, who grew up shooting goals into a dryer in the basement of his family’s Nova Scotia home, it was a childhood dream come true: “Being in Canada, that’s the opportunity of a lifetime. You dream of that a thousand times growing up. For it to come true is amazing.”

PARIS HILTON: HOCKEY PLAYER
    And a few other celebrity hockey stories you may not have heard.
    S TEVE CARELL. The star of TV’s The Office and films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin grew up in Massachusetts and started playing hockey as a kid. He’s kept it up, too, telling Playboy magazine in 2005 that he had joined the Burbank Sharks, an amateur hockey team in Southern California. “We’re very bad,” he said. “What I lack in physical ability, I make up for in poor coordination.” According to the Sharks’ Web site, Carell is still on the roster in 2011. Favorite team: Boston Bruins.
    AVRIL LAVIGNE. The Canadian pop sensation grew up in Napanee, Ontario, and has been playing hockey since she was a kid, even playing on an all-boys-league team. You can even see a video of her playing as a