Lake of the Woods has a history of mining and exporting gold, but thanks to the efforts of the Canadian hockey team some of that precious material will be making its way back to the area around the neck of Kenora’s own Mike Richards.
Sidney Crosby’s goal seven minutes in to overtime at Canada Hockey Place flew past U. S. goalie Ryan Miller to secure the gold medal sending the home fans in to raptures. It is a moment Richards will never forget.
“This is the greatest thing I’ve ever done. It was such an honour to be on the team and playing in your home country in the Olympics. To win it was incredible.
“I just got off the ice from a shift and was trying to catch my breath. I went to grab a water bottle and before I knew it the bench was empty, I popped up and looked over and saw Staal right beside me. It was one of the best things I’ve ever experienced, I still get goose-bumps thinking about it. “I’ve never heard a building that loud ever. During overtime it felt like everyone was nervous so it was quiet. You could hear everything on the ice and then right when Sid scored the place erupted.”
The U. S. had forced overtime after they tied the game at 2-2 with 24 seconds left on the clock and the groans of disappointment were likely heard from Vancouver right the way to Halifax, but the Canadian team knew they had to remain focused.
“I think it was the best thing at the time for us to have the break in between the 3rd and OT. It was such a shock for them to score with 24 seconds left, we needed some time to collect ourselves.”
“For the first couple of minutes in the room there was nothing said. Then we started moving around and preparing for OT. Not a lot was said I think everyone understood what we needed to do. We played so well throughout game that we didn’t want to change
anything.” 
The victory was the perfect revenge for the preliminary round defeat the U.S. inflicted on Canada but Richards says revenge was the last thing on the teams mind.
“It was never about getting revenge, it was all about winning. There were things we looked at from the first game but we never looked to get revenge. We knew we were going to have our hands full.”
“We didn’t think we played badly when we lost to the U. S. we just ran into a hot goalie and they got a couple of bounces.”
This early defeat meant that Canada had to face Russia in the quarterfinals, a game that many were predicting to be the gold medal match up. Richards believes the convincing 7-3 victory they recorded over Russia was the catalyst to drive them forward.
“That game, I think, was the best game we played in the tourney. From start to finish we didn’t stop. It definitely gave us a big boost to know how well we can play.”
“There definitely was extra pressure playing in Canada. I think at first we didn’t play very well because we were nervous to make mistakes so we didn’t make many plays but after the German game I thought we started to relax and play hockey.”
The gold rush may be long gone from Kenora but Mike Richards is on a one man mission to bring some back home. With Olympic gold to his name already, this year has been a massive success, and with Philly in the final round of the playoffs, he may just add some silverware to that too.
– Christopher Byrne
