Winter Olympics 2014, Day 15: Canada wins gold medal thriller

A hockey goal is six feet wide. For the Canadians, every inch of that dimension is to thank for its latest Olympic gold medal.

Marie-Philip Poulin played an instrumental role as well.

The remarkable games for Team USA continued with another two medals thanks to the Ski Halfpipe and Ice Hockey.

Several nations have dominated single events, but the USA has diversified its medal count across numerous disciplines at Sochi. Things have moved in ebbs and flows, but there is a good chance the country can now claim the overall medal win thanks to a strong day on Thursday.

The women’s individual figure skating competition reached its conclusion on Thursday with the free skating program. After Wednesday’s short program, in which 24 competitors qualified for Thursday’s final event, South Korea’s Yuna Kim sat atop the leaderboard with an impressive score of 74.92. Kim, the 2010 gold medalist, held a slim lead over Russia’s Adelina Sotnikova (74.64) and Carolina Kostner (74.12) of Italy.

Three Americans, Gracie Gold (68.63), Ashley Wagner (65.21) and Polina Edmunds (61.04), also sat within striking distance heading into Thursday, while Russia’s Yulia Lipnitskaya (65.23) still had a chance at the medal podium despite a disappointing performance during Wednesday’s short program.

Rosa Khutor Extreme Park hosted the finals of the Women’s Ski Halfpipe on Thursday, and it was a good day for Team USA. With four competitors, there was a good chance an American would make the podium, and the color was gold for Maddie Bowman.

Bowman got off to a strong start by leading the women after a first run of 85.80. Things didn’t go quite so well for her teammates, who were in seventh, ninth and 10th place, respectively. It became clear that all of USA’s representatives would need to go big to close out the round, Bowman to hold off stiff competition and the rest of the women to get back in the competition.

The curling competition at Sochi is coming to a close, and on Thursday the women’s draw saw its medals decided.

Nothing separated Sweden and Canada in the gold medal game. The Canadian team scored first only to see it answered, then added a two-stone end to see if matched once again. It was clear these were the two best teams performing at their best, but it was unclear how the match would end as Canada’s accuracy began to wane.

Norway has been an unstoppable force whenever the cross-country skis are buckled on. After Thursday’s gold medal in Team Gundersen LH/4x5km, nine of Norway’s 11 medals are in events featuring cross-country skiing.

Thursday’s gold was closer than most, however, as the Magnus Moan-led foursome beat out the Germans -- who won the jump portion of the competition -- by a measly three hundredths of a second. Austria took bronze in the event, and nobody else was within a minute of the Norwegians. The American team came in sixth place.

CANADA TAKES GOLD

Andrew D. [3:08 PM]:

(via NBC Sports)

Sometimes in hockey there are times where you just can’t get anything going. After laying it all on the line against Canada in the semifinals, Switzerland looked out of energy through 40 minutes against Sweden in the bronze medal game. Worse than the skaters not being able to move their feet, star goaltender Florence Schelling actually looked human for once, allowing a softie from way out with a minute left in the second period.

It looked like the put away goal against a tired team; it looked like a disappointing end to a fantastic tournament for Switzerland. But in hockey, what looks like what will happen isn’t always what will happen.

Normally when a team at the level of Austria in men’s hockey loses in the qualifying round, there isn’t much fuss made about it. Getting one win in the Olympic Games would normally be considered a good performance for a country that’s fifteenth in the world, but that’s not the case this year.

Allegations have come out that the Austrian men’s team was partying through the night -- some as late as 6 a.m. --before their qualifying round loss to Slovenia, a game that they dropped 4-0 and in which they were outshot 35-30 despite trailing for 54:31 of regulation.

It all comes down to one game between the two best women’s hockey teams in the world, as it nearly always does.

After winning four straight head-to-head matchups in the run-up to these Olympics, Team USA stumbled against Canada in their preliminary-round matchup, losing 3-2 in a game where Canada controlled the pace of the entire hockey game. They’ll be looking to avoid a repeat of that performance in Thursday’s gold medal game.

