Miller will close out the preliminary round with his first start of the tournament. With Jonathan Quick going 2-0 in his first two starts, it probably paves the way for Quick to start in the elimination round games. Miller is 14-22-3 with a 2.74 GAA and .923 SV% with the Sabres this season.
Laco gets the start over NHLers Jaroslav Halak and Peter Budaj in Slovakia's final game of the preliminary round. Laco has posted a 9-2-0 record with a 1.47 GAA and .942 SV% with Donbass HC of the KHL. He faces the tough task of trying to take down the Russians this morning.
Varlamov stopped 12 of 14 shots vs. Slovenia in Russia's tournament opener. Today he makes his second start of the tournament when he faces Slovakia in the final game of the preliminary round. Russia will look to Varly to move them to 2-0-0-1.
Pavelec stopped 18 of 20 shots in a 4-2 win over Latvia on Friday. The Czech were all over LAtvia and Pav was not ver busy, but his performance earned him a second start today vs. Switzerland. The Swiss sit at 1-1 after a 1-0 loss to the Swedes on Friday.
Gudlevskis, 21, will make his Olympics debut today vs. Sweden. He is 11-8-2 with a 2.69 GAA and .900 SV% with the Tampa Bay Lightning's AHL affiliate Syracuse Crunch. He will have a tough matchup against the 2-0 Swedes.
Lundqvist stopped all 26 shots that the Swiss through his way on Friday. He has stopped 43 of 45 shots (.956 SV%) he has has faced in two Olympic games. He will look to move to 3-0 against Latvia today.
As if Team Finland needed another offensive setback with an already depleted line up, they will have to rely on their secondary scoring as their only source of offensive production. Luckily for Finland, most of their scoring over the past 2 games of the tournament has come from their 2nd and 3rd lines, respectively.
After sitting in the tournament opener, Russia will turn to Bobrovsky over Semyon Varlamov in much more difficult matchup vs. the Americans. Today will be Bobrovsky's first start in the Olympics and it comes in a huge matchup. The winner of Saturday's game assumes control of Group A as the preliminary round winds down, and will head into the quarterfinal round in the driver's seat. Bob won 11 of 15 coming into the Olympics and sits at 20-14-3 with a 2.52 GAA and .918 SV% with Columbus.
After giving up two early goals vs. Russia, Kristan settled in and stopped 30 of 35 shots vs. a dangerous Russian team. Slovenia put up more of a fight than some expected vs. Russia and have a chance to beat a Slovakia team who were run-over in their tournament opener.
Halak was yanked after giving up five goals on 25 shots in Thursday's blowout loss to the United States. Peter Budaj didn't do any better allowing two on eight shots, so Slovakia will return to Halak as they need a win over Anze Kopitar and Slovenia this morning.
After not playing a game in two months due to a lower-body injury, Lars Haugen stepped-in and played very well vs. Canada on Thursday. He stopped 35 of 38 shots and kept Norway close, but ultimately fell 3-1. Today likely won't be any easier when he takes on Finland.
Despite allowing eight goals on 52 shots (.846 SV%) in Thursday's 8-4 loss to Finland, Starkbaum will be back in goal vs. Canada today. If the banged up Finns pushed eight passed him, things are not looking very bright for him this afternoon. Canada dominated their first game, expect much of the same here.
Hiller stopped all 21 shots that he faced in a 1-0 win over Latvia on Wednesday. Edgars Masalskis stood on his head at the other end of the ice, but Hiller was ultimately able to out-duel him . On Saturday, Hiller will face a 1-1-0 Czech team who have scored six goals in their first two contests.
Quick stopped 22 of 23 shots in a 7-1 walloping of Slovakia on Thursday. Quick gave up a goal :24 seconds into the second, but his team answered back with six unanswered goals in the next 15 minutes, making things rather easy on the Kings' tendy. On Saturday he will face a much stiffer test when the Americans take on the Russians.
Lehtonen won five of his last eight starts before departing for Sochi and sits at 22-15-10 with a 2.48 GAA and .916 SV% on the season. Tuukka Rask is expected to play the majority of games for Finland, but they will give Lehtonen a crack at a Norway team who lost 3-1 to Canada on Thursday.
Lundqvist stopped 27 of 29 shots in Wednesday 4-2 win over the Czech Republic. The Swedes were up 4-0 just four minutes into the second period and 'King Henrik' coasted to the W from there. Today he takes on a 1-0 Switzerland team who just squeaked out a 1-0 win over Latvia and who will start Reto Berra instead of Jonas Hiller.
Masalskis was excellent in Wednesday's tournament opener. He almost single handedly defeated the Swiss by stopping 38 shots, however with just eight seconds remaining, a fluky bounce off his own defenseman snuck by him. Latvia was unable to beat Jonas Hiller at the other end and suffered the 1-0 loss. The performance has kept the 33-year-old ahead of highly-rated youngster Kristers Gudlevskis from Syracuse Crunch. Latvia will look to upset the Czechs today, they lost 4-2 to Sweden in their opener.
Zetterberg has been dealing with a herniated disk that bothered him in December, but is reportedly much worse this time around. Zetterberg says that he is unable to move around very much and will not play for the remainder of the tournament as a result. Patrik Berglund will now centre the top line with Marcus Johansson sliding onto the third line. Niklas Kronwall will take over as Team Sweden captain. This is another big blow to Sweden's lineup who have now lost Zetterberg, Johan Franzen and Henrik Sedin.
Despite Jonas Hiller posting a 21-save shutout on Wednesday vs. Latvia, Berra will get the nod on Friday while HIller goes again on Saturday vs. the Czech Republic. Berra has posted an 8-16-2 record with a 3.02 GAA and .896 SV% on a weak Flames team this season. He will have a tough test against a Sweden team who beat the Czech 4-2 in their tournament opener.
Team Sweden's captain was in such poor shape today that he was not even able to join his teammates for a picture. "We have been familiar with it for some months. He has treatment in the U.S., but he started here without any symptoms, and I think now the symptoms that he has is according to the disk problem," said Team Sweden doctor Bjorn Waldeback. Waldeback did not rule out the possibility that Zetterberg will play Friday, when Sweden takes on Switzerland in the second game of group preliminary play. However, Sweden might opt to rest Zetterberg and have him available when the tournament enters elimination stage.
