Winter Olympics 2014, Day 16: Canada wins curling gold, beats USA in hockey

This photo has been traveling the Internet after Canada eliminated the USA from gold-medal contention in men’s Olympic hockey. It’s something of an Internet meme! Whatever.

This is the original source tweet. It’s from a bar in Halifax. Please share responsibly.

Here is a full recap of Friday’s events in Sochi as the final weekend of the winter games approaches.

Team USA picked up yet another gold medal as Mikaela Shiffrin won the women’s slalom in 1:44.54, just ahead of Austria’s Marlies Schild and Kathrin Zettel. Shiffrin led the field after the first run and still managed to knock off eight-tenths of a second on her second time down the slopes.

And all Benn has done since has made the Hockey Canada brass look even smarter.

Both goalies were outstanding all game long, while Canada got the majority of quality scoring chances. The United States was outshot 37-31, but the Canadians kept the majority of those American shots to the outside.

With all of Friday’s events now in the books, the United States leads host nation Russia by one in the total medal count, 27-26.

Team USA came into the day as the leaders, and with Mikaela Shiffrin winning gold in the women’s slalom, the Americans now have nine gold, seven silver and 11 bronze. The American team also won silver in the men’s 5000m relay, while the Russians set a new Olympic record in the event to take home gold. Russia now has nine gold, 10 silver and seven bronze.

Two gold medals were awarded in the short track event for both men and women in Sochi on Friday night. The men’s 5000m relay also finished up, while the qualifying for men’s and women’s team pursuit concluded ahead of the final events in that competition on Saturday.

Victor An won gold for Russia in the men’s 500m skate with a time of 41.312. China’s Daijing Wu (41.516) grabbed the silver and Charle Cournoyer of Canada (41.617) earned the bronze. An’s victory was his second gold and third overall medal of the Sochi Games after he won the men’s 1000m and took bronze in the 1500m event as well. It also gave Russia its eighth gold and 25th medal in Sochi.

Our sources in Sochi tell us that since this picture was taken, the stakes have been raised quite a bit on both sides of the border war.

Here we go, America. It’s hockey redemption day.

The sun set on Sochi and the final medals in curling were awarded at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Two games were decided on Friday, with Canada ultimately taking the gold in the men’s final, earning their second-straight gold medal in men’s curling.

Facing Great Britain, Canada jumped out to an early advantage, leading the British 5-1 after the first three ends. That lead would hold up throughout the match, with Great Britain struggling to score on Canada. The Canadians added to their tally in the seventh end, scoring two more stones to take an 8-2 lead that all but sealed the match.

CANADA WINS, 1-0. USA-Finland for bronze Saturday, Canada-Sweden for gold Sunday.

Dan P. [3:06 PM]:

Going into this Olympic semifinal game between Finland and Sweden, conventional wisdom would say that the Swedes had the advantage. The only thing that could’ve changed? If the Finns scored first.

Not in this rivalry.

Much has been made of the struggles Team Canada has had putting the puck in the net. In their four games in the Olympics, they’ve scored just 13 goals, and six of those came in one game against Austria, possibly the weakest team in the tournament.

It’s not a problem with shot production. Canada has produced an average of 42 shots on net per game in the Olympics, which is far more than any other team in the tournament. What that means is that they’re scoring on a lower percentage of their shots than you’d expect, just 7.7 percent.

Sochi is coming to a close on Sunday and the International Olympic Committee has announced the first positive drug test of the games.

Little is known about the positive test, but the IOC has identified a German athlete tested positive on their “A” sample and will test the “B” sample to ensure a positive test, according to a report by the Associated Press via the Los Angeles Times. If both tests are positive the athlete faces disqualification and removal of any medals won at the 2014 Olympics.

We all have amp up music. The glorious confluence of music and physical exertion that prepares us to take on any challenge. A 9-year-old version of myself listened to “Thunderstuck” by AC/DC before every junior rugby game. We went 0-12 and lost one game 99-6, but that’s of no consequence.

What’s important is that the curling gold medal is being awarded at Sochi and Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports found out their amp up music is Thunderstruck, but on the bagpipes.

Three medal events in short track will be featured in primetime in Sochi on Friday afternoon, giving fans in the United States a chance to watch hardware be won live without having to wake up at an ungodly hour.

Russia’s Victor An, once a competitor for South Korea, will pursue his third medal and second gold at this year’s Olympics beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET with the start of men’s 500-meter quarterfinals. The event’s final will take place at 12:43 p.m.

Earning a top spot in the medal standings is something that’s evaded Canada for much of the Sochi games, but a late surge puts them in the conversation. The ice breaker came at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park on Friday, with the Canadians capturing gold and silver in Ladies’ Ski Cross.

Marielle Thompson was one of the favorites in the event after finishing second in the FIS World Championships in Norway, but the Ski Cross can be an unpredictable event thanks to the jostling for position that often sees top-notch skiers fall by the wayside. The 21-year-old Canadian earned the third seed earlier in the day and went on to win every race en route to the first Olympic medal of her career.

The Winter Olympics are starting to wind down, but that means the competition gets even bigger, as most of the marquee events reach their final rounds. We got the men’s hockey semifinals, featuring the hotly-anticipated USA-Canada match, the women’s slalom, the medal rounds in men’s curling, and a handful of important speed skating events. Everything is on the line as we head into the weekend.

Here are the top events to watch on Friday:

Men’s hockey gets serious on Friday. The semifinal round starts with what should be two outstanding games, including another showdown with old rivals Canada and the United States.

The first game starts at 7 a.m. ET, when Sweden take on Finland live on NBCSN. The Finns got here by placing second in their group and crushing Russia’s medal dreams in the quarterfinals, defeating the home nation 3-1. They took the bronze medal in Vancouver and are looking to score bigger this time around. Sweden cruised to an easy win in their group and had no problem in the quarterfinal, taking care of Slovenia, 5-0. They won the gold in Turin 2006 but had a disappointing run in Vancouver, where they finishing in fifth place.