An impressive run for the USA hockey team fell short at this year’s Winter Olympics, as the Americans lost to Canada 3-2 in overtime in Sunday’s gold medal round. Sidney Crosby beat Ryan Miller 7:40 into overtime to allow the Canadians to become the first host nation in 30 years to win the gold medal in men’s hockey.

The win certainly didn’t come easy for Canada, however, which led 2-1 for most of the game.

After pulling goalie Ryan Miller late in the third period, Jamie Langenbrunner redirected a Patrick Kane wrister off Roberto Luongo’s body and Zach Parise gathered up the rebound and snuck it past Luongo to tie the game with just 24.4 seconds remaining. But after seizing the momentum thanks to the thrilling goal, USA couldn’t get the job done in overtime and the heavily favored Canadians (who were 1/2 to win the tournament at the start of the Winter Games) seized the gold.

Even though they lost, USA’s push for the gold was arguably the most exciting part of the Winter Olympics. It would have been nice to see them go undefeated and complete the underdog story, but there’s no shame in beating Canada once and nearly knocking them off on their home ice in the finals. Gold would have been fine, but there’s a lot of pride for USA in taking home the silver.

Vancouver Canuck fans need not worry any longer about team captain Roberto Luongo signing with another team. The All-Star goaltender has willingly agreed to a 12-year contract extension worth $64 million.

Luongo’s new contract comes with an annual salary cap hit of just $5.33-million, which is down from the $6.75-million average of his current four-year, $27-million deal that expires at the end of the upcoming season.

Luongo’s deal includes a no-trade clause, keeping the 30-year-old Canucks captain in Vancouver until the 2021-22 season.

Luongo was 33-13-7 last season, when he became the first NHL goalie in 60 years to be selected a team captain. He finished second in the league with nine shutouts and fifth in both goals-against average (2.35) and save percentage (.920).

Considering the contract includes a no-trade clause, I think it’s plain dumb to sign a guy for this amount of time. Luongo is already 30 years-old and went through a grueling groin injury last season. I assumed this contract became the longest in NHL history, but I was wrong. In 2006, Rick DiPietro inked a 15-year, $67.5 million deal with the New York Islanders, surpassing former teammate Alexei Yashin’s contract of 10 years.

Ridiculous.