It was more of a struggle than expected, but the United States men’s hockey team moved on to the semifinals of the Winter Olympics after a hard-fought 2-0 victory over Switzerland at Canada Hockey Place on Wednesday.
The U.S. will play the winner of tonight’s Finland-Czech Republic game on Friday at noon for the right to play for the gold medal Sunday.
The U.S. got its first goal from Zach Parise with 17:52 left in the game on a power play, batting in a loose puck in the right corner of the net just over Swiss goalie Jonas Hiller. The Anaheim Duck, one of three NHL players on the Swiss roster, was under pressure all day but lived up to his billing as one of the best in the world.