The Norwegians have found bright spots in both of their Group A games so far, holding the powerful Canadians without a goal for the first 22 minutes of their game on Tuesday. Thursday, it was merely a 3-1 deficit against the Americans with 6 minutes remaining in the game, before a late three-goal outburst made the scoreline seem more unseemly than it was. But the time for moral victories is gone. This is a game the Norwegians can entertain thoughts of winning. It will require their best game of the tournament by far, and it will be interesting to see if the Norwegians have any gas left in the tank. Mats Zuccarello Aasen was their most dangerous offensive player Thursday and Tollefsen added some sandpaper on D in his first appearance of these Olympics.
The Swiss have done everything but win in their first two games, pushing the Canadians to a shootout and scaring the Americans, as well, before falling 3-1. Switzerland feels confident it can take this game against Norway, but they know they will be forced to play differently against the defense-first Norwegians. "Norway will present different challenges for us," Swiss coach Ralph Krueger said. "We will be playing with the puck a lot more in this game." Hiller has been amazing for the Swiss, allowing just five goals on 70 shots against the Americans and Canadians. Streit, meanwhile, has been a workhorse on the blue, averaging almost 24 minutes a game.
Olympic Winter Games 2010 :: Vancouver, Canada
The Men's Icehockey games on the Winter Olympics. Starting with three groups: Group A (Canada, Norway, Switzerland, USA), Group B (Czech Republic, Latvia, Russia, Slovakia) and Group C (Belarus, Finland, Germany, Sweden) followed by the Playoff and final round.
Upon completion of the preliminary round, teams will be ranked 1D through 12D. The top four ranked teams (1D though 4D) will receive byes to the quarter-final round. The remaining eight teams will compete for the remaining four quarter-final positions.
The winner of QP1 (8D vs 9D) will play the top-seeded 1D in the quarter-finals. The winner of QP2 (5D vs 12D) will play 4D, the winner of QP3 (7D vs 10D) will play 2D and the winner of QP4 (6D vs 11D) will play 3D.
The losers of the qualification playoff round games (QP1 – QP4) will receive a final ranking of 9 through 12 based on their preliminary round ranking.
The losers of the quarter-final round games (QF1 – QF4) will receive a final ranking of 5th through 8th based on their preliminary round ranking.
The losers of the semifinal games (SF1 and SF2) will compete for the bronze medal and 4th place, while the winners of the semifinal games compete for gold and silver.
Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics
Canada
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, will be a major international multi-sport event held on February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the resort town of Whistler, British Columbia and in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond. Both the Olympic and Paralympic Games are being organized by the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC).
