The 3 certainties in life: Death, taxes, and a golden goal from Marie-Philip Poulin

Marie-Philip Poulin scored two goals, including the game winner, to lead Canada to the Olympic gold medal. If that sounds familiar, it's because she's now done it three times. 

The 30-year-old centre from Beauceville, Que., has made a career of stepping up in the biggest moments, and capping off the Canadians' undefeated tournament in Beijing was no different. With her performance, she became the first ever hockey player to score in four Olympic finals.

"Trying to describe her is almost getting to a point where we should not; we should just say, it's Poulin," said Danièle Sauvageau, who led the team that won gold in Salt Lake City in 2002 and has coached Poulin in Montreal.

"She is our leader, she is one of the big reasons why we won," offered goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens. "The way she carries herself on and off the ice is truly something special, it's not something that I've witnessed before. I don't know of a more deserving captain to win that gold medal for us."

The Canadians entered the Olympics as the favourites, and spent the past two weeks emphatically proving why. They outscored opponents by a 58-10 margin across seven games, featured eight of the top 10 scorers (including all of the top six), and maintained a 17.17 per cent scoring efficiency.

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Canada was strong from the opening puck drop, consistently beating the Americans to the puck and forcing turnovers to generate chances. The Canadians also won 65 per cent of the face-offs, including a game-leading 73.91 win percentage from Poulin.

"They played an amazing two-on-one game, supporting the puck carrier in all three zones," Sauvageau said. "I witnessed strong, organized, intelligent [hockey].