WOMEN'S GIANT SLALOM
Shiffrin prevails
American Mikaela Shiffrin won gold early today in the women's giant slalom in her Pyeongchang Olympic debut. She used a hard-charging final run to win her second career Olympic gold medal. The 22-year-old American standout trailed by 0.20 seconds heading into the last run, but made up ground in no time by powering through ruts that had developed on the course. Shiffrin finished 0.39 seconds ahead of Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel at Yongpyong Alpine Center. Federica Brignone of Italy captured bronze, 0.46 behind Shiffrin's combined time of 2 minutes, 20.02 seconds. First-run leader Manuela Moelgg of Italy wound up eighth. At the 2014 Sochi Games, Shiffrin won the slalom crown at age 18. She will defend that title Friday.
WOMEN'S HOCKEY
Canada takes top spot
Meghan Agosta and Sara Nurse each scored in the second period and defending Olympic champion Canada clinched the top spot in pool play by edging the United States 2-1 early today in a showdown between the dominant powers in women's hockey. Genevieve Lacasse made 44 saves, including stopping Hilary Knight at the post inside the final 90 seconds. Brianne Decker hit two posts, the second time coming in the final seconds, before the two rivals ended up in a scrum. Officials reviewed the final play and ruled no goal. The Canadians also had two goals disallowed. Kendall Coyne scored the lone goal for the Americans.
WOMEN'S CURLING
U.S. loses to Japan
As the deficit kept growing, Becca Hamilton anticipated an early finish for the U.S. women's curling team in its first game of the Pyeongchang Olympics. "If you would have asked me after the third end whether we were going to be playing until the ninth, I would have told you no," she said. While Nina Roth's team lost 10-5 to Japan in nine ends Wednesday, it settled down as the afternoon wore on at Gangneung Curling Centre. With a better feel for the ice, Roth, Hamilton, Tabitha Peterson of Eagan and Aileen Geving of Duluth hope to avoid another slow start in today's games against Great Britain and Switzerland. The Americans fell into a 7-0 hole after only three ends. They didn't score until the fourth, and it appeared they might concede after Japan's lead swelled to 8-1. But a couple of sweet shots by Roth pulled the U.S. within 8-5, giving them the minor satisfaction of staying on the ice a little longer.
WOMEN'S SPEEDSKATING
Bowe's effort not enough
Against a field of powerful Dutch and Japanese skaters that included world-record holder Nao Kodaira, a strong start and powerful first lap by Brittany Bowe's Olympic career wasn't quite enough Wednesday at the Gangneung Oval. The gap was narrow enough to be cruel, with Bowe finishing fourth in the women's 1,000 meters -- just 0.38 seconds off the bronze-medal winning time. Had Bowe's legs held out just a tick longer, the United States' eight-year Olympic speedskating medal drought would have ended. That's what Bowe hoped so fervently after her torrid performance, paired in the 31-woman competition with Joriea ter Mors of the Netherlands. Ter Mors' time, an Olympic record 1:13.56, held up with eight skaters yet to compete, giving the Netherlands a gold-medal sweep of all five speedskating events held thus far at the 2018 PyeongChange Olympics. Bowe, in a provisional second, was left to wait and watch, the outcome beyond her control, as a succession of competitors attempted to knock her from the podium, including her American teammate Heather Bergstra, who was in the final pairing. In the end, Japanese teammates Kodaira and Miho Takagi improved on Bowe's time to take silver and bronze, respectively.
MEN'S DOWNHILL
Svindal wins gold
Aksel Lund Svindal won the men's downhill Thursday, making the 35-year-old Norwegian the oldest Olympic gold medalist in Alpine skiing. Svindal was 0.12 seconds faster than Norway teammate Kjetil Jansrud down the 1 4/5-mile course at Jeongseon. Beat Feuz of Switzerland took bronze, 0.18 behind Svindal's time of 1 minute, 40.25 seconds. The race started in near-perfect calm and cold conditions four days after it was postponed due to fierce winds that made racing unsafe. It was 34 degrees under sunshine and blue skies broken up by a few wispy clouds at race time.
MEN'S NORDIC COMBINED
Frenzel surges to victory
Eric Frenzel wasn't about to let a half-minute deficit deny him of another taste of Olympic glory. Fifth after the ski jumping stage of the Nordic combined on Wednesday, the 29-year-old German started 38 seconds off the leader and surged ahead of Akito Watabe on the last uphill of the 10-kilometer cross-country race to defend his title in the normal hill event at the Pyeongchang Games. With just over 1 kilometer remaining, it looked like Watabe might give Japan its first gold of the games. But Frenzel powered ahead of the World Cup leader on the hill for Germany's sixth gold in Pyeongchang. Watabe finished 4.8 seconds behind for the silver while Lukas Klapfer of Austria took the bronze.
