CHICAGO -- It was a triumph for U.S. women's hockey and a setback for American workplace productivity.
Team USA won the gold medal Thursday at the Pyeongchang Winter Games, rallying to take Canada past overtime and through the sixth round of an extended shootout for a 3-2 victory.
Those of us watching NBC, NBCSN and/or the digital stream back home earned non-Olympic rings under our red eyes and the fog of fatigue on the job.
What? No, just resting my eyes.
More coffee, please.
It was around 1:15 a.m. Central time here in Chicago when U.S. goalie Maddie Rooney stopped Meghan Agosta's shot for the victory, denying the Canadian's effort to push what originally was to be a five-round shootout to a seventh round.
A very long Wednesday night/Thursday morning of Olympics TV was near an end.
When Team Canada failed to exploit a power play as time expired in sudden death and the five-round shootout ended with the deadlock intact, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson teed up Round 6 with a deceptive flick of her wrist and a nifty deke for the game-winner against Team Canada goalie Shannon Szabados.
"Oh, my God, that's electrifying," NBC play-by-play man Kenny Albert said. "That's as good as you're going to see anywhere."
Understandably, the adrenaline and the medal ceremony kept many up still longer.
And who knows? If not for the transition to a shootout format after the single 20-minute overtime -- a needless efficiency few if any fans, players or commentators are enthused about, although TV outlets might prefer it -- the two rivals might have gone on for some time after that.
We might not have gotten any sleep at all.
Once the overtime began, the hockey arena that earlier had resembled the closing minutes of a late-season Bears game -- Olympics organizers always blame sponsors and VIPs with the best seats for leaving them noticeably empty on TV -- had at last appeared full.
Which is what the U.S.-Canada hockey rivalry merited, to say nothing of the stakes.
The Canadians have yet to miss a women's Olympic hockey championship game, and had won four consecutive since losing the inaugural tournament to Team USA 20 years ago in Nagano. Three of those victories -- in 2002, 2010 and 2014 -- have come against the United States. The one four years ago that was decided in overtime has stung ever since.
Albert called quite a hockey game. But he had quite a hockey game to call, working alongside 1998 women's hockey gold medalist A.J. Mleczko. It was announced during the gold medal telecast that Mleczko will work an NHL Red Wings-Bruins telecast next month on NBCSN.
But Albert and Mleczko weren't the loudest, most excited NBC announcer-analyst tandems in prime time Wednesday night. Not by a long shot.
That would be Steve Schlanger and analyst Chad Salmela on the women's cross-country team sprint, which NBC ran on tape from the night before. As U.S. skier Jessie Diggins, who competed with Kikkan Randall, made a historic push late, Salmela just about lost his mind and his voice.
Salmela: "They are all completely gassed! They have given it everything on the (hill)! Stina Nilsson (of Sweden) is leading Jessie Diggins into the final turn. Can Diggins answer?"
Schlanger: "As the roars rattle around the cross-country stadium in Pyeongchang, Sweden, the U.S. and Norway come in to the line."
Salmela: "Here comes Diggins! Here comes Diggins!"
Schlanger: "On the outside, Diggins making the play around Sweden. Jessie Diggins to the line."
Salmela: "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!"
Schlanger: "And it is Jessie Diggins..."
Salmela: "Gold!"
Schlanger: "... delivering a landmark moment ..."
Salmela: "Gold!"
Schlanger: "... that will be etched in U.S. Olympic history, the first-ever cross-country gold medal for the U.S."
If viewers regained their hearing in time, they might have noticed that NBC parent Comcast, which throughout the Olympics had been slipping Diggins' name into an ad showing people watching the Winter Games and bonding in support of the athletes, followed the race with the same ad.
Only this time the ad had a clip from the actual finish in it.
Maybe the commercial will run again before Sunday's closing ceremony concludes.
Maybe we'll be awake to see it.
Anyone else need a nap?
Sports on 02/23/2018