Crosby gets his chance to chase gold

VANCOUVER -- Team Canada alternate captain Sidney Crosby has dreamed about playing in a gold-medal game most of his life.
 
Friday night, that dream came true as his Canadians held off a spirited late charge to defeat a Slovakian side that refused to die. With the 3-2 win at Canada Hockey Place, Team Canada booked passage into a dream gold-medal game against Team USA, which is 5-0 in this tournament after a 6-1 pasting of Finland earlier in the day in the other semifinal.
 
Crosby, who had three shots and an even rating Friday night, stopped to talk exclusively to NHL.com after the game.
 
NHL.com: It was a little nerve-wracking there at the end with Slovakia coming with everything they have, wasn't it?
 
Crosby: We expected that and it was just two bounces around the net that they got and they got some life. But we feel we did a really good job throughout the game of not giving them life or a lot of momentum or opportunities. But they got some opportunities there at the end. We got some huge shot blocks. Richie (Mike Richards) made a huge shot block at the end and Louie (Roberto Luongo) made that big save there at the end. When you get to this point, you are going to have to scramble for some stuff and we had to do that here tonight.
 
NHL.com: Now it's team USA in a rematch in the gold-medal game.
 
Crosby: You know what, it's going to be intense; it's going to be emotional. Look at the tournament game (5-3 win by USA in pool play), that's a pretty good idea of what to expect and more here in the final.
 
NHL.com: Talk about the play of Roberto Luongo, who made some big saves in the third period.
 
Crosby: You're not going to get this far without solid goaltending and, you know, we have a few options. He's been the guy that has done a great job for us.