Hello from Milan and Cortina, where we’re heading toward the homestretch of these Winter Games. Today in the quarterfinals of the men’s hockey tournament, three of the four games went into overtime. In the day’s final game, Quinn Hughes ripped the game-winning goal that gave Team USA a 2-1 win over Sweden.
Our correspondents have it all covered below and at NBC News. Catch it all streaming on Peacock.
Live from Milan Cortina
The quarterfinal round of the Olympic men’s hockey tournament today could not have been closer. After Slovakia blasted Germany 6-2, the next three games went to overtime.
First, Team Canada barely survived against Czechia, as Jordan Binnington, the often criticized Canadian goalie, made a few key saves down the stretch in a 4-3 win. Then Finland, the reigning Olympic champs, mounted a late comeback to topple Switzerland 3-2 in overtime.
But the nightcap was just as thrilling. The Americans were holding onto a one-goal lead for much of the game, until Sweden’s Mika Zibanejad scored with less than two minutes left in regulation. By then, hockey fans were familiar with the overtime rules: a sudden-death, 10-minute period, played 3-on-3.
A few minutes into overtime, Quinn Hughes found an opening and unleashed a wicked shot that hit the post and banked into the net. The rest of Team USA mobbed him in celebration.
Now the USA will play Slovakia in the semifinals on Friday, and Canada will play Finland for a trip to the gold medal game.
Earlier in the day, Mikaela Shiffrin had authored her own triumphant moment. For all of her dominance across Alpine skiing, in recent years Shiffrin had faltered on the sport’s biggest stage.
She missed out on medals in her last eight Olympic events: six at the 2022 Beijing Games and two at the Milan Cortina Games. Her last chance to medal in Italy came today in the slalom, her strongest event.
Shiffrin proved to be up for the challenge. She raced to first place and a combined time of 1:39.1 — 1.5 seconds ahead of silver, and 1.71 seconds ahead of bronze.
It was the largest margin of victory in any Olympic Alpine skiing event since 1998.
“The skiing is what I cared about and of course, medal and (win) gold, I mean, that’s a dream come true,” Shiffrin told NBC. “But at some point this week, I just said, like, ‘Stop dreaming, just ski.’ … And I’m so happy to be able to do the right thing in the right moment.” (For more on Shiffrin, read Tim Layden’s dispatch for NBC Olympics and these eight stats on how she made history.)
Medal count
Norway has taken a commanding lead in the medal race, thanks to athletes like Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, the Norwegian cross-country skier who won another gold medal today in the men’s team sprint. He has now won five gold medals at these Games and has joined American swimmer Michael Phelps as the only Olympians ever to have won 10 or more gold medals.
Klæbo could win a sixth gold medal, in the 50-kilometer mass start on Saturday.
Athlete spotlight
Ahead of tomorrow’s U.S.A.-Canada gold medal hockey game, Hilary Knight proposed to her longtime girlfriend, American speedskater and fellow Olympian Brittany Bowe.
Knight and Bowe had gotten to know each other at the 2022 Beijing Games, which still had heavy pandemic restrictions. “To have that human connection, even walking outside at a distance, it was really cool,” Knight told Olympics.com.
On an Instagram post announcing the engagement, Knight wrote, “Olympics brought us together. This one made us forever.”
Tomorrow, Knight and Team USA will face Canada for the fifth consecutive time in the gold medal game. In the previous four Olympic finals, the Americans only won once, in 2018.
What is skimo?
A new Olympic sport will make its debut tomorrow — a brutal, high-altitude sport that’s called ski mountaineering. Or skimo, for short.
In skimo, skiers scamper uphill wearing carpet-like skins on their skis or just their stiff boots, then barrel back down an ungroomed course.
Three skimo events will be held in Bormio, Italy: men’s sprint, women’s sprint, and a mixed relay with a competitor of each gender.
The United States will compete in the relay, which starts with a section of skinning — essentially racing uphill with a free heel and climbing skins glued to the skis. Then the athletes rip off the skins and ski a short downhill portion before returning to climbing, this time with a combination of skinning and bootpacking (dashing uphill in their ski boots, with skis secured to a backpack). Finally, they descend to the base of the hill.
When to watch?
If you were planning to call out of work sick to watch the Olympics, Thursday is the day to do so. We have curling semifinal action, finals in both women’s and men’s skimo, the bronze and gold medal games in women’s hockey, and Jordan Stolz going for another gold in speedskating.
On top of all that? The final figure skating medal of the Olympics will be given in the women’s single event, with American Alysa Liu in contention for a medal.
All times are in Eastern, and an asterisk signifies a medal event:
Thursday, Feb. 19
- 3:05 a.m.: Curling, men’s round robin (Sweden vs. Czechia, Italy vs. Switzerland, China vs. Germany, Norway vs. Canada)
- 3:10 a.m.: Nordic combined, team sprint trial round
- 3:50 a.m.: Ski mountaineering, women’s sprint heats
- 4 a.m.: Nordic combined, team sprint competition round
- 4:30 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, men’s freeski halfpipe qualifying run 1
- 4:30 a.m.: Ski mountaineering, men’s sprint heats
- 5:27 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, men’s freeski halfpipe qualifying run 2
- 6:55 a.m.: Ski mountaineering, women’s sprint semifinals
- 7:25 a.m.: Ski mountaineering, men’s sprint semifinals
- 7:55 a.m.: Ski mountaineering, women’s sprint finals*
- 8 a.m.: Nordic combined, team sprint cross-country*
- 8:05 a.m.: Curling, women’s round robin (Switzerland vs. USA, Canada vs. Korea, Japan vs. China, Great Britain vs. Italy)
- 8:15 a.m.: Ski mountaineering, men’s sprint finals*
- 8:40 a.m.: Women’s hockey, bronze medal game, Switzerland vs. Sweden*
- 10:30 a.m.: Speedskating, men’s 1,500-meter*
- 1 p.m.: Figure skating, women’s singles, free skate*
- 1:05 p.m.: Curling, men’s semifinals
- 1:05 p.m.: Curling, men’s semifinals
- 1:10 p.m.: Women’s hockey, gold medal game, USA vs. Canada*
- 1:30 p.m.: Freestyle skiing, women’s freeski halfpipe
That’s it for now! We’ll be back tomorrow.
