Flyers at the Olympics: Quarterfinals

On to the Semifinals! Here is a recap of how your Flyers did during the Quarterfinals:

Quaterfinals theme: Um, Canada is really good

U.S. 2, Switzerland 0 They made us sweat a little more than they should have but the end result is what we expected. After many near-misses and disallowed goals, the U.S. outlasted the Swiss and their stellar goaltender, Jonas Hiller. While the U.S. only had a one goal lead for most of the game, you can't really say they looked past Switzerland considering how tough the Swiss have been to play against this Olympics. Let's hope the U.S. got all the near-misses out of their system as they are set to take on a tough Finland team in the Semifinals.

Canada 7, Russia 3 Was this a hockey game or a football game between two teams with great defenses? Canada definitely came into this one on a mission to just wipe out the Russians early and not look back. While they were certainly helped by some shaky goaltending by Evgeni Nabokov, the Canadian attack looked extremely dangerous as they poured in goal after goal in the first two periods. As for the Flyers playing in the game, both Mike Richards and Chris Pronger registered one assist. Richards played nearly 16 minutes in the game and didn't have a shot on goal and somehow managed to have a 0 plus/minus. Pronger played 14 and a half minutes and didn't do much of note except for a late holding penalty. The Canadians face Slovakia in the Semifinals. I'll be shocked if they slow down the Canadian attack at all.

Finland 2, Czech Republic 0 Kimmo Timonen and the Fins won a tough, low-scoring contest against the Czechs to move into the semifinals. No goals were scored in this game until deep into the third period when Niklas Hagman scored for Finland. Timonen continued his strong play for the Fins, leading the team with nearly 26 minutes of ice time. He has been out on the ice for nearly every big moment for Finland, including when they added the empty netter at the end of the game. Expect to see plenty more of Timonen against the top U.S. lines on Friday.

Slovakia 4, Sweden 3 Slovakia jumped out to a 2 goal lead twice in this game and they hung on in the third period to pull off the minor upset. The only former Flyer to have an impact in this game was Peter Forsberg, who picked up an assist. Some thought that if Forsberg turned in a good performance at the Olympics, he might make a comeback to the NHL. Foppa is clearly a shell of his former self, though, so I'm not sure teams are going to be knocking down his door with offers.

Friday's Semifinal games: Finland vs. U.S., 3:00 pm; Canada vs. Slovakia, 9:30 pm.