Olympic 2018 Medal Counts: Results, Standings and Final Reaction

The Olympic Athletes from Russia needed overtime to do it, but they secured the men's ice hockey gold medal with a 4-3 victory over upstart Germany in the championship game in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Saturday night (American time).

That game was the penultimate medal event in the 2018 Winter Olympics, with the last being won by Marit Bjoergen of Norway in the women's 30-kilometer cross-country ski event.

Norway was the leader in medals won in the Olympics, and while medal count is not supposed to be the main focus of the Olympics, NBC included it in all of its prime-time broadcasts throughout the games, and it is always a point of interest in both the Winter and Summer Olympics.

Total Medals by Country: Top Five

1. Norway: 14 gold, 14 silver, 11 bronze; 39 total medals

2. Germany: 14 G, 10 S, 7 B; 31 total

3. Canada: 11 G, 8 S, 10 B; 29 total

4. USA: 9 G, 8 S, 6 B; 23 total

5. Netherlands: 8 G, 6 S, 6 B; 20 total

Here's a look at the complete medal tracker:

Norway and Germany led the Pyeongchang Olympics with 14 gold medals each, and Bjoergen's gold in the final event has helped to make her the most successful individual winter athlete in Olympics history. She has won eight gold medals, four silvers and three bronzes during her Olympic career in cross-country skiing. She has participated in five Winter Olympic competitions.

The men's final in ice hockey was an epic contest. Kirill Kaprizov scored the gold-medal-clinching goal in overtime as he whistled a shot past German goalie Danny aus den Birken on a power play. Kaprizov is a Minnesota Wild prospect, and he was dynamic throughout the Olympic competition.

The Russians had a powerful team led by Slava Voynov, Nikita Gusev, Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk, and they did enough to get by the German upstarts. All four of those players competed in the NHL, and Datsyuk was one of the league's brightest stars with the Detroit Red Wings.

The Russian players sang their own anthem while the Olympic flag was raised. That defied the International Olympic Committee's sanctions against Russia, which was not allowed to fly its flag or compete in the Pyeongchang Olympics. The Russian athletes who competed in the games were known as the "Olympic Athletes from Russia" throughout the two-plus weeks of competition.

Kovalchuk said the Russian players had planned to sing the anthem on the medal stand if they won the gold medal. 

"It means a lot," said Kovalchuk, per Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times. "It feels good. We knew that we would do it if we win."

Although Germany lost, the team's performance was quite remarkable. The Germans were not expected to get close to the medal stand as the Olympics began, but head coach Marco Sturm was able to coax a brilliant effort out of his team.

Former NHL player Marcel Goc tried to put the team's performance into perspective.

"After we lost the game, we were really disappointed, but more and more, we're going to realize we lost against the Russian team in the gold medal game of the Olympics and I think we can be proud of ourselves," Goc said, per Elliott. 

Nathan Denette/Associated Press

While the men's hockey was thrilling, the women's hockey gold-medal game may have been the top story of the Olympic Games. The American women defeated Canada in a game that went to a shootout. Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson scored the winning goal on an exquisite move, and American goalie Maddie Rooney followed by stopping Canadian star Meghan Agosta on her shootout attempt.

That gave the United States its first gold in women's hockey since 1998. The U.S. team had been frequently beaten by the Canadians since then, often in heartbreaking fashion.

Rooney said that once the save was made, she was unable to keep track of any of the celebratory events that followed.

"Everything got into a blur, seeing my teammates sprinting at me. It's an indescribable feeling," Rooney said, per Bill Chappell of NPR.