{"id":464836,"date":"2026-02-20T19:21:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/464836\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T19:21:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:21:31","slug":"anson-carter-won-a-world-championship-for-canada-after-a-10-minute-review-excerpt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/464836\/","title":{"rendered":"Anson Carter won a World Championship for Canada \u2014 after a 10-minute review: Excerpt"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is an excerpt from \u201cBlack Aces: Essential Stories from Hockey\u2019s Black Trailblazers\u201d by The Athletic\u2019s Julian McKenzie, copyright @2026 and reprinted with permission from Triumph Books. All rights reserved. The book is available for purchase here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No one knows for sure how long the referees needed to review the play in Helsinki. It could have been 15 minutes. But players felt like they were waiting for hours.<\/p>\n

Anson Carter was sure that puck was in the net. He hoped the referees would see things his way. It meant he wouldn\u2019t have to play the rest of the gold-medal game on a sprained knee.<\/p>\n

Moments earlier, Carter \u2014 nicknamed \u201cAce\u201d after originally being nicknamed \u201cAC\u201d for his initials \u2014 sped into the offensive zone as Canada battled Sweden for the gold medal in the 2003 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship final in Finland. Canada sought its first World Championship win in five years but needed an overtime period against the Swedes to secure the victory. The Canadians were tired and would\u2019ve benefited from an overtime winner sooner than later, but were already planning ahead for a shootout if necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cKrys Kolanos was really good in shootouts, and he hadn\u2019t had a shift the entire game,\u201d Team Canada\u2019s Shane Doan remembered. \u201cUnderneath the stadium was another practice sheet. (Canada head coach Andy Murray) tapped Krys Kolanos and was like, \u2018You haven\u2019t skated here in, like, three hours. Go take a couple drives and start getting warmed up for if we go to a shootout. You might have to go in it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter fired the puck on net, trying to beat Sweden\u2019s Mikael Tellqvist. The forward grabbed the rebound and raced behind the net with a wraparound attempt. When he slid the puck into Tellqvist\u2019s pad, Carter immediately celebrated the goal. His teammates followed suit, flooding the ice and throwing their sticks and gloves in the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I shot the puck initially and I saw the rebound, I came around and had so much momentum and speed coming around the net,\u201d Carter said. \u201cMy only concern was, will (the referees) have the vantage point or the viewing point, or the technology, to show that puck was in? Because I clearly saw the separation between the puck, the white and the goal line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Canada\u2019s Anson Carter (22) ended up scoring the winning goal in the 2003 IIHF World Championship final against Sweden. (Alexander Nemenov \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As Canada\u2019s bench cleared, a cluster of players jumped atop Carter at the blue line. But the Swedes tried to keep playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a two-on-one or a three-on-one going the other direction,\u201d teammate Shane Doan said. \u201cWe were like \u2018Oh, oh.\u2019 We just all jumped on the ice because the best way to stop this was to jump on the ice and start celebrating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter\u2019s knee felt every bit of the growing dogpile.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tweaked my knee in the celebration,\u201d Carter said. \u201cI don\u2019t think people understand that the weight of 20 players jumping on you when you\u2019re trying to support everyone. When they\u2019re jumping on you, something\u2019s going to have to give.\u201d<\/p>\n

A referee skated by the Canadian celebration and cautioned that they needed to look it over. Canadian faces went from joyfulness to confusion. As time went by, with officials looking over every possible angle, doubt crept into the minds of the Canadians.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just all sitting there,\u201d Canada\u2019s Daniel Bri\u00e8re said. \u201cIt felt like we were there for two hours just waiting for the call to come. We had a replay that would show the puck was in. And at first you\u2019re like, \u2018OK, this is over, they\u2019re gonna find it. It\u2019s a win.\u2019 We knew the puck crossed the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then the longer it takes us, then you start wondering, why are they taking so long? What\u2019s the problem? What are they looking at? Maybe they don\u2019t have this replay that our video coach was relaying in.\u201d<\/p>\n

All eyes fell on referee Vladim\u00edr \u0160indler, who had a handheld phone to his ear listening to goal officials pore over the instant replays. One point of his hand toward center ice would give Canada the gold they felt they deserved. Otherwise, more hockey would be needed, and Team Canada would have to soldier on without one of its better scorers.<\/p>\n

Officially, the IIHF says its review took 10 minutes. When the goal judge gave him enough confirmation over the phone, \u0160indler pointed to center ice and the Canadians resumed their celebration. The IIHF says it\u2019s the first gold-medal goal to ever be confirmed by video replay.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe endured the longest replay review in history at the World Championship,\u201d Gord Miller said.<\/p>\n

When the goal was confirmed, Carter raised his arms and stick, skating up ice in triumph. He wasn\u2019t thinking about his throbbing knee, still in pain from the premature celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was clear as day to me. There was no doubt in my mind. It was in,\u201d Carter said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is an excerpt from \u201cBlack Aces: Essential Stories from Hockey\u2019s Black Trailblazers\u201d by The Athletic\u2019s Julian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95,29,230,105,146,5,145,54125,35,4,273,27,109],"class_list":["post-464836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-boston-bruins","tag-carolina-hurricanes","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-culture","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-hockey","tag-los-angeles-kings","tag-mens-olympic-ice-hockey","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-sports-business","tag-vancouver-canucks","tag-washington-capitals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116104585913960346","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}