SAN JOSE, CALIF. - Until your hockey career is over, you won’t know the biggest game you ever played. Along the way, there are several.
San Jose Sharks centre Joe Pavelski won a Wisconsin state championship with Stevens Point high school in 2002 and thought that was the biggest game he ever played. He was 17 years old.
Two years later, Pavelski won a United States Hockey League championship with the Waterloo Black Hawks, and two years after that won an NCAA title at the University of Wisconsin. At the 2010 Olympics, he played in the biggest hockey game in 30 years when his Team USA was beaten 3-2 in overtime by Canada in the gold-medal game in Vancouver.