WEST VALLEY CITY — Half a minute remained when strains of the familiar anthem's start could be heard.
It wasn't the "Star Spangled Banner."
By the time the song that opens "Oh, Canada" had reached its crescendo, performed spontaneously by a loud maple leaf-adorned minority at the sold-out E Center, a nation of 30 million puck-loving fanatics was well on its way to celebrating gold.
Canada's 5-2 Olympic men's hockey victory over the United States on Sunday didn't just close competition in the 2002 Winter Games. It also capped the quest of a country to claim what it had not in precisely 50 years to the day.
"We're a hockey power in the world," goalie Martin Brodeur said. "Winning the gold kind of reassures of Canada."
Hockey's home and native land finally is back where it feels it belongs: Olympic champions once again.
"We ended up where we wanted to be," Canadian defenseman Scott Niedermayer. "It's not always easy to do that."
Especially not with the hopes of folks from far and wide weighing heavily for half-a-decade.
"A big monkey," American forward Jeremy Roenick said, "is lifted off Canada's back. . . . There's a lot of people singing and dancing in Canada. This is what they've waited for, for a long time. I'm happy for them."
For all of two periods and most of a third, however, there was no telling who would be happiest.
The Americans struck first, using Tony Amonte's wrist shot to take the early lead.
It didn't stay that way for long.
Paul Kariya answered Amonte six minutes later, tapping Chris Pronger's pass past a diving Mike Richter. And less than four minutes after that, youngster Jarome Iginla — the NHL's leading scorer so far this season — stood at Richter's doorstep to deposit Joe Sakic's pass.
Mario Lemieux had a chance to make it 3-1 midway through the second period, but Canada's captain missed the wide-open net. The U.S. responded to the squandered opportunity with a goal of its own, getting it on a power play when Brian Rafalski ripped one that struck Pronger's stick and ricocheted past Brodeur.
Sakic snapped the 2-2 tie less than three minutes later, sending Ed Jovanovski's bouncing, backhanded pass through a crowd in front of Richter.
Later, Lemieux would call it "the decisive play."
For the final minute-plus of the middle period and first 16 minutes of the third, nothing changed, and nothing at all was certain.
But then Canada's men came up big, getting goals from Iginla and Sakic within three minutes of each other to assure everyone back home of their first Olympic win since the Edmonton Mercurys — representing all of their country — won Winter Games gold on Feb. 24, 1952, in Oslo, Norway.
Soon thereafter, Canadians at the E Center broke out in song. Lemieux draped himself in a red-and-white flag. Owen Nolan grabbed a video camera for posterity's sake. Joe Nieuwendyk cradled his kid. And Theo Fleury leaned forward first, a long-overdue medal draped around his awaiting neck.
"Good things happen to good people who work hard," Fleury said. "The mindset of this team was, 'Let's get better every day.' "
Those from Canada did.
"By the end of the tournament," defenseman Eric Brewer said, "we were the best team."
"There were a lot of naysayers out there," Nieuwendyk added. "But even with all the pressure, we came together in a pretty short period of time."
After a stunning 5-2 loss to Sweden in its Olympic opener and a frustrating tie with the Czech Republic, the Canadians hung on to beat Germany in last round-robin game, then dismissed Finland in a quarterfinal matchup and easily handled surprise semifinalist Belarus.
"We were getting some gray hairs in those first few games," Canada's Simon Gagne said.
Yet the U.S.'s road to the gold medal-game was even-more taxing, especially considering it played Russia twice — one a 2-2 final-round tie, the other a memorable 3-2 semifinal win.
By the time Sunday's third period rolled around, little was left in the USA tank.
"We came through a real tough match with Russia," said American coach Herb Brooks, architect of the 1980 Miracle on Ice in Lake Placid that represents Team USA's last men's Olympic hockey gold.
Even Brooks said the U.S. fell victim to "tired legs."
"I don't know if (Canada) 'decidedly outplayed us.' (But) they were the better team," Richter said. "We were a step behind. They had their best game, and we didn't have ours."
For Canada, it couldn't have come at a better time.
"You know, there was pressure on all the teams.," said NHL legend Wayne Gretzky, the man who put together Team Canada. "But ours seemed to be a little bit greater — maybe because we hadn't won in 50 years."
And maybe that's why an anthem's melody sounded as powerful as it has in a long, long time. Especially to those headed home with gold.
"Oh, yeah," Niedermayer said when asked if he heard the song. "You could hear everything."
E-MAIL: tbuckley@desnews.com