Hasek out
08:56 PM CST on Friday, February 17, 2006
Dominik Hasek left the Olympics on Friday in as big a rush as he arrived earlier in the week, leaving the world champion Czech Republic without one of hockey's best big-game goalies. "Our medical staff decided that I'm not able to play. It's over," said Hasek, 41, who plays for Ottawa. "Also, I don't want to get hurt for the rest of the National Hockey League season." Hasek, the player most responsible for the Czechs' surprise gold medal in Nagano in 1998, has a leg injury. Tomas Vokoun (Nashville) will fill in. Hasek suggested that the tight schedule that allowed some players to spend only one day in Turin before their first game and the long flight from the U.S. might have contributed to his injury. Czech forward Patrik Elias (New Jersey) also is out, with bruised ribs. Elsewhere, Philadelphia forward Peter Forsberg will play for Sweden today against Latvia. He missed the Flyer's last eight games and Sweden's first two because of a sore groin. The International Ice Hockey Federation wants to prevent a repeat of the lopsided losses Italy has suffered. Future hosts will not get automatic entry into the women's hockey tournament. Italy, ranked among the world's worst, lost its first three games by a combined score of 32-1, including a record 16-0 loss to Canada – which qualified for the gold-medal game with a 6-0 victory over Finland. The Estonians – not the Norwegians or Germans – are dominating these Games in cross-country, and Andrus Veerpalu's sensational skiing in tough conditions made it three gold medals overall for the tiny Baltic nation of 1.3 million people. Veerpalu defended his Olympic 15-kilometer classical title from Salt Lake City a day after countrywoman Kristina Smigun won her second gold of the Games (10km classical and 14km pursuit). American Kris Freeman was 22nd on Friday. "We have three golds for Estonia," Veerpalu said. "We are a very small country, so it's a great day." Pete Fenson drew for two points in the ninth end, and the U.S. beat Switzerland, 7-3, to move into a second-place tie in the round-robin at 4-2. Russia beat the U.S. women, 8-7 in an extra end, extinguishing any real chance of the Americans reaching the medal round. Advancing on a tiebreaker is a very remote possibility. "I don't think so," U.S. coach Neil Doese said. "I haven't even thought about that." A car taking Evgeny Plushenko to the Milan airport was involved in a minor traffic accident in dense fog early Friday, hours after the Russian won the gold medal. No one was hurt in the chain-reaction collision. Russian biathlon star Olga Pyleva, tossed from the Turin Games and stripped of her silver medal for a positive drug test, was banned for two years and will be investigated under Italy's criminal anti-doping law. "It was not a difficult case," International Biathlon Union president Anders Besseberg said. "It's a positive doping case." Downhill silver medalist Michael Walchhofer has been left off the Austrian team for today's super-G race and has already returned home. Walchhofer, who finished second in super-G at the 2005 world championships, was No. 13 in the super-G World Cup rankings for this season. For today's race, the Austrians will go with four ranked higher – Hermann Maier (1), Hannes Reichelt (3), Christoph Gruber (8) and Benni Raich (11). The U.S. will go with Bode Miller (27), Daron Rahlves (6), Scott Macartney (11) and Steve Nyman (33). Ken Stephens Austria's Thomas Morgenstern had superior style to edge Finland's Janne Ahonen in qualifying for today's event. Both had jumps of 136 meters on the large hill, but Morgenstern's form earned him 0.5 more points. "If I can do the same thing, I think I have a good shot at a medal," Morgenstern said. Alan Alborn was the only American among the top 50, which advanced. He had a jump of 111.5 meters for 86.7 points. One skier made it down a shortened downhill course Friday in the first leg of the Olympic women's Alpine combined event before officials postponed the race due to high winds. Croatia's Nika Fleiss crashed on the course's first jump after she was apparently buffeted by a gust of wind. She was able to ski down, but soon after she finished, race officials huddled and announced the postponement. The second part of the race, two slalom legs in the evening, was scheduled to go off as planned. 