Sochi Day 8: USA Hockey Defeats Russia in Shootout Thriller

Sochi is nine hours ahead of the eastern United States—12 hours ahead for the people out west—making it difficult for the average Olympic viewer to catch a lot of the events live. That’s where we come in.

Everyday we’ll be posting daily updates on what happened while you were sleeping, what’s coming up later in the day, and what’s on the docket tomorrow, as well as any relevant GIFs, tweets and interesting articles.

What You Missed:

Men’s Ice Hockey: The USA took on Russia today in what would serve as its first real test, and not only did this game not disappoint, it gave birth to an American star. Simply stated, it was an absolute thriller.

After two periods, one could argue that the Russians outplayed the USA and few would disagree. But somehow the scoreline was just 1-1 after 40 minutes.

And then Halfway through the third period, Patrick Kane threaded a magnificent pass to Joe Pavelski, who broke the tie to give the Americans a 2-1 advantage.

Via Tim Burke

But the lead didn’t last long. About three minutes later, Pavel Datsyuk knotted things back up with a goal of his own. Both sides continued to play at an extremely fast pace, but neither could net a winning goal in regulation. Even after it had looked like Russia scored a late goal to win it, the referees ruled the net had dislodged before the puck entered the net. So off we went to overtime… and then a what we thought would be dreadful shootout.

But we were wrong. It turned into an epic battle of TJ Oshie vs. Sergei Bobrovsky, America vs. Russia, and after Oshie beat Bobrovsky for a fourth time, America prevailed.

Watch the entire shootout here.

What’s About to Happen (All times EST, * signifies a medal round):

*Ski Jumping – Men’s Large Hill Individual (12:30 p.m.)

Three must-reads:

1. Social Sochi: See how NBC Sports is handling social media
2. Pretty much everyone wiped out on the Super-G course.
3. The 38 amazing faces of Ashley Wagner.

Tweet of the day

TRUTH.

GIF of the day

Cat curling!

Medal Count as of February 15, 11:20 a.m. EST (total gold, silver, bronze)

1. Netherlands: (14) 4, 4, 6
2. Russia: (14) 3, 6, 5
3. Norway: (13) 4, 3, 6
3. United States: (13) 4, 3, 6
5. Germany: (12) 7, 3, 2

Notable events Tuesday (in chronological order, * signifying a medal round):

*Alpine Skiing – Men’s Super G (1:00 a.m.)

*Snowboard – Ladies’ Snowboard Cross (4:40 a.m.)

*Cross Country – Men’s Relay (5:00 a.m.)
Men’s Hockey – USA vs. Slovenia (7:30 a.m.)