Ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Men ' s tournament The men ' s tournament in ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympics was held in Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada , 16 to 28 February 2010 . Games were hosted at two venues – Canada Hockey Place ( renamed from " General Motors Place " for the Olympics ) and UBC Thunderbird Arena . It was the fourth time since the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano that National Hockey League players have been eligible to compete . These Olympics were the first to take place in a city with an NHL team since then , which meant players on the Vancouver Canucks who were competing in the Olympics were playing in their home arena . Teams from twelve national hockey associations competed , seeded into three groups for the preliminary round . The tournament consisted of 30 games : 18 in the preliminary round ( teams played the other teams in their own group ) ; 4 qualification playoff games ; 4 quarterfinal games ; 2 semifinal games ; 1 bronze medal game ; and 1 gold medal game . During the tournament , Teemu Selänne of Finland became the all - time leader for points scored in the Olympics . He notched an assist in his second game of the tournament for 37 career points , surpassing Valeri Kharlamov of the Soviet Union , Vlastimil Bubnik of Czechoslovakia , and Harry Watson of Canada . Sweden ' s goaltender Henrik Lundqvist set a modern - day Olympic shutout streak record of 172 minutes and 34 seconds , continuous from the final of the gold medal game of the 2006 Olympics until Sweden ' s quarterfinal against Slovakia . In the gold medal game , Sidney Crosby scored the game - winning goal seven minutes and forty seconds into overtime for Canada in a 3 – 2 win against the United States . Final rankings . The final standings of the tournament according to the IIHF : Qualification . Belarus , Canada , Czech Republic , Finland , Russia , Slovakia , Sweden , Switzerland and the United States qualified as the top nine teams in the IIHF World Ranking . Germany , Latvia and Norway qualified via the qualification tournament for teams ranked 10th through 30th . Preliminary round . Points to each team are awarded as follows : If two or more teams are tied in points , the following tiebreaker criteria will be used : If a criterion leaves only two teams tied , then those teams will be ranked based on their head - to - head result . Playoff round . Following the completion of the preliminary round , all teams will be ranked 1D through 12D . To determine this ranking , the following criteria will be used " in the order presented " : Qualification playoffs . The top four ranked teams ( 1D – 4D ) received byes to and were deemed the home team in the quarterfinals as they are seeded to advance , with the remaining eight teams ( 5D – 12D ) playing qualification playoff games as follows : Should the score remain even after regulation an overtime period of at most ten minutes is to be played . Should neither team score , a shoot out of three rounds of penalty shot s decides the winner . The four winners of these qualification playoff games advanced to the quarterfinal round , while the losers of the qualification playoff games received a final ranking of 9 through 12 based on their preliminary round ranking . Quarterfinals . Teams seeded D1 to D4 are the home teams . Should the teams be tied after 60 minutes of regulation , an overtime period of at most ten minutes would decide the winner immediately upon the next goal . If the game remains tied after the overtime period , an penalty shot competition determines the winning team . Following the quarterfinal games , the winning teams will be re - ranked F1 through F4 , with the winner of 1D vs . E4 re - ranked as F1 , the winner of 2D vs . E3 re - ranked as F2 , the winner of 3D vs . E2 re - ranked as F3 , and the winner of 4D vs . E1 re - ranked as F4 . The losers of the quarterfinal round games will receive a final ranking of 5 through 8 based on their preliminary round ranking . Gold medal game . The referees for the final were Bill McCreary ( Canada ) and Dan O ' Halloran ( Canada ) , while the linesmen were Stefan Fonselius ( Finland ) and Jean Morin ( Canada ) . Television ratings . The gold medal game drew a big hockey audience in both Canada and the United States . In Canada , the game drew an average 16 . 6 million viewers while 26 . 5 million Canadians watched at least part of the game . Canada ' s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium claims that 22 million people – or two thirds of the Canadian population – were watching the gold medal game when Sidney Crosby scored in overtime , making the game the most - watched television broadcast in Canadian history . However , a new ratings system intended to better track out - of - home viewership was only implemented in August 2009 , making it difficult to accurately compare these results with ratings prior to that date – specifically , the 2002 Canada - USA gold medal game in Salt Lake City , the record holder under the previous system . There was some speculation that the final game of the 1972 Summit Series had as many as 18 million viewers , although recently - recovered Nielsen ratings archives indicate that only 4 . 255 million Canadians watched that game live . In the United States , NBC said that the game was the most - watched hockey game in the U . S . in 30 years , drawing 27 . 6 million , the largest since the United States - Finland game at the 1980 Olympics . Statistics . Leading scorers . " Rankings based upon points " Hat trick scorers Leading goaltenders . " Goalkeepers with 40 % or more of their team ' s total minutes . " Shut - outs Awards . The United States ' Ryan Miller was named the most valuable player and received the Directorate Award for best goaltender of the tournament . Directorate Awards also went to Brian Rafalski ( United States ) for best defenceman , and to Jonathan Toews ( Canada ) for best forward . The tournament all - star team was voted on by the international media at the conclusion of the event . The following players were named : Officials . The games were officiated , according to the IIHF rules , by the following :