The last few days of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics were an exciting time as Canadian athletes really racked up the medals and many of us did our best not to stray too far from the television set for too long, so as not to miss anything. And there aren’t many, least of all Mike Adams, who will forget where they were when Canada’s men’s hockey team won the gold medal in overtime against the United States.

Adams, a local chartered accountant at Taylor Adams Chartered Accountants, was closer than most to Sidney Crosby’s game winning goal last Sunday.

“We were down kind of right on the goal line, about 20 rows up from the ice at the end where Crosby scored. The whole overtime, as soon as Canada even got down in the U.S. zone, everyone would be up and cheering,” he said. “As soon as you saw the net move, just instantly the whole place went completely crazy. I think people screamed as loud as they could for 20 minutes straight. People were jumping around, high-fiving anybody and hugging.”

Adams said the experience of being at that game and being in Vancouver during the Olympics doesn’t compare to any other event he’s ever gone to.

“The whole time down there was so much fun, it was great to see the patriotism and just Canada shirts, flags and everything everywhere. No matter when you went out and no matter where you went it was just everywhere,” he said. “It was just awesome. It will definitely be one of those situations that I’ll certainly remember the rest of my life.”

Adams admitted he was a bit nervous about the chances of the team making it to the gold medal game, but he was hopeful.

“After we lost to the U.S. I was nervous but I thought they were playing good so I thought there was still hope. I was nervous about the Russia game for sure but then they played so well against them, then I was looking forward to Slovakia and then that one got real tight at the end,” he said. “As soon as the Slovakia game was over, we were in my brother-in-law’s apartment watching it and he lives right downtown, you could just hear people instantly scream, and horns honking, and then the streets were just filling up with people.”

The men’s hockey game was not the only event Adams got to see his country win gold. The first event Adams attended at the Olympics was the women’s hockey gold medal game, which, again, pitted the Canada against the U.S. The Canadian women won that game with a score of 2-0.

Next, Adams and his family took in the Men’s Snowboard Parallel Slalom event, which Canada’s Jasey Jay Anderson went on to win.

“We had to leave early with that one so we didn’t see all of it. The weather was terrible, it was so cold and so rainy, we were just completely drenched, the kids just couldn’t stay, they were just freezing so we decided to leave but it was okay because it means we made it to the curling without being late so that was good,” he said.

That same day Adams went to the men’s curling final and got to see Kevin Martin’s rink take the gold medal. He said the fans at that game really made the event special.

“I’ve never seen curling live before and it was a lot of fun. The crowd was totally into it. They were chanting the curler’s names and they were doing the wave and at one point, the one end was all the foreign reporters and they joined in too so that got the crowd even more excited so they did the wave a few more rounds,” he said. “It was really fun. They stopped the game as the fans broke out into O Canada, so that was great.”

Adams also saw Mike Babcock, coach of the Canadian men’s hockey team, going into the curling game and got his picture taken with him.

Another highlight of being in Vancouver was walking around downtown and running into Jon Montgomery, Canada’s gold medallist in men’s skeleton.

“We got our kids picture with him. I think he was just leaving an interview at Robson Square and he was late for something,” Adams said. “We just asked if we could get our picture with him and he said ‘Sure, I’m late but no problem.’ There were about three or four people with kids there and he stopped and took pictures with all of us so it was really great.”