Hansen claims this is a wolf and it sure looks like a wolf, but it could also be a husky in wolf’s clothing. We need a cynologist here right now to determine what’s going on. Yes, that’s someone who studies canines and yes we just Googled that to find out the name.

Update! We talked to several wolf experts, and this is not a wolf.

The final event of Nordic Combined concluded on Thursday with the event turning into a three-team race between predictable foes in the Team Gundersen.

Norway has dominated the sport at Sochi, which is appropriate given it’s pretty much named after them. In sports containing a cross-country skiing element the Norweigans have amassed 17 of their 20 medals, including eight gold. There was no doubt they would be a factor on Thursday, but were met with two motivated teams that made it a stellar race to the finish.

The Men’s Ski Cross was dominated by the Frenchmen on Thursday. The final race was made up of three Frenchman and one Canadian, and the lone Canadian never stood a chance as the skiers’ invasion of Russia went better than Napoleon’s.

Jean Frederic Chapuis took home the gold medal while Arnauld Bovolenta took silver and Jonathan Midol the bronze. Brady Leman of Canada was the aforementioned fourth skier in the final.

Yuna Kim is in a solid position to defend her gold medal title at the women’s free skate program on Thursday.

The event begins at 10 a.m. ET and can be seen live on NBCSN.

Thursday is the final day of women’s hockey, with the two medal games set to take place. The gold medal round gets all the attention with the United States and Canada facing off. But before we start the main course, we’ll have an appetizer with the bronze medal game.

Sweden and Switzerland start their game at 7:30 a.m. ET and it can be seen live on NBCSN. Sweden got here by placing second in group play and beating Finland in the quarterfinals, but it got steamrolled by the U.S. in the semifinals, 6-1. The Swedes are looking for their first medal since Turin in 2006, when they took home the silver. Switzerland enjoyed an underdog run through the tournament. Despite finishing last in its group, it pulled off a huge 2-0 win over Russia in the quarterfinals before succumbing to Canada.

When the United States and Canada face off in the Olympics, it’s worth watching. When it’s for a gold medal, it’s very worth watching. And when it’s for the gold medal in women’s ice hockey, where the two teams have fomented a Celtics-and-Lakers-esque rivalry for the ages, by god, it’s the most necessary viewing of the Olympics yet.

Team USA is seeking vengeance for a 3-2 loss in preliminary play, and unfortunately for the Americans, it’s indicative of a historical trend. Canada has won three straight gold medals in women’s ice hockey after the USA won the first event in Nagano in 1998. Two of the Canadians’ three gold medals have come directly against the Americans, so make no mistake, these two squads rule the rest of the world.

Austria’s Michael Schmid looks to defend his Vancouver gold medal in the men’s ski cross on Thursday in Sochi. Freestyle takes center stage in skiing action; the men’s ski cross and the women’s halfpipe are the top events of the day.

The men’s ski cross starts things off with the qualification round at 2:45 a.m. ET. That round determines the seedings for the 32 athletes in the 1/8 final. The 1/8 round consists of eight heats of four skiers each. The top two finishers move on the quarterfinal round. John Teller is the only American who qualified for this event.

It’s arguably the first great day of medaling in the Olympics. You can watch competitors go for the gold in women’s curling, women’s figure skating and women’s ice hockey on Thursday.

The main event comes at noon (ET), when the United States and Canada face off (that’s a hockey term) for the gold medal in women’s hockey. The two teams met in the preliminary round, where Canada upended the Americans, 3-2, and this is the gold medal match the women’s hockey world deserved.

Two popular Winter Olympic events reach their climax on Thursday with the gold medal rounds in women’s hockey and women’s individual figure skating.

In hockey, old foes meet again as the United States faces Canada in a rematch of their Vancouver gold medal game. The Canadians won that game, 2-0, and are looking to get another one over their neighbors to the south. Team USA hasn’t won the gold since Nagano in 1998, getting two silver medals and a bronze in that span.