Canada and U.S. for Gold on Sunday!

A perfect demonstration of the greatness that is hockey. It's all I could think as I witnessed the drama at the conclusion of the Olympic semi-final between Canada and Slovakia.

With a 3-0 disadvantage heading into the final frame, Slovakia turned up the pressure as the period progressed and their chances of Gold slipped. Canada seemed to merely cling onto their lead as the Slovaks out-chanced, out-shot and, most importantly, outscored their star opponents... but only by two.

Sadly for the ex-Wing, Marian Hossa and his team, that third goal to force extra time proved to be just out of reach as Pavol Demitra was unable to convert on two golden (pun intended) chances in the final few minutes, with the latter being with under 15 seconds to play.

As a result, Steve Yzerman's Team Canada will face their southern rivals just a week after the preliminary round 5-3 U.S. win over Canada, which happened to be the most-watched sporting program in Canadian history. A mark that will very likely be surpassed this Sunday.

The game will give Team USA a chance to avenge the 2002 Salt Lake City Gold-medal game, where Canada captured their only Olympic Men's Hockey Gold in the past 58 years, with a 5-2 win over the United States.

The last step to the Final wasn't quite as nail-biting for Team USA, as they stormed Finland, shelling Miikka Kiprusoff and then Niklas Backstrom for six goals in the first 13 minutes of the game. Red Wing defenseman Brian Rafalski grabbed two assists to continue his prodigious impact to the team now with 4 goals and 4 assists in his 5 games to lead all players in points for the Olympic tournament. The awe-inspiring start set up the win as they cruised to a guaranteed medal with a 6-1 decision.

Despite remaining undefeated and having beaten Canada less than a week ago, Team USA will head into this game as underdogs against the star-studded line-up lead by Stanley Cup-winning Red Wing coach, Mike Babcock.

Officially, Brian Burke's squad will be the home team, being the top seed after the preliminary round, but the Canadians will enjoy the home-crowd advantage and will look to draw energy from them.

After the shakey start to their Olympic campaign, Canada seems to be back on track and ready for another chance at the U.S. -- this time with much more at stake -- but throughout the entire tournament the Americans have shown about enough weaknesses to write on the head of a matchstick. There's no reason to anticipate anything different from them on Sunday, when Gold is on the line.

This game truly is a dream match-up for hockey-lovers all over the world and promises to be yet another demonstration of why our game is the best in the world. Hopefully, the world is watching.