There probably aren’t too many Canadians that will agree with this choice - the top hockey story of the past 100 years belongs to the Americans.

The 1980 Miracle on Ice victory at the Olympics was named the best hockey moment of the century at the International Ice Hockey Federation’s gala dinner on Saturday night.

Paul Henderson’s winning goal for Canada at the 1972 Summit Series was selected as the second best story.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in attendance and mentioned that event during his speech.

“For Canadians of my generation, the 1972 Summit Series stands out above the rest,” said Harper. “It was an epic battle.”

The IIHF compiled a list of the top 100 moments to commemorate its 100th birthday and unveiled the final 10 here at the world championship. It also named an All-Century Team that included Wayne Gretzky at centre.

The Great One was a unanimous selection and the only Canadian chosen by the panel of 56 writers from 16 different countries.

Russia is a step closer to ending its 15-year gold medal drought at the IIHF world hockey championship.

Veteran Sergei Fedorov got the all-important opening goal as Russia used its quick-strike attack to down Finland 4-0 on Friday and advance to the final. “It seems to me that almost everything came together,” said the 38-year-old Fedorov, whose team is seeking its first world championship gold since 1993.

Danis Zaripov, Alexei Morozov and Maxim Sushinsky also scored for Russia, which avenged a 2-1 semifinal loss to the Finns at last year’s world championship in Moscow.

Evgeny Nabokov made 23 saves for his second shutout in a row after Russia blanked Switzerland 6-0 in the quarter-finals. He last allowed a goal to Romano Lemm at 18:25 of the third period of Russia’s final round robin game against the Swiss.

“The coaching staff asked us to play a bit more defensively and the guys took pride in playing back a bit, holding onto your man,” Fedorov said. “It was a team effort.”

Russia will meet Canada in Sunday’s final after the hosts edged Sweden 5-4. It’s the first time the two hockey powers have met in this tournament’s final.

It is the Russians’ first trip to the final since 2002, when they were beaten 4-3 by Slovakia in Linkoping, Sweden.

Derek Roy scored three goals and added an assist to help defending champion Canada rout Norway 8-2 on Wednesday in the world hockey quarterfinals.

Canada will face Sweden, a 3-2 overtime winner earlier Wednesday in Quebec City, in the semifinals Friday in Quebec City. The Canadians beat the Swedes last year in the semifinals in Moscow.

“Once again, they held on tough,” said goalie Cam Ward, who made 22 saves. “Up until the middle of the second period, they gave us a little bit of a scare.”

Coach Ken Hitchcock also admitted to having a few nervous moments during the game.

“When it was 2-2, I was wondering if that ferry had a direct route to Columbus,” the Blue Jackets coach said before boarding a plane to Quebec instead. “The players play and they don’t worry about things. We sweated all day today as a coaching staff. These are defining moments for you as a coach because if you lose this game, you all are writing about us and me tomorrow. And it’s not going to be pleasant.”

Rick Nash added two goals and Dany Heatley, Ryan Getzlaf and Jonathan Toews also scored for Canada in its 16th straight victory in the event.

“They knew they were better, they knew they were more talented and they knew if they stayed with it they were going to win,” Hitchcock said.

Morten Ask and Mathis Olimb scored for Norway in its first quarterfinal appearance.

Toews broke a 2-2 tie on a power play midway through the second period, beating goalie Pal Grotnes with a hard wrist shot. Roy then scored goals 2:42 apart to give Canada a 5-2 lead before the second intermission.

“They got three fast goals there,” Grotnes said. “Then it was over.”

