Winter Olympics 2014, Day 11: Ice hockey & figure skating take center stage

Bode Miller won bronze in the Men’s Super G on Sunday and was asked post-race about his late brother Chelone, who died in April of 2013 from a seizure caused by a brain injury.

You can watch the video of the interview above. Maybe one question about Chelone was enough, it sure seemed like it was -- especially after NBC already produced a video package outlining the passing of Miller’s brother and the effect on his Sochi preparation. Continuing to ask him while he was getting teary came off a little cold.

Ever wondered what happens when you win an Olympic medal? If you’re freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy it means getting followed by Miley Cyrus, which he was pretty amped about.

In a shock turn of events it appears you only need to be at Sochi. Miley also followed Bobby Brown, who finished in ninth place, but did so in a T-shirt!

There weren’t a ton of medals up for grabs on Sunday, but Team USA did well for itself in men’s skiing as Andrew Weibrecht and Bode Miller took home the silver and bronze medal, respectively, in the Super-G.

The United States, now with 16 medals, continues to trail the Netherlands (17) in the overall medal count, but this final week in Sochi should provide the Americans with plenty of opportunities to bring home some hardware.

Russian and American eyes got a rude awakening — if not a surprise — on Sunday as the Netherlands continued its borderline comical dominance of speed skating and logged three more medals, enough to retake a slim lead in the overall medal count in Sochi.

The Netherlands now have 17 medals on the Olympiad, barely ahead of Russia and the United States at 16. Norway and Canada lurk at 14 medals and Sweden has 13. Germany, meanwhile, maintains its gold medalist lead with seven (out of 12 overall medals).

• SB Nation’s Winter Olympics medal tracker | Meet Team USA

• Russia ignores hockey loss to Team USA | #Lookit

After dropping a shootout loss to the United States, and then needing a shootout to beat Slovakia, the host Russians enter the qualification round as the highest seeded team playing a Tuesday game. They’ll take on Norway, one of two teams that did not earn a point during pool play.

The winner will face... (4) Finland

America’s heroes Meryl Davis and Charles White delivered another performance for the ages in the ice dancing short dance on Sunday, stirring the announcing team into silence and propelling the duo into first place with the ice dancing free dance slated for tomorrow.

In a performance we would love to show you or at the very least link for you but LOL NBC, White and Davis set a world record in short dance judging with a score of 78.89 -- 39.72 in elements and 39.17 in components.

With scant few days left in the round robin stage of curling, the American hopes of any curling glory in Sochi were fading fast. On Sunday, Canada snuffed them out for good.

In Session 10, the first of three rounds of curling on the day (two for the men, one for the women) Canada upended the United States, 8-6, using three points in the last two ends to snuff out the American chances. That loss took the Americans out of contention for the medal round and pushed Canada further into the mix for moving on. That was in the first round of men’s matches on the day; top-ranked Sweden (one of two medal qualifiers for men’s curling thus far) pounded some more nails in the American coffin with a 6-4 victory in late action.

In a sport where races and medals come down to hundreds and thousandths of a second, Jorien ter Mors left absolutely no doubt who the best 1500-meter speed skater in the world is on Sunday. Ter Mors, a 24-year-old Dutch skater who ordinarily specializes on the short track, stunned the Sochi crowd and set an Olympic record with a 1:53.51 mark en route to the gold medal.

At the time of ter Mors’ race -- the ninth of 18 in the 1500m finals -- the only competitor who was even close to ter Mors’ time was Olga Fatkulina of Russia, and ter Mors had beaten Fatkulina’s mark by 4.37 seconds.

Sometimes when you’re the host country in the Olympic, the pressure is too much, and that was almost the case for Russia when it comes to their men’s hockey team.

After a shootout loss against the United States that was the result of a called-off goal in the third period, Slovakia was the perfect opponent to come back against. They’ve been defensively porous in the tournament and lost to Slovenia, of all teams. An easy win for Russia, right?

Kessel scored twice in the first five minutes of the first period to give the U.S. a quick jump on Slovenia and an early 2-0 lead. The second goal of which was a nifty redirect of the puck out of midair. The Slovenians would respond and push back against a sleepy USA team, who appeared to back off somewhat after building the quick lead. Only the partnership of Kessel and center Joe Pavelski seemed able to actually pressure Slovenia, who had proven a capable foe against Russia and then in their surprising win over Slovakia.

Slovenia would put 12 shots on goal in through the first half of the second period, controlling play and dominating possession before Kessel scored his third goal of the game, a nifty one-timer off a stunning cross-crease pass by James van Riemsdyk. McDonagh would ice the game with a goal of his own just over a minute later, giving the U.S. a four-goal lead and complete control over an eventually-overwhelmed Slovenian team.

It took him four events, but Bode Miller finally got his medal if barely. By tying Jan Hudec of Canada, Bode Miler got a bronze in the Super G.

