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Canada faces Russia next

Enrico Fabris of Italy celebrates after winning the gold medal in the men's 1,500 speedskating event in Turin, Italy, on Tuesday. PHOTO: EPA

Canada finally scored, and the Americans -- despite a loss -- reached the quarterfinals of men's Olympic hockey on the final day of the preliminary round.

With only the Americans needing to still reach the final eight, Tuesday was a warmup for the knockout phase -- finalizing the group standings and pairings in a wide-open tournament.

Two games stand out in the crossover quarterfinals, where No. 1 plays No. 4 and so forth. Old foes Canada and Russia play, and the two nations that made up the former Czechoslovakia -- Slovakia and the Czech Republic -- face off.

In the other games, Finland faces the US and Sweden plays Switzerland, probably the weakest team in the last eight.

"Everybody is starting from zero no matter if you have won five games or one," said Czech goaltender Tomas Vokoun following a 3-2 loss in Group A to Olympic champion Canada.

The goals were the first for the Canadians after two straight shutouts. They finished third in the group and the world champion Czechs were fourth.

"The last couple games we were firing goose eggs, and that's something you don't want to do going into your elimination game," Canada forward Kris Draper said.

In two other Group A games, Finland remained perfect, defeating Germany 2-0. Switzerland rallied for a 3-3 tie with Italy to clinch second place.

In Group B, Slovakia beat Sweden 3-0, topping the group. Sweden finished third. Kazakhstan's 5-2 victory over Latvia snuffed out Latvia's slim chance of reaching the quarterfinals, ushering in the Americans.

The Latvians needed to beat Kazakhstan by a whopping margin -- they had a 16-goal difference to make up on the US team -- and then hope the Americans lost later against Russia.

They did, falling 5-4 to Russia, which finished second.

Canada outworked the Czechs in the first period, taking a 3-0 lead with Brad Richards, Martin St. Louis and Chris Pronger scoring. The rest was about hanging on with goalie Martin Brodeur.

The Czechs outshot Canada 33-16 with Pavel Kubina scoring on a power play in the second and Petr Cajanek making it 3-2 at 2:41 of the final period.

Canada put all three goals behind Vokoun, who is the No. 1 after Dominik Hasek was knocked out with a groin injury. Vokoun has been struggling and was benched after the first period, replaced by Milan Hnilicka.

"I don't feel any pressure," Vokoun said. "I don't think this has got anything to do with pressure. Sometimes you just play really well, and then get in a slump. Now is the worst possible timing."

Ivo Ruthermann scored for Switzerland at 16:38 of the final period to earn the draw against Italy. After upsetting Canada and the Czechs, the Swiss have slowed down.

"Today, we weren't really there in our head," Ruthermann said.

Italy, the only team without an NHL player, finished with three losses and two ties.

Sweden coach Bengt-Ake Gustaffson, an assistant for four years with the Swiss team, was quoted on Swedish TV saying it might benefit his team to lose against Slovakia to ensure a matchup with Switzerland.

And that's what happened.

Gustaffson backed off slightly before the game, and the IIHF, the governing body of world hockey, sent a monitor to the game.

Slovakia picked up the win with goals from Peter Bondra, Marian Hossa and Radoslav Suchy.

Yevgeniy Koreshkov scored two third-period goals in Kazakhstan's victory. Sergey Alexandrov snapped a 2-2 tie with 7:27 left before Koreshkov put it away with consecutive goals 3:15 apart in the closing minutes.

Latvia finished with one tie in five games -- 3-3 with the US -- but lost its final four games by a combined 26-8. Kazakhstan ended with one win and four losses.

Russia took a 2-0 lead on goals by Alexander Korolyuk and Evgeni Malkin, never trailed and scored one short-handed goal.

Now it's Russia vs. Canada, the most compelling matchup in world hockey.

"It's huge," forward Ilya Kovalchuk said. "I think it's interesting for everybody. It's a huge game for all Russia, not just for our team."

Niko Kapanen scored in the first and Saku Koivu added one in the second in Finland's 2-0 victory over Germany. The Finns outscored opponents 19-2.

Germany lost three and tied two, the same as Italy. Germany and Italy tied 3-3 in their game. Germany took fifth place with a better goal difference.