Each team in the NHL plays 82 regular season games, 41 games at home and 41 on the road. Teams used to play all other teams in the league at least once, but this will no longer be the case following implementation of post-lockout changes. Teams will now play 10 inter-conference (that is, not in their own conference) games throughout the entire season, 1 game against each team in two of the three divisions in the opposite conference. Teams will also play 40 games against non-divisional, conference opponents (4 games against each), and 32 games within their division (8 games against each). Two points are awarded for wins, one point for losing in overtime or a shootout, and zero points for a loss in regulation time. At the end of the regular season, the team that finishes with the most points in each division is crowned the division champion. Each Conference consists of three divisions, so these three division champions and five more teams fill out each Conference’s playoff field. In total, 16 teams (3 division champions and 5 additional teams, for a total of 8 from each Conference) qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs is an elimination tournament, where two teams battle to win a best-of-seven series in order to advance to the next round. If the score is tied at the end of the third period an overtime period is played. If the score is tied at the end of an overtime period, additional overtime periods are played until a winner is determined. Overtimes are also full periods of twenty minutes (of five-on-five hockey), rather than the five minutes (of four-on-four hockey, followed by a shootout,) in the regular season. The overtime is played with golden goal rule (sudden death) so the game ends as soon as either team scores a goal. The higher-ranked team is said to be the team with the home-ice advantage. Four of the seven games are played at this team’s home venue - the first and second, and, where necessary, the fifth and seventh, with the other games played at the lower-ranked team’s home venue.

One playoff that was contested in the NHL used the following format: the division winners were seeded one through three, and then the next five teams with the best records in the conference were seeded four through eight. However, the league has yet to announce the playoff format for the 2005-06 seasons, and with the new scheduling format that emphasizes division play, the league is reportedly exploring placing greater emphasis on division standings by taking the top 2 teams in each division, along with the teams with the next two best records for each Conference’s playoff field. In the event of a tie in points in the standings, ties are broken first by amount of wins, and then by record against the team that is tied (disregarding the first game played at the arena of the team that hosted more games than the other during the season series, if applicable). Next, the tied team with the better positive differential between goals scored for and against is given preference, and in the rare circumstance these tiebreakers are insufficient, the Commissioner has the authority to devise some other means of breaking the tie. The first round of the playoffs, or Conference Quarterfinals, consists of the first seed playing the eighth seed, the second playing the seventh, third playing the sixth, and the fourth playing the fifth. In the Conference Semifinals, the top remaining Conference seed plays against the fourth remaining seed, and the second remaining seed plays the third remaining seed. In the next round, the Conference Finals, the two remaining teams in each conference play each other, with the Conference champions proceeding to the Stanley Cup Finals.

It took a while for the New York Rangers to become accustomed to their revamped lineup. But look at them now, suddenly on a roll and challenging for top spot in the Eastern Conference.Scott Gomez scored the decisive shootout goal in a 3-2 win over the slumping Buffalo Sabres on Monday night, in helping the Rangers improve to 10-0-3 in their past 13 games, and move into a tie with Ottawa for fifth-place in the East.

Jaromir Jagr and Fedor Tyutin scored in regulation for the Rangers, who are getting solid goaltending, timely goals and winning on consecutive nights while closing to within three points of East-leading New Jersey.

“We’ve really galvanized as a group to find a way to do things and get points,” Rangers coach Tom Renney said. “That speaks volumes for their character.”

Almost 15 seasons have passed since the Montreal Canadiens beat the Los Angeles Kings to win the Stanley Cup for the 23rd time. The only remnants of their most recent championship are Patrice Brisebois and current coach Guy Carbonneau.Brisebois - now a part-time player at 37 - triggered a three-goal second period, and Jaroslav Halak made 35 saves in his first start of the season to lead the Canadiens to a 5-2 win over Los Angeles on Saturday.

The victory was the ninth in 12 games for the Canadiens, who are one point behind New Jersey for the best record in the Eastern Conference. The last time the Canadiens finished first in the conference was 1993 when they won the Cup by beating the Kings in five games.

“I have great memories of those finals, so it’s always fun to play the Kings here - even though it’s not at the Forum,” Brisebois said. “That’s a long time ago, 15 years already. I was young back then and I learned a lot from those playoffs and playing with guys like Kirk Muller, Vince Damphousse, Patrick Roy and Guy Carbonneau - who’s my coach now.”