SOCHI, Russia, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Carey Price completed a dazzling Olympics Sunday by making 24 saves and helping bring Canada the gold medal with a 3-0 victory over Sweden.
It was the third championship in the last four Olympics for the Canadians, who put the Montreal Canadien in net for five of their six games and reaped the rewards for doing so.
He faced 106 shots during his five appearances in the tournament and stopped 103 of them, finishing things off by shutting out the United States in the semifinals and Sweden in the title game. Price's shutout streak to close the Olympics reached 164 minutes, 19 seconds .
Canada's goals -- one in each period -- came from Jonathan Toews, Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz. None of them had scored during these Olympics prior to Sunday.
It was Crosby's overtime goal against the United States four years ago that gave the Canadians the win.
Toews, who plays his NHL hockey for the Chicago Blackhawks, was parked near the right post when a pass came in from along the boards. Although he was being heavily checked, Toews got a stick on the puck and tipped it past Swedish goaltender Henrik Lundqvist for the game's first score.
That goal came with 7:05 to go in the first period and the Canadians added some insurance with 4:17 left in the middle stanza.
Crosby's poke checked the puck away from Jonathan Erikisson at the Canadian blue line and headed up the ice on a breakaway. The Canadian superstar faked a shot to Lundqvist's right and the goaltender went for that fake. Crosby pulled the puck back on his stick and easily lifted it into the net past a sprawled Lundqvist.
Crosby also forced a turnover at the Swedish blue line in the third period, leading to a slap shot by Kunitz that Lundqvist did not see until it was by him.
This was the eighth Winter Olympics gold medal in men's hockey for Canada, but there had been a long drought prior to the recent run of success. Canada had gone 50 years without a gold medal before winning the 2002 tournament in Salt Lake City.
That half century stretch had been dominated by the Soviet Union, which won seven gold medals.
