The Gold Medal game on Sunday between the United States and Canada had 27.6 million viewers in the United States. The 27.6 million viewers put the game ahead of such recent high-profile sports contests as the Masters golf tournament (14.3 million), the Daytona 500 (16 million viewers), the top game from last year?s NBA Finals (16 million), the NCAA basketball final (17.6 million), Game 4 (the most watched) of the 2009 World Series (22.8 million) and the 2010 Rose Bowl (24 million). The game was surpassed in audience only twice before by hockey games: that 1980 semi-final vs. the USSR, which reached 34.2 million viewers, and the gold medal game that year when the Americans beat Finland, and 32.8 million watched.