By Gadi Dechter
Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- With an overtime goal by Sidney Crosby, the Canadian men’s hockey team brought home the gold medal -- and a case of Molson’s Canadian lager for Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, paid for by Barack Obama.
The U.S. president and Harper made a “friendly wager” on the gold medal game today that pitted the North American neighbors in the final event of the Vancouver Olympic Games.
If the U.S. had defeated the hometown favorites, Harper would have suffered the added ignominy of having to buy Obama a case of Yuengling beer, with headquarters in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, said White House spokesman Nick Shapiro.
Canada beat the U.S. 3-2, earning its eighth hockey gold medal. The game was extended after U.S. player Zach Parise scored in the last 24 seconds of regulation play.
The last U.S. Olympic title came in 1980, when a group of college players upset the Soviet Union in a semifinal game that became known as the “Miracle on Ice.” The U.S. beat Finland for the gold.
Molson Canadian lager is made by Molson Coors Brewing Co., jointly headquartered in Denver and Montreal. Last year, the company sold its 19.9 percent stake in the Montreal Canadiens professional hockey team to an investment group led by Quebec’s Molson family.
D.G. Yuengling & Son, Inc., which bills itself as “America’s Oldest Brewery,” traces its roots to 1829’s Eagle Brewery in Pottsville, a central Pennsylvania town two hour’s drive from Philadelphia.
Shapiro originally said the loser would get the beer.
“Sorry, we had it backwards,” Shapiro said in a second e- mailed statement today during the game. “Blame Canada.”
