Quick nabs gold for the U.S. with mask design

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Icethetics voters have spoken. Jonathan Quick had the best goalie mask at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Definitively.

Quick's design bested 24 other netminders' in the 2014 Men's Olympic Goalie Mask Tournament. Quick joins Canada's Shannon Szabados who earned gold in the women's tourney.

The men's tournament ended Sunday after 18 days and more than 14,000 votes. Quick defeated Henrik Lundqvist with 55% of votes. Just as in Sochi, the Swedes have to settle for silver.

The dark horse, in my opinion, was Latvia's Edgars Masalskis who seemingly came out of nowhere to claim bronze against Jonas Hiller with a substantial 59%.

In fact, both Latvian goalie masks performed surprisingly well in this tournament. Masalskis faced fellow countryman Kristers Gudlevskis in a patriotic showdown in the quarterfinals.

Among those I was surprised to see eliminated so early were Tuukka Rask, Roberto Luongo and the two Norwegian netminders, Lars Haugen and Lars Volden.

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Click bracket to enlarge.

Poll Results

• Preliminary Round
• Round 1
• Round 2
• Round 3
• Round 4
• Medal Round

The slideshow above celebrates Quick's victory by giving us a look at a few more angles of his mask — which was designed by Steve Nash of EyeCandyAir. Nash even made some Vine videos showing the creation of the mask.

Just because the tournament is over doesn't mean there's nothing left to vote on. I'm kind of curious to see which gold medalist you like better. Also, do you prefer Quick's USA mask to his Kings mask? Vote in the two polls below.

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And because this post hasn't been jam-packed enough, I wanted to leave you with one more image gallery. Eleven of the goalies that went to Sochi never played in a game so their masks weren't included in our tournament.

Still, I'm sure we'd all love to get a look at them. To that end, I did a little digging.

Unused Olympic Goalie Masks

Mike Smith

It's a shame Smith never saw action. Can't get any more Canadian than this.

Carey Price

Price stuck strictly to his white mask though he did have this black one as an alternative.

Jimmy Howard

Howard would've looked extremely patriotic in this bucket — though the Red Wing goalie did get an odd Blue Jackets feel.

Steffen Soberg

If that troll doesn't creep you out, nothing will. What a great mask.

Antti Niemi

Niemi's mask would've looked a lot like his jersey had he gotten the chance to play in Sochi.

Jonas Gustavsson

All right, this is easily my favorite of the unused Sochi masks. 

Jhonas Enroth

Lundqvist was such a workhorse, neither of the other Swedish goalies got a chance to play.

Alexander Yeryomenko

Russia's only non-NHL goalie went with a blue lid. Unfortunately I couldn't track down any better photos.

Ervins Mustukovs

I think he knew he wasn't going to play in Sochi. So when it came to the mask, Mustukovs said, why bother?

Unfortunately, I was unable to track down photos of masks belonging to Rene Swette (Austria), Andrej Hocevar (Slovenia) or Tobias Stephan (Switzerland). If you spot any, please let me know so I can expand the slideshow.

Which of these unused Olympic masks is your favorite? Any you think could've competed with Quick for gold? Let us all know in the comments.