U.S. defeats Switzerland, 2-0, to advance to semifinals of men's hockey

The United States men’s hockey team defeated Switzerland, 2-0, in a hard-fought contest Wednesday to advance to the semifinals at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. The U.S. will play the winner of the Wednesday night's Finland-Czech Republic game.

The first goal was scored on a power play by Zach Parise, with assists to Brian Rafalski and Paul Stastny, 2:08 into the third period. The second goal, again by Parise, was scored into an empty net with less than a minute to play. The U.S. outshot Switzerland 32-8 through the first two periods, but Swiss goalie Jonas Hiller made several outstanding saves to keep Switzerland tied.

It was the second meeting between the two countries in Vancouver, with the United States posting a 3-1 pool play win over the Swiss on Feb. 16.

-- Houston Mitchell in Vancouver 

Photo: The U.S. celebrates its goal in the third period. Credit: Richard Mackson / U.S. Presswire

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Olympic hockey tournament quarterfinals set

Slovakian forward Miroslav Satan scored the go-ahead goal at 8:41 of the third period Tuesday and Slovakia held on for a 4-3 victory over Norway in a qualifying game at Canada Hockey Place.

Kings center Michal Handzus scored one of three power-play goals for Slovakia, which will face second-seeded and defending champion Sweden in a quarterfinal game today.

"Sometimes an ugly win is better than no win," Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa said. "We have to improve much better and come into the next round against the former champion. It's going to be much tougher and we have to improve much better than we did tonight."

Hossa said his whole team was appalled by the hit and head injury suffered by teammate Lubos Bartecko, who was struck by Norway's Ole Kristian Tollefsen.

"You hate to see elbows like that in the face. That one was one of the ugliest I've ever seen," Hossa said. "That guy should be suspended for a long time. It's kind of difficult when you see a teammate going down like that. We talked about 'Let's score a bunch of goals on that power play for him' and that's what we did. We won that game for Lubos."

The lineup for Wednesday's quarterfinals:

Noon: U.S. vs. Switzerland, Canada Hockey Place

4:30 p.m.: Russia vs. Canada, Canada Hockey Place

7 p.m.: Finland vs. Czech Republic, University of British Columbia Thunderbird Arena

9 p.m.: Sweden vs. Slovakia, Canada Hockey Place

-- Helene Elliott and Chris Kuc from Vancouver

U.S.-Switzerland hockey won't be live on the West Coast

Remember when NBC promoted its shows with the slogan "Must See TV"?

For viewers who want to watch a live telecast of Wednesday's U.S.-Switzerland Olympic quarterfinal game, the updated version of that slogan would be "Must not be on live TV."

The game, which will start at noon Pacific time, will be broadcast live only in the Eastern and Central time zones. In the Pacific time zone, it will air on tape delay at 3 p.m.

Adam Freifeld, a spokesman for NBC, said Tuesday that a live feed will be available in all time zones at www.NBCOlympics.com.

He added that the website  has a nice bonus feature for people watching online while at work.  "There is a cool 'boss' button so if they are watching at work and the boss walks in they can click the boss button and a spread sheet comes up and the audio goes away," he said via email.

Nice, but it would be nicer if the game were shown live.

Helene Elliott, in Vancouver 

Update: injured Slovakian forward Lubos Bartecko in stable condition

Slovakia forward Lubos Bartecko is in stable condition after suffering a head injury as the result of a blatantly dirty  hit by Norway's Ole Kristian Tollefsen during the teams' playoff qualifying game Tuesday at Canada Hockey Place.

The hit dropped Bartecko to the ice and his helmet popped off. He struck his unprotected head on the ice and bled profusely. Medical personnel quickly came to his aid and took him off the ice on a stretcher.

According to a statement issued through the Olympic News Service, Slovakia team spokesman Peter Dobias said Bartecko was treated on site and later taken to the medical clinic at the Vancouver Athletes Village.

Tollefsen was given a major penalty and a match penalty and won't be eligible to play in Norway's next game.

