Winter Olympics 2014, Day 9: USA grabs medal count lead

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The men’s individual figure skating competition concluded on Friday with the free skating program. Twenty-four skaters advanced to Friday’s final event after competing in the men’s short program on Thursday.

Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu held the lead after setting a world record in the short program with a score of 101.45 from the judges. Nipping at his heels were Patrick Chan of Canada (97.52), the favorite heading into the competition, and Spain’s Javier Fernandez (86.98), who sat in third place following Thursday’s action.

Day Nine of the Olympics has wrapped up from Sochi. Team USA has moved into a tie with Norway for the overall medal count with 13 thanks to Noelle Pikus-Pace winning silver in the women’s skeleton.

Here is a recap of everything else that happened on Friday. Look for a handful of these events to be televised via tape-delay this evening on NBC.

Maybe the 43-year-old was just saving himself for Norway.

Selanne scored the opening goal for Finland, who had no trouble dispatching Norway in its second game of the tournament, 6-1. Finland now stands at 2-0 in the tournament.

Canada got off to a slow start in its opener to the 2014 Olympics, before downing Norway 3-1 in its opening game of Group B play.

Maybe all it took was a familiar sight to get the Canadians going.

The Olympics are all about promoting international diplomacy and friendship. But scratch tie-breakers for the hockey tournament off that list. With goal-differential playing such a crucial role in how teams are seeded in the knockout round, from time-to-time, there are some very lopsided results. With Canada up 6-0 on Austria through two periods, but Finland up 5-0 on Norway after 40 minutes, both teams have a reason to keep scoring.

Canada’s goal-differential currently stands at eight, while Finland’s is also at eight. Expect both teams to keep scoring in their respective third periods.