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'Miracurl on Ice': USA wins fifth straight match, takes curling gold

'Miracurl on Ice': USA wins fifth straight match, takes curling gold
Posted at 6:38 AM, Feb 24, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-24 12:43:11-05

They ran the table. And gold was waiting for them at the end.

Team USA finished one of the most unlikely runs in recent Olympic memory with a 10-7 win over Sweden in the men's curling gold medal match at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, a feat immediately dubbed the "Miracurl on Ice."

The squad turned around a 2-4 start to round-robin play with five straight wins in their final five curling matches, including Saturday's final.

PHOTOS: American curlers stun the world, take home gold medal

That final match was a 5-5 tie entering the eighth end (much like a baseball inning) with Team USA having the final shot and a chance at the equivalent of a grand slam home run. Skipper John Shuster threaded the needle for a perfect shot to take two Sweden stones out of the scoring range and give America five scoring stones, creating a virtually insurmountable 10-5 lead.

Shuster's journey of Olympic bronze in 2006, followed by failure in 2010 and 2014 and eventual removal from the U.S. team, was one of high emotion. It was his perfect-when-it-had-to-be shot that defeated Canada in the preliminaries and kept America alive, followed by his cathartic tears in an interview with NBC Sports.

Team USA's Matt Hamilton also grew into a bit of a cult star with his mustacheoed presence that helped draw the viral support for this team of everyone from Aaron Rodgers...

...to Mr. T.