The most prized puck in Canadian history traversed the Atlantic Ocean in the pocket of a referee's shirt and spent more than two days in a sweat-soaked athletic bag before being discovered by a forgetful Finnish linesman.
Stefan Fonselius, one of two linesmen who worked the Olympic final between Canada and the United States, said he retrieved the golden puck from the net of U.S. goaltender Ryan Miller seconds after Canada's epic triumph, and remained on the ice with his fellow officials for the chaotic victory celebration and the elaborate medal ceremony.
But by the time festivities were over, some 20 minutes after Sidney Crosby's golden goal, Mr. Fonselius had forgotten that he was holding the game-winning puck and nobody from the International Ice Hockey Federation came looking for it.
"Nobody remembered it, not even me," he said when reached at his Turku home yesterday. "You know how Canada gets when they win."
Upon his return to the officials' dressing room, Mr. Fonselius showered, changed, and left Canada Hockey Place for his hotel, knowing he had an early-morning flight home. On March 1, he flew from Vancouver to Montreal, then on to Frankfurt and Helsinki. His final leg was a two-hour drive to Turku, and he arrived home in the evening on March 2.
"It was in my bag," he said. "It was in my pocket, and it was still there when I came home."
On Tuesday, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games announced that the golden puck would be based at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
It went on display yesterday as the signature attraction in the hall's Olympic exhibit. Dozens of fans watched as retired NHL player Ron Ellis placed the rubber disc on its perch, alongside paraphernalia donated from Canada's historic victory. In the future, it is expected to travel the country, appearing in halls of fame and museums and being seen by millions of Canadians.
"I'm happy that the puck is there [at the hall of fame]and that everything is good," Mr. Fonselius said. "It was a big honour to work that game. I'm very proud."
Mr. Fonselius, 33, has been an International Ice Hockey Federation official for nearly 10 years, and was working his first Olympic gold-medal game. He said he played hockey until he was 16 years old before turning his attention to officiating. He is married with a 10-month-old daughter.
But the Finn said he did not immediately realize the historical value of the puck, and simply plucked it from the net as any linesman at any level of hockey would do after a goal.
"I know it now, but I didn't remember it after the game," he said.
He was not alone.
Because Mr. Crosby scored in overtime, ending the game instantly, organizers forgot to track the winning puck. That was the red-faced admission of the International Ice Hockey Federation on Tuesday.
Communications director Szymon Szemberg acknowledged gross errors in the post-game puck-retrieval process, admitting that the federation was guilty of "oversight and absent-mindedness" in a story posted on its website.
"In all the commotion and excitement that followed this defining goal, we simply lost our routine and - to a certain extent - our composure," Mr. Szemberg said.
Typically, during and after major international championships, International Ice Hockey Federation organizers and Hockey Hall of Fame delegates collect pucks from on- and off-ice officials. They also make requests of competing teams, and are often given memorabilia, such as Mr. Crosby's game-worn pants.
But Mr. Fonselius said the officials received no visit after the game, which allowed him to take the puck home. He mailed it to the federation's head office in Switzerland, and when asked whether he could verify its authenticity he said: "I didn't have any other pucks. That was the only one - 100 per cent."
Told he was being hailed as a hero in some quarters of Canada, Mr. Fonselius said "that's good to hear." He added that he plans on visiting the puck in its official resting place.
"I actually hope to have a chance to come to Canada and see it again," he said. "That puck has been in my home, so I want to see it one more time."
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WHERE OTHER SPORTS RELICS FOUND A HOME
The famous Team Canada puck from the Vancouver Olympics went on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame yesterday, having travelled to Finland and Switzerland before ending up in Toronto.
Kelly Masse, a spokeswoman for the Hockey Hall of Fame, said the puck used by Sidney Crosby to score the winning overtime goal is expected to become the museum's top attraction.
"I imagine it's going to be a big draw," she said yesterday. The new piece of memorabilia has also inspired renewed interest in the museum's exhibits from the 1972 Summit Series, and Ms. Masse said hall officials are trying to acquire the puck used to score the winning goal in the final game. "Apparently, Ron Ellis has it," she said of the retired NHL player, who placed the Crosby puck in the display yesterday. "He said we can have it, so hopefully that will happen."
Icons of sports history like the one Mr. Ellis promised to the hall yesterday can be a major draw for fans, who want to rub them for luck, bask in their glory or, in some cases, watch them be destroyed.
The Lucky Loonie
Until yesterday, most visitors to the Hockey Hall of Fame wanted to see the Lucky Loonie, according to Ms. Masse. The dollar coin was placed in the ice of the Olympic hockey rink in Salt Lake City for good luck by Canadian Trent Evans in 2002. Both the women's and men's team won gold, and the coin was excavated from the ice and given to Team Canada general manager Wayne Gretzky, who donated it to the museum.
Bra seen around the world
In 1999, U.S. soccer player Brandi Chastain scored a penalty kick to give the United States the Women's World Cup win. She tore off her jersey and fell to her knees in her black sports bra, an image that made the cover of Sports Illustrated. The bra was briefly exposed to the public again at the Sports Museum of America in New York. But when the museum filed for bankruptcy, the bra was seized by the government, and Ms. Chastain was told she would have to pay $250 to get it back. It is now reportedly in the soccer player's San Jose home, in a drawer with her other bras.
All-time greatest
In 1976, the Smithsonian Institutution's National Museum of American History acquired a pair of boxing gloves and a robe worn by Muhammad Ali. First displayed for an exhibition on the U.S. bicentennial, A Nation of Nations, Mr. Ali predicted at their induction that his Everlast gloves would become "the most famous thing in this building."
How's that for a curve ball
In the eighth inning of game six in the 2003 World Series, an unlucky fella by the name of Steve Bartman disrupted a catch by a Chicago Cubs outfielder. The team went on to lose the series, and Mr. Bartman was vilified by Chicago sports fans. The loose ball was sold at auction for $113,824.16 to Harry Caray's Restaurant Group. On Feb. 26, 2004, it was blown up by a special effects expert, and the next year, the remains were used by the restaurant in the creation of a pasta sauce.
Siri Agrell