Taking page from his boyhood hero, Mitch Marner keeps Canada's gold-medal hopes alive

When Sidney Crosby's shot sailed into the net in 2010, securing Olympic gold on home soil, a 13-year-old Mitch Marner ran around his neighbourhood with his brother, celebrating.

It's his favourite Olympic memory, and a moment a young Marner would replay it often.

Sixteen years later, it's Marner who's the Olympic hero, playing on a team led by his idol.

Just as Crosby did in the Olympic final in 2010, Marner had the vision to see an opening in the most tense moments of Wednesday's do-or-die quarterfinal game.

As he rushed down the ice with the puck — and with an entire country watching nervously — on his stick, Marner spotted a hole. He skated through two Czech players, and as a third chased him down, Marner backhanded the puck to the net. It was enough to beat Czech goaltender Lukáš Dostál, who'd been solid all game long.

"I was able to get it into a spot that I could get it off my stick and into a spot that had a chance to go in and luckily it did," Marner told CBC Olympics reporter Kyle Bukauskas.

Marner's goal sealed a 4-3 overtime win for Canada over Czechia, sending Canada on to the semifinals on Friday. The opponent hasn't been determined yet.

Mitch Marner sends Canada to the semis with OT winner

It was the first taste of adversity for a dominant Canadian team that flew through the preliminary round relatively untested.

Faced with the prospect of going home earlier than anyone could have predicted, of missing the podium in a tournament these players waited so long to play in, the Canadian players dug in and clawed back from two separate deficits.

"The whole game was a battle," Marner said. "Guys didn't quit. We stayed and trusted our systems and ourselves, and we got rewarded for it."

The Canadians found