Men's hockey
Men's ninth-place game
LATVIA vs. UKRAINE
E Center
Thursday, 8 p.m.
TV: None
SLAP SHOTS: Ukraine is coming off a 4-2 Wednesday win over France. . . . Latvia's only loss was to unbeaten Germany.
11th-place game
AUSTRIA vs. SWITZERLAND
E Center
Thursday, 3 p.m.
TV: None
SLAP SHOTS: Austrian coach Ron Kennedy thinks goalie Reinhard Davis could be in the NHL playing like he did in a win over Slovakia. . . . Switzerland beat finalist Belarus 2-1 Wednesday.
13th-place game
SLOVAKIA vs. FRANCE
The Peaks Ice Arena
Thursday, 9 p.m.
TV: None
SLAP SHOTS: The disappointed Slovakians will be trying to make some sort of amends for failing to make the final round. . . . France is coming off Wednesday's 4-2 loss to the Ukraine.
Final round
RUSSIA VS. BELARUS
E Center
Friday, 11 a.m.
TV: MSNBC
SLAP SHOTS: Pavel Bure-led Russia, 1998 silver-medalists in Nagano, opens final-round play against qualifier Belarus, which went 2-1 in the preliminaries. . . . Bure had nine goals in Nagano. . . . Belarus, part of the former Soviet Union, lost an inconsequential game against Switzerland on Wednesday night.
CANADA VS. SWEDEN
E Center
Friday, 4 p.m.
TV: CNBC
SLAP SHOTS: This is a rematch of 1994 gold-medal game, which Sweden won in a shootout at Lillehammer. . . . As of Wednesday, Canadian goalie Curtis Joseph said there still was no word whether he or Martin Brodeur would get the call. . . . Puck-crazy Canada is looking for its first Olympic men's hockey gold in 50 years.
CZECH REPUBLIC VS. GERMANY
The Peaks Ice Arena
Friday, 7 p.m.
TV: CNBC
SLAP SHOTS: Dominik Hasek is back for the Czech Republic, which he led to 1998 gold with a 5-1 goaltending record in Nagano. . . . Germany is a surprise qualifier that went 3-0 in the preliminaries, upsetting Slovakia, then beating both Austria and Latvia. . . . Center Marco Sturm returns for Germany, which beat Latvia using no NHLers.
