Team USA allowed one goal in their sled hockey semifinal game against Italy, though they still came away victorious, 10-1. Team USA advances to the gold medal game where they will face Canada.
In curling, the U.S. finished round-robin play with a 2-9 record, falling to Slovakia in their final match of the Paralympics.
Sled Hockey
In a rematch of last year’s world championship final, Team USA will face Canada in the 2018 Paralympic sled hockey gold medal game after both teams won their semifinal matchups.
The day’s first semifinal pitted Canada, the reigning world champs, against host nation South Korea. As they have throughout the whole tournament so far, the Canadians dominated. Canada outshot South Korea 24-2 and won the game 7-0. Tyler McGregor led the way for the Canadians with two goals and two assists.
Through four games, Canada has yet to allow a goal, outscoring their opponents by a 42-0 margin.
Team USA had to get through Italy for their spot in the gold medal game. Most notable was that Italy managed to get on the scoreboard with 1 goal, though the Americans won handily 10-1. The U.S. team outscored their three previous preliminary game opponents by a combined 28-0 and head into the gold medal game outscoring their competitors 38-1.
South Korea and Italy will play for bronze.
Wheelchair Curling
Round-robin play came to a close in PyeongChang, and the top four teams will now move on to the semifinals.
China entered the day with a spot in the semis already secured, and they were soon joined by Canada and South Korea, who both won matches during the day’s early slate.
As for the final playoff spot, reigning world champions Norway edged their way into the semis after beating Slovakia 7-6 in an extra end in round robin play.
Overnight Thursday, China will face Canada for an opportunity to advance to the gold medal game. South Korea will take on Norway.
Although they were already out of playoff contention before the day began, Team USA still had two matches left. In the day’s first match, they narrowly lost to Norway, 5-4, in a competition that came down to Team USA’s final stone. In their second match, Team USA fell to Slovakia 6-5. The game was evenly matched most of the way through, but strong final throws from Slovakia secured them the win in the final round robin match at the 2018 Paralympic Games. The Americans finish their Paralympics tied for 11th in the standings with a 2-9 record.
