VANCOUVER — Switzerland won a tighter-than-expected game against Belarus, a 3-2 shootout victory Tuesday that sends the Swiss into the men’s Olympic hockey quarterfinals against the United States.
Goalie Jonas Hiller of the Anaheim Ducks stopped Sergei Kostitsyn in the third round of the shootout for Switzerland.
Hiller made the winning save after the puck slid off the stick of the Montreal Canadiens forward. Thomas Deruns and Romano Lemm scored shootout goals for Switzerland, which will take on the top-seeded Americans today.
“We’re coming at an all-NHL team for the third time. We feel comfortable,” Swiss coach Ralph Krueger said of playing the United States.
Julien Sprunger and former NHL forward Hnat Domeni-chelli scored power-play goals for Switzerland.
China downs U.S. in curling
VANCOUVER — World champion China converted its final shot of the 10th end for the winning point, mathematically eliminating the U.S. women’s curlers with a 6-5 victory and moving into Thursday’s semifinals as the No. 3 seed.
China (6-3) will face defending gold medalist Sweden (6-2) in a rematch of the 2009 worlds won by this Chinese team of former skaters.
• Anette Norberg and the Swedes improved to 6-2 in round-robin play with a shortened 10-6 victory over Japan.
• Cheryl Bernard pulled out another big shot in extra ends for the favored Canadians (7-1), who locked up the No. 1 spot with a 6-5 victory over Britain.
• Switzerland advanced by edging Germany 4-2 in nine ends to earn the fourth seed.
On the men’s side, Norway’s King Harald V cheered his countrymen to a 9-5 win over world champion Britain in eight ends.
• Skip Kevin Martin’s Canadian foursome beat China 10-3 in seven ends.
In other matches, Sweden edged Denmark 7-6 and Switzerland downed France 6-2.
Canada leads bobsled
WHISTLER — Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse drove Canada-1 into the lead after the opening two runs of the women’s bobsled event. Canada leads USA-2, with Erin Pac driving and Elana Meyers pushing, by 0.13 seconds entering today’s deciding heats.
Germany-2, driven by Cathleen Martini, is third.
Shauna Rohbock driving USA-1 and Bree Schaaf in USA-3 were tied for sixth.
Footnotes.
Russia won the women’s biathlon relay after Olga Zaitseva easily protected her team’s lead on the final leg to secure the gold medal.
France claimed the silver and Germany took the bronze.
• U.S. Ski Team men’s coach Sasha Rearick has left the Olympics and returned home to Utah for the birth of his second child.
• American Julia Mancuso, who has already won two silver medals during the Games, decided not to enter Friday’s slalom.
The Associated Press
