Published>Thu, Feb 25 10 10:05 AM
The Canadian men restored order in their Olympic ice hockey house on Wednesday and headed to the semi-finals after a 7-3 rout of Russia that eased the pain of a demoralising loss to the Americans.
Hockey-crazed Canadians celebrated the redeem team across the Winter Games host nation, but especially in Olympic venue Vancouver where Maple leaf-clad fans went wild in the stadium and on the streets.
Canada's happiness was compounded minutes later as two of the women's bobsleigh teams took the top two medals, the gold going to Kaillie Humphries in a thrilling final that saw a highly rated German team crash in the last of four runs.
With a gold that takes Canada to the top of the gold medal table alongside the United States and Germany, two silvers, a bronze and a big hockey win, Wednesday was already Canada's day.
Germany, the U.S. and Canada have seven golds apiece.
Day 12 of the Winter Games had its notable losers too, most notably American skier Lindsey Vonn, who crashed out on a fog-enveloped giant slalom and broke her little finger.
Vonn's fall wreaked havoc on team mate Julia Mancuso, who was forced to stop her run with Vonn still on the course. She made a poor second attempt that puts her back in the pack for the second leg of the race, postponed by fog until Thursday.
As the Games enter the final stretch, two athletes accumulated their second gold medal. Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic won the women's 5,000 metres speedskating gold while Marcus Hellner led Sweden to a surprise victory in the men's cross country relay.
China won the women's 3000 metre relay short track gold medal after South Korea was disqualified. Canada were promoted to the silver and the U.S. took bronze.
It was the ice on the hockey rink, however, that ruled the day in these parts.
After losing to the United States in the final round of preliminary matches on Sunday, Canada's coach Mike Babcock told the nation the team had chosen to take a "longer route" to get where they wanted to be. And so far, he was right.
'MAD AT ME'
Forced to play an extra match to qualify for the quarter-finals, Canada dispatched Germany 8-2 on Tuesday. Twenty four hours later, they lined up for a mouthwatering clash with Russia and dominated from start to finish.
The U.S. was the first team to reach the semi-finals when they beat Switzerland 2-0 on Wednesday, both goals coming from Zach Parise.
The United States will face the winners of the Finland-Czech Republic quarter-final, while Canada will meet either Slovakia or Sweden, the defending gold medallists.
The semi-final teams will all be determined by Wednesday night.
Heavy fog at Whistler mountain forced the postponement of the women's giant slalom until Thursday morning. Austrian Elisabeth Goergl was leading France's Taina Barioz by 0.02 seconds.
Mancuso, the defending Olympic champion in giant slalom, finished her second attempt at the first run back in 18th place and left left the course in tears, unhappy at being stopped because of her team mate's fall.
"I know that she is mad and probably frustrated and probably mad at me but I can't help that I fell," Vonn said.
"I wanted to finish, I was having a great run and wish I could have come down and not have her be flagged and that is absolutely not what I wanted."
Merchandisers had been cashing in on her appeal by selling t-shirts and baseball caps with Vonn-Couver emblazoned on them, but she has failed to live up to the hype.
She defied a painful shin injury to win gold in the women's downhill and a bronze in the super-G, but blew her chances of adding to her medal haul by falling in her two other events.
Despite the broken pinkie, Vonn is expected to race in the final women's Alpine event, the slalom scheduled for Friday.
The slender Sablikova added the 5,000m gold to her 3,000 metres title and surprising bronze in the 1,500m, with a time of six minutes 50.91 seconds.
Hellner, who also won gold in the 30km individual pursuit, held off a storming final leg by Norway's Petter Northug to give Sweden a thrilling victory in the cross country relay.
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