MEN'S DOUBLES LUGE
'Tobys' take home gold
The German team of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt held off Austria's Peter Penz and Georg Fischler by 0.088 seconds for a second consecutive gold medal. Germany's Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken, the heavy Olympic favorites after dominating the World Cup circuit this season, managed a bronze. It was a disappointing night for the Americans, who haven't medaled in doubles since taking silver and bronze in both 1998 and 2002.
MEN’S HOCKEY
U.S. falls apart in 3rd, loses to Slovenia 3-2
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — The U.S. men’s hockey team did just about everything right for the first 40 minutes of its Olympic opener Wednesday night.
Team USA skated fast, forechecked aggressively, got rock-solid goaltending and scored twice. Coach Tony Granato couldn’t have asked for more from his team after having only five days of practice together as a group.
Then the third period started and everything fell apart.
Slovenia made a hard push, the Americans played on their heels and a promising night ended in disappointment.
Slovenia’s Jan Mursak tied the game with 97 seconds left in regulation and his goalie pulled, then scored the game winner 38 seconds into overtime to hand Team USA a stunning 3-2 loss in the preliminary round at Kwandong Hockey Center.
“If you don’t play for 60 minutes, you put yourself in a position where you might not win,” Granato said.
That’s precisely what happened. Team USA wasted a solid 40 minutes before playing a sluggish third period. The Americans had repeated breakdowns defensively and Slovenia seized momentum by keeping the pressure on.
The game felt like two different games because of the dramatic shift in momentum.
“It’s an unfortunate outcome and it’s something we’re going to have to get past,” forward Troy Terry said. “But even after that I really like our team. You saw how fast we are and we can make plays. Our issue right now is mostly defensively. We’re all getting used to new systems and all that. But I have no doubt we’re going to get better from here.”
Team USA will need to show better communication in their own end after defensive breakdowns created too many scoring chances. Slovenia had 11 shots in the third period and kept the heat on U.S. goaltender Ryan Zapolski.
“I thought our energy in the third wasn’t great,” Granato said. “Could have been a little fatigued mentally. No excuses. We played as hard as we could. The first two periods were great hockey. In the third period they were the better team and it was good enough for them to get a win.”
Olympic TV schedule All times Central
NBCSN
1:40-4 a.m. Men's ice hockey Norway vs. Sweden
4-6:10 a.m. Cross country women's 10km gold medal final
6:10-8:30 a.m. Men's ice hockey Switzerland vs. Canada
8:30-11 a.m. Luge team relay gold medal final; Speedskating men's 10,000m gold medal final
11 a.m.-1 p.m. Biathlon men's 20km gold medal final
1-4 p.m. Men's curling United States vs. Italy
6-10 p.m. Figure skating men's short program
10 p.m.-1:40 a.m. Men's curling United States vs. Sweden; Cross country men's 15km gold medal final
OLYMPIC CHANNEL
4-6 a.m. Medal ceremonies
NBC
2-4 p.m. Cross country women's 10k gold medal final; Speedskating men's 10,000km gold medal final
7-11:30 p.m. Figure skating men's short program; Snowboard cross women's gold medal final; Skeleton men's gold medal final runs; Freestyle skiing women's aerials; Cross country women's 10km gold medal final
12:05-1 a.m. Luge team relay gold medal final; Biathlon men's 20km gold medal final
CNBC
4-7 p.m. Women's curling United States vs. Switzerland
9-11:30 p.m. Men's ice hockey United States vs. Slovakia
Friday's TV
NBCSN
1:40-4 a.m. Men's ice hockey Olympic Athletes from Russia vs. Slovenia
4-6:10 a.m. Women's curling Sweden vs. Olympic Athletes from Russia
6:10-9:45 a.m. Men's ice hockey Sweden vs. Germany; Women's skeleton initial runs
9:45 a.m.- 1 p.m. Speedskating women's 5,000m gold medal final; Ski jumping men's individual large hill
1-4 p.m. Women's curling South Korea vs. Switzerland
6-9:10 p.m. Figure skating men's gold medal final
9:10-11:30 p.m. Men's ice hockey Canada vs. Czech Republic
11:30 p.m.-1:40 a.m. Women's curling United States vs. Olympic Athletes from Russia
OLYMPIC CHANNEL
4-6 a.m. Medal ceremonies
USA
6-8:30 a.m. Men's ice hockey Finland vs. Norway
NBC
2-4 p.m. Speedskating women's 5,000m gold medal final; Cross country men's 15km gold medal final; Ski jumping men's individual large hill
7-11 p.m. Figure skating men's gold medal final; Alpine skiing women's super G gold medal final; Freestyle skiing women's aerials gold medal final; Women's skeleton initial runs
11:35 p.m.-1 a.m. Freestyle skiing women's slopestyle gold medal final
CNBC
4-7 p.m. Men's curling United States vs. Denmark
9-11:30 p.m. Women's ice hockey quarterfinal match
Sports on 02/15/2018