ROUNDUP

An Italian policeman quelled an American speedskating feud at the Winter Olympics -- by taking the gold medal himself.

While Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis bickered over who was better credentialed to win the 1,500m at Oval Lingotto, Enrico Fabris went about the business Tuesday -- setting the quickest time (1 minute, 45.97 seconds) with four pairs yet to race and holding on for his and Italy's second surprise speedskating gold medal of the Turin Games.

The triumph set off a chorus of "I-tal-ia, I-tal-ia" from the ever-swelling home crowd and silenced the Americans for a while.

Davis, who stormed out of a post-race press conference with Hedrick, had kinder words for Fabris than he did for his own teammate.

"He skated a beautiful race. He was the best today ... I am very proud of him, he's a champion," said Davis.

Fabris became the first non-US skater to win an individual men's event at Turin -- he earlier helped the Italians win the team pursuit and won a bronze medal in the 5,000m.

In figure skating, world champion Irena Slutskaya could only watch as Sasha Cohen's beautiful routine in the women's short program edged her for first place.

Cohen, aiming for the US' third consecutive women's skate gold medal at an Olympics, leads by 0.3 points ahead of Thursday's decisive free skate.

A win there for Slutskaya there would complete an unprecedented figure skating Olympic medal sweep for Russia at the Olympics. Russians already have won the men's, pairs and ice dancing gold medals at Turin.

Fabris wasn't the member of Italy's police network pulling surprises at the Olympics. Italian authorities launched a second overnight raid on housing used by Austrian biathlon and cross country athletes or staff in the Italian Alps and uncovered more equipment linking disgraced ski coach Walter Mayer with possible blood doping.

The drug issue didn't bother Felix Gottwald, who won Austria's eighth gold medal of the games with a come-from-behind victory in the Nordic combined large hill sprint.

It set an Austrian record for most gold medals at an Olympics and should have sparked nationwide celebrations. But the Mayer scandal kept overshadowing the competitive prowess that has Austria second in the standings, one gold medal behind neighboring Germany.

Germans won the men's 4x7.5km biathlon relay, then Sandra Kiriasis and Anja Schneiderheinze won women's two-man bobsled over Shauna Rohbock and Valerie Fleming of the US to capture their country's ninth gold medal.

The Germans had also looked like favorites to take the Nordic combined sprint when Georg Hettich, who won gold in the individual normal hill event, jumped 133.5m on the large hill for 125.7 points and a five-second lead to take into the 7.5km cross-country race.

But Hettich faded fast, allowing Gottwald and then Magnus Moan of Norway to overhaul him for gold and silver.

Austria's early indignation at the police raids tempered somewhat when Italian authorities revealed that Mayer, who bolted from the games on the weekend, left behind syringes in the home he'd rented in Italy.

Police raids on the weekend also found unlabeled drugs and a blood transfusion machine, a source familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The source asked not to be identified because the investigation was ongoing.

Mayer's week went from awful to downright disgraceful. After fleeing Italy, he was taken into custody just on Austria's side of the border when he crashed into a police roadblock, damaging two cars. He was charged with criminal offenses and later admitted to a psychiatric hospital and placed on suicide watch.

Austrian ski federation president Peter Schroecksnadel conceded Tuesday it was a mistake to allow Mayer -- under an Olympic ban until after 2010 because of suspicion of blood doping infractions at the 2002 Games -- any association with the Olympics.

Schroecksnadel also said two athletes had confessed to a team official that they "may have used illegal methods."

Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann, since suspended for breaking ranks early, made the statement to the team's sports director, Markus Gandler, he said.

IOC president Jacques Rogge said he was setting up a commission to investigate the incident.

Two Russian cross-country skiers were cleared Tuesday to compete in the Olympics after serving suspensions for high hemoglobin levels, while another received a third suspension.

Natalia Matveeva passed a third test after receiving consecutive five-day suspensions, while countryman Pavel Korosteljev lowered his levels and was cleared following a second test.

Nikolai Pankratov, also of Russia, failed a third test Tuesday and was suspended by the International Ski Federation for five additional days. The only race he could now do is Sunday's 50km mass start.

Sergei Dolidovich of Belarus also was hit with a second suspension last week. There was no immediate information whether he had been tested again.
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