--Helene Elliott, in Vancouver

Slovakia forward Lubos Bartecko suffers head injury

Courtesy of Chicago Tribune colleague Chris Kuc:

Slovakia forward Lubos Bartecko was taken off the ice on a stretcher after a flagrant elbow by Norway's Ole Kristian Tollefsen during the first period of a men's hockey qualification game Tuesday night at Canada Hockey Place.

Bartecko was skating with the puck at center ice when Tollefsen elbowed him in the head and the Slovak hit his head on the ice 6 minutes, 1 second into the game. Bartecko lay motionless while a pool of blood formed under him before being taken off the ice.

Tollefsen was given a match penalty and a five-minute major for checking to the head or neck area, during which Michal Handzus and Marian Gaborik scored to give Slovakia to a 2-0 lead.

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Anxiety and excitement at Canada-Germany playoff qualifier

Canada Hockey Place is a sea of red as fans try to boost Canada past Germany and into the Olympic hockey quarterfinals.

For which Canada's reward would be facing Russia, which was supposed to be the dream finals matchup until Canada needed a shootout to beat Switzerland and lost to the U.S. in the preliminary round of the tournament.

Canada took a 1-0 lead after Duncan Keith's shot from the point skidded behind the net, where Dany Heatleycontrolled it and fed San Jose teammate Joe Thornton for a quick wrist shot that got past goalie Thomas Greiss, another of the many Sharks in this tournament, at 10:13 of the first period.

Canada Coach Mike Babcock has made several lineup changes. Roberto Luongo, greeted with affectionate cheers of "Lou" in the arena that he calls home with the NHL's Vancouver Canucks, started in goal in place of Martin Brodeur. Babcock also switched up his lines, producing these combinations:

Rick Nash-Ryan Getzlaf-Corey Perry

Eric Staal-Sidney Crosby-Jarome Iginla

Patrick Marleau-Thornton-Heatley

Mike Richards-Jonathan Toews-Brenden Morrow.

He moved his seven defensemen around, as he had in previous games. But the most common pairings were:

Scott Niedermayer-Shea Weber

Chris Pronger-Dan Boyle

Keith-Drew Doughty.

He also paired Keith with Boyle and Suter with Brent Seabrook.

More later at www.latimes.com/sports

-- Helene Elliott in Vancouver

Germany-Canada game a battle of NHL teammates

One of the quirks of having NHL players represent their homelands in the Olympics is that players who are teammates and go to battle for each other will instead be battling each other here.

The latest example--and one of the most interesting, because a quarterfinal playoff berth will be at stake--is Germany's qualification playoff game against Canada Wednesday at Canada Hockey Place.

Germany's goaltender is Thomas Greiss, the backup to Evgeni Nabokov in San Jose. Canada's most effective line so far has been the San Jose trio of Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley, and Sharks defenseman Danny Boyle often joins them on the power play.

Asked how to score on Greiss, Heatley was generous in his praise. "He's a real good positional guy. He's very good side to side," said Heatley, who was born in Germany while his father played hockey there and moved to Canada as a child. "We have to get him moving first of all, get traffic in front of him and make good shots to beat him."

Another quirk: defenseman Christian Ehrhoff of Germany, accustomed to being cheered in this arena when he plays for the hometown Vancouver Canucks, will hear boos today. But he knows that the enormous pressure on Canada could help him and his teammates.

"Hopefully that can work to our advantage," he said.

Marco Sturm of Germany and the Bruins, who will play against Boston teammate Patrice Bergeron, has a realistic view of the German team's prospects of defeating Canada.

"It would be a miracle for Germany," he said.

--Helene Elliott in Vancouver, Canada

Photo: Dany Heatley will see a familiar face in goal when Canada plays Germany. Credit: Cris Bouroncle, AFP/Getty Images.

Bracket: Men's hockey tournament

The U.S. men’s hockey team received a bye to the quarterfinals after defeating Canada, which faces Germany on Tuesday in the qualifying round.