2002 Olympics 2002 Olympics Ice hockey games were held at the E Center and Peaks Ice Arena in Salt Lake City and Provo , Utah . Both the men ' s and women ' s tournaments were won by Canada , defeating the host United States in both finals . Men . Fourteen countries played in the tournament . Six hockey powers ( Canada , the Czech Republic , Finland , Russia , Sweden , and the United States ) were automatically admitted to the final eight . The other eight countries ( Austria , Belarus , France , Germany , Latvia , Slovakia , Switzerland , and Ukraine ) played in a preliminary round in two pools . The winners of those pools , Belarus and Germany , advanced to the final round with the six hockey powers . The biggest surprise of the tournament was Belarus , 0 – 3 – 0 in Group D play , knocking off 3 – 0 – 0 Sweden in quarterfinal play . After that upset , the Swedish media held their players responsible for the loss , even going as far to publish their NHL salaries . The players responded by not returning to Sweden during the NHL break , although that was unlikely since the Olympics were held in the same continent as their NHL teams and play resumed soon after the Olympics ended . Another major surprise was the silver medal finish of Team USA , which was not considered a contender as it was steeped heavily in over - 30 veterans . Although it retained most of the players from the 1998 team which had performed below expectations , this time it was coached by Herb Brooks who had been responsible for the " Miracle on Ice " over the Soviet Union during the 1980 Olympics . Despite being close to the end of their careers , Mike Richter and Phil Housley put up phenomenal performances . Brett Hull , John LeClair and Mike Modano formed the " Divine Line " which led the tournament in scoring . Ending up , USA finished second in the round robin . The USA ' s semi - final victory over Russia came coincidentally on the 22 - year anniversary of the upset of the Soviet team at Lake Placid in 1980 . The Americans stormed out to a 3 – 0 lead for the first two periods , before withstanding a furious two - goal rally from the Russians to advance . Russian coach Slava Fetisov , ironically one of the stars for the 1980 Soviet squad , complained about the selection of NHL referees to officiate Olympic matches and charged that officials were trying to fix a Canada - USA final for North American audiences . Canada had a lackluster start , losing 5 – 2 to Sweden , only managing to defeat Germany by a score of 3 – 2 , and drawing with the Czech Republic . These performances prompted an emotional response from Team Canada manager Wayne Gretzky , in particular the referee ' s failure to call a clear hit from behind on Canada ' s Theoren Fleury in the game against the Czech Republic . However , Canada improved in the elimination round , defeating Finland 2 – 1 , and easily sweeping surprise semi - finalist Belarus 7 – 1 . Canada then won the gold medal , defeating the USA by three goals , 5 - 2 . Canada clearly dominated the game and achieved the result speculated . This was the first Olympic gold medal in 50 years for the Canadian ice hockey team . Canadian Joe Sakic was named tournament MVP , having scored twice and assisted on two more during the finals . Thanks to the much - anticipated Canada - USA matchup in the final in front of a North American home crowd , TV ratings for this match were the highest in Olympic history . In the United States , the Canadian gold medal win was the highest rated hockey game , Olympic or NHL , since the 1980 Winter Olympics , with NBC ' s live coverage of it drawing a 10 . 7 rating . It was the largest network hockey audience in the U . S . in 22 years . In Canada , the CBC said that 10 . 6 million watched the game . Veteran CBC Sports commentator Bob Cole called in the dying seconds of the game : " Now , after 50 years , it ' s time for Canada to stand up and cheer ! Stand up and cheer everybody ! The Olympics , Salt Lake City 2002 Men ' s Ice Hockey Gold Medal : Canada ! " During the final , the legend of the lucky loonie was born when Canadian icemaker Trent Evans buried a Canadian one dollar coin ( Loonie ) under centre ice and both the Canadian men ' s and women ' s teams won gold . The format of the tournament was the same one used in 1998 Olympics in Nagano . It was controversial because the National Hockey League clubs would not release their players for the preliminary round . This severely hampered the campaigns of Germany and Slovakia , although the former country managed to qualify for the final group stage . Also the final group stage was criticized as being meaningless since all of the teams qualified for the quarter - finals . The format was changed for the 2006 Olympics in an effort to address these criticisms . Preliminary round . Group A . Top team ( shaded ) advanced to the first round . Group B . Top team ( shaded ) advanced to the first round . Women . This was the second time the Winter Olympics featured women ' s ice hockey . The tournament marked the arrival of Sweden as a Tier Two team , on par with Finland . This increased the number of world class teams to four , Canada , the United States , Finland and Sweden . As with the 1998 Winter Olympics , when the US joined Canada as Tier One teams , another major change in the status of International Women ' s Ice Hockey occurs at the Olympics . Eight countries competed . The top two teams in each pool advanced to the semi - finals . Canada did not allow a goal in the preliminary round , while USA allowed only one goal . Canada trailed 3 – 2 to Finland going into the third period , but score 5 unanswered goals to advance to the final . USA had a fairly uneventful semi - final , shutting out Sweden . In the final , Canada outplayed USA despite being called for 13 penalties by the American referee ( the Americans received four penalties ) . As a result , the game is considered somewhat controversial to many Canadian fans . The turning point of the game probably came when Canada ' s Jayna Hefford scored with one second left in the second period to give the Canadians a 3 – 1 lead going into the third period . This turned out to be the winning goal as the USA scored late in the third period on the power play to cut the lead to 3 – 2 , but Canada hung on to win . It was the first women ' s hockey gold for Canada . Coming into the game , the Americans were 35 – 0 on their season , and had beaten the Canadians in their eight previous meetings . Canadian Hayley Wickenheiser was named tournament MVP . Preliminaries . Group A . Top two teams ( shaded ) advanced to semifinals . Round robin Canada 7 – 0 Kazakhstan Sweden 3 – 2 Russia Russia 0 – 7 Canada Sweden 7 – 0 Kazakhstan Kazakhstan 1 – 4 Russia Canada 11 – 0 Sweden Group B . Top two teams ( shaded ) advanced to semifinals . Round robin United States 10 – 0 Germany Finland 4 – 0 China Finland 3 – 1 Germany China 1 – 12 United States United States 5 – 0 Finland Germany 5 – 5 China