Salt Lake City

Today's TV schedule NBC 4-5 p.m. Cross-country skiing 8 p.m.- 12 a.m. Figure skating, alpine skiing, women's hockey, nordic combined 12:35- 2:05 a.m. Olympic late night MSNBC 1-7 p.m. Women's hockey, curling CNBC 7-10 p.m. Women's hockey What to watch: The heavily favored U.S. women's hockey team will try to defend its gold medal in the championship game against Canada, while American Michelle Kwan will attempt to capture the elusive gold in the...

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah - They played angry, and they played hurt. They played for pride, and they played to shut up their legion of doubters. But most importantly, the members of Team Canada played last night like tomorrow was just a rumor, fighting and clawing their way to every puck, scrapping their way to an emotional, 2-1 victory over Finland in the Olympic quarterfinals. "As each game goes on, the intensity grows and the passion to win grows," said Canada forward Steve Yzerman, who scored the winning goal off an assist from Mario Lemieux.

PARK CITY, Utah - Before a rocking crowd of 15,000 at Utah Olympic Park, Jim Shea Jr. won the gold medal yesterday in skeleton, an event that had been on the Olympic shelves for 54 years. Clearly the sentimental favorite among fans and athletes, Shea had dedicated the race to his grandfather. Jack Shea, a double-gold-medal speed skater at the 1932 Winter Games, died hours after his car was struck by a suspected drunken driver Jan. 21. Jim Shea's storybook finish threatened to overshadow the women's race.

SALT LAKE CITY - The wild and unpredictable sport of short-track speed skating took another strange skid last night, but this time the controversial result hoisted Apolo Anton Ohno to the gold medal, as opposed to the silver medal he won sliding across the finish line in the 1,000 meters Saturday night. Ohno, the 19-year-old from Seattle with the small patch of hair on his chin and the bad-boy reputation coming into Salt Lake City, was awarded his first Olympic gold when Kim Dong-sung of South Korea was disqualified for blocking the path to the finish line in the 1,500 meters as they entered the last turn after 13 strategically skated laps.

It's becoming the most famous animal act since Rocky and Bullwinkle. And as a matter of fact, it's a reprise of moose and squirrel. The hollow that holds the ski jumping runs and the track for bobsled, luge and skeleton has a mini-herd of moose that pops up along the roadside, grazes on the slopes and poses for NBC. But, on mornings when the track isn't being used for training or competition, a group of squirrels sometimes scampers around on the icy...

PARK CITY, Utah - In Eric Bergoust's mind, there are only two acceptable places to finish in aerial skiing. You can go for it all, stick the landing and finish first, or you can go for it all, crash the landing and finish last. He has now experienced both. Leading the aerial competition yesterday and needing just one more solid jump to claim his second straight Olympic gold medal, Bergoust crashed in dramatic fashion, falling on his back and watching any hopes of a medal slip away. "I had to go for it on that one and went for it a little too much," said Bergoust, who was a heavy favorite to repeat after he won gold in Nagano, Japan, but finished 12th out of 12 jumpers in the finals.

KEARNS, Utah - J.P. Shilling skated the race of his life on the world's fastest ice against the best on the planet. And with 20 members of his family and friends watching, the Baltimore native finished 14th in the 1,500-meter long-track speed skating event yesterday at the Utah Olympic Oval. On a day when the world record was set and broken and the United States increased its medal count to 20 - including Derek Parra's gold in this event - Shilling did exactly what he set out to do in the most competitive long-track race at the games.

SALT LAKE CITY - When her first set of scores came up last night, Michelle Kwan did the unthinkable. She frowned. In fact, she went a step further. After getting mostly 5.4s and 5.6s for the required element of her figure skate, Kwan curled her hip, playfully looked in the judges' direction and offered a definitive and bold thumbs-down. Two seconds later, she probably wished she could have taken it back. Kwan got scores of 5.9 from all nine judges for presentation, by far the highest marks of the night, vaulting her right where she wanted to be - into first place after the women's short program.

PARK CITY, Utah - Make a fist. Now put the meat part on a table and rest your chin on your thumb. That's how close to the ice skeleton sliders are to facial surgery each time they take an 80-mph run down a mile-long icy chute. "It's not for the faint of heart," says Lincoln DeWitt, 34, who will test his strength and heart today when the men's and women's skeleton competition is held. Still, the athletes insist, their sport is not as dangerous as bobsled, where an accident can turn the 400-pound sled into a missile.