The event was won by Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud with a time of 1:18.14. Andrew Weibrecht of Lake Placid, N.Y. received a well-deserved silver medal with his 1:18.34 time putting him only three tenths of a second behind Jansurd. Mller and Hudec -- who has an interesting backstory of his own, defecting from Czechoslovakia as an infant -- finished at 1:18.67, .53 behind the winner.

In their final game of the round robin tournament, Canada faces off against Finland for the top spot in Group B. If Canada wins, they receive the top seed overall in the elimination round.

Game time: 12 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. Sochi time

TV: USA Network (USA), CBC (Canada)

Streaming: NBCOlympics.com (USA), Olympics.CBC.ca (Canada)

Only one speed skating event is scheduled for Sunday, but it’s an important one for Team USA. The Women’s 1500m long track event begins at 9 a.m. ET.

After a hugely-disappointing start to these games, the Americans ditched their new Under Armour suits, claiming that their athletes didn’t have enough time to get used to them. They’re going back to the suits worn during their dominating World Cup run in 2013. Will these suits finally help them get on the podium? We’re about to find out, but it certainly didn’t help Shani Davis, who had another underwhelming performance on Saturday and will leave Sochi without any medals. Brittany Bowe, Heather Richardson and Jilleanne Rookard will try to get Team USA back on track.

He very nearly completed his second hat trick of the tournament in the closing minutes, when he had his third breakaway of the day.

The win was Austria’s first in Olympic competition since the 2002 games in Salt Lake City when it defeated Slovakia in the preliminary round. On Sunday, they needed a strong performance from goalie Mathias Lange, as he stopped 34 of 35 shots -- and helped Austria kill off six penalties -- in what was his first-ever Olympic start.

Sunday is looking like another busy day in the Winter Olympics. We have more ice hockey games on the schedule, including the U.S.‘s return to action after stunning Russia in a shootout. Other events include speed skating, in which the Americans are desperately trying to get on the podium. We also have an ice dancing program and the start of bobsled, so there should be enough to satisfy everyone on this day.

Let’s look at the top events on Day 11.

With a win, Team USA will clinch the top spot in Group A and automatically move on to the quarterfinal of the knockout round.

Your expected lines and pairings, via USA hockey:

The United States wraps up group play on Sunday with a game against a surprisingly competitive Slovenia team coming off of its first ever Olympic win.

Game time: 7:30 a.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. Sochi time

TV: NBCSN (USA)

Streaming: NBCOlympics.com (USA), Olympics.CBC.ca (Canada)

The schedule for Sunday in Sochi kicks off with curling (CURLING, CURLING!) with both the American men and women competing in round-robin play throughout the afternoon, followed by the return to action of Team USA alpine skiers Bode Miller and Ted Ligety in the Super-G, the debut of bobsled with the start off two-man, and perhaps highlighted by more ice hockey.

Figure skating also continues with the pairs short program. The full schedule is below. All times are ET. Medal events are in italics and marked with an asterisk.

With the first week of action in the books, we are getting closer to the medal matches in men’s and women’s curling. With sessions 10 and 11 ready to go for Sunday, there should be plenty of action to keep an eye on throughout the day and night.

Three matches -- including Team USA’s first appearance of the day -- are scheduled to begin at midnight ET. The United States will take on Canada, which is sure to be a real challenge as they look to pull off the upset. Canada has a chance to really help themselves out against the Americans with a couple of tough challenges still remaining on their schedule.

Olympic men’s hockey has another slate of interesting matches on Sunday. NBC continues to pull out all the stops on their hockey coverage, showing all four matches live on their family of networks. As always, you can watch them online at NBCOlympics.com.

The first match starts at 3 a.m. ET, when Austria and Norway face off. With both teams 0-2, a win will be a crucial stepping stone for either team to reach the next round. That’s just the opening act for the next block, when the United States attempts an encore act after a huge victory over Russia. Team USA will be facing Slovenia at 7:30 a.m. on NBCSN, hoping to stay in first place in their group. The Slovenians got their first win over Slovakia on Saturday.

Following an exciting day of hockey that saw Slovenia stun Slovakia for its first-ever Olympic victory and the United States knocking off the host Russians in a shootout (with President Vladimir Putin on hand, to boot), the ice has been resurfaced and it’s again time to light the lamp.

Although it’s going to be difficult to top the exhilaration of watching the good ol’ US of A score the preliminary-round win over the Ruskies, 3-2, on the heroics of forward T.J. Oshie -- notably while bleary-eyed for those of us who awoke early to watch all of the Saturday morning fun live -- certainly one of the Winter Olympics’ marquee events has plenty more in store the rest of the tournament. That’s before even mentioning the small European nation of Slovenia obtaining its inaugural win in Winter Games history, Switzerland holding on to defeat the Czech Republic, 1-0, and Sweden showing it will once more be a force to be reckoned with after a 5-3 win over Latvia.