Beyond the Podium: What you need to know about Sochi today

WATCH: A nail-biter in men’s hockey between Canada and Latvia, and a golden repeat for Canada’s women’s bobsledders. Allison Vuchnich reports

What you need to know about Sochi today:

In a day with very few Olympic events, Canada has two guaranteed medals on Thursday. The only question: Will they be silver or gold?

Key events to watch:

Two Canadian women’s teams play in gold-medal games Thursday. One of them is the hockey team. The Canadians go up against their bitter rivals from the United States in a rematch of the gold-medal game from 2010.

• Women’s hockey gold-medal game – 12 p.m. ET / 9 a.m. PT.
• In their preliminary match-up, Canada defeated the U.S.A. 3-2.
• The bronze medal game between Sweden and Switzerland is at 7 a.m. ET / 4 a.m. PT.

The other women’s team gunning for gold is Jennifer Jones’ curlers, who were undefeated in the round robin, winning all nine matches. They take on the second-ranked Sweden on Thursday.

• Women’s curling gold-medal game – 8:30 a.m. ET / 5:30 a.m. PT.
• Canada’s team is made up of Jones, Jill Officer, Kaitlyn Lawes and Dawn McEwen.
• The bronze-medal game between Great Britain and Switzerland is at 3:30 a.m. ET / 12:30 a.m. PT.

Roz Groenewoud is Canada’s shot at a third medal in the women’s ski halfpipe.

• Women’s ski halfpipe qualification – 9:30 a.m. ET / 6:30 a.m. PT.
• Women’s ski halfpipe final – 12:30 p.m. ET / 9:30 a.m. PT.
• Groenewoud is a medal favourite in the event. She’s joined in the field by fellow Canadian Keltie Hansen.

Other Events:

The second portion of the ladies figure skating competition – the free skate – takes place on Thursday.

• Ladies figure skating free skate – 10 a.m. ET / 7 a.m. PT.
• Canadians Kaetlyn Osmond and Gabrielle Daleman sit in 13th and 19th respectively after Wednesday’s short program.

Three Canadians will look for a spot on the podium in men’s ski cross Thursday morning.

• Qualification round – 2:45 a.m. ET / 11:45 p.m. Wednesday PT.
• Round of 16 – 4:30 a.m. ET / 1:30 a.m. PT.
• Quarterfinals – 5:05 a.m. ET / 2:05 a.m. PT.
• Semi-finals – 5:25 a.m. ET / 2:25 a.m. PT.
• Finals – 5:40 a.m. ET / 2:40 a.m. PT.
• Canadians to watch: Chris Del Bosco, Brady Leman, Dave Duncan.

What happened on Wednesday:

Canada captured one medal on Wednesday, a gold in women’s bobsleigh, which proved to be one of the most exciting Olympic events thus far.

The Canada-1 sled team of Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse started the day with two runs in the books, two to go. They sat in second place, 0.23 back of Americans Elana Meyers and Lauryn Williams after Tuesday’s runs.

READ MORE: Best photos from Day 14 in Sochi

In the first run of the day, the Canadians put up the fastest time in the field, shaving 0.11 seconds off the Americans lead, which then sat at 0.12 seconds.

In the fourth and final run of the competition, the Canadians put in a good, but not great run to guarantee them at least a silver medal. The Americans were the last to go. Meyers and Williams made several mistakes and ended up having their sled skid down the track at one point.

They gradually lost their lead and crossed the finish line in second place – Humphries and Moyse won by 0.1 seconds to successfully defend their Olympic title.

Other Canadian highlights:

Canada’s men’s hockey team won a close game that wasn’t supposed to be close – 2-1 over Latvia.

The Canadians were yet again unable to penetrate the European-style defence of collapsing towards the net and relying on the goaltender. When they did get chances, Latvian goalie Kristers Gudlevskis was outstanding.

Patrick Sharp scored in the first period. A defensive error allowed Latvia to tie it up soon after on a breakaway. The score stayed deadlocked at 1-1 until late in the third when Shea Weber ripped a slap shot on the power play for his third goal of the tournament. It also marked the seventh goal for Canadian defencemen, while forwards have just six.

With the win, Team Canada advances to the semi-final against the U.S.A., who beat the Czech Republic 5-2 on Wednesday. The semi-final is Friday at 12 p.m. ET / 9 a.m. PT.

The only other strong Canadian performances on the day came from the curling teams, who both advanced to gold-medal games.

Jennifer Jones and the women defeated Great Britain 6-4 to book their spot against Sweden in the final on Thursday. The Canadians hope to win gold with an 11th straight victory.

Brad Jacobs and the men defeated a strong Chinese team and will face Great Britain in the finals, following the latter’s massive upset of top seed Sweden in their semi-final match. With the score at 7-6, Jacobs hit a perfect shot in the 9th end to score three points, which was all the Canadians needed.

Disappointments:

Both the men’s and women’s parallel giant slalom events took place on Wednesday, with three Canadian athletes competing in each. None got the result they were hoping for.

In the women’s event, Caroline Calvé and Marianne Leeson were considered to be potential podium finishers. They all managed to qualify for the round of 16. After that, the format for parallel giant slalom turns into head-to-head match-ups, with the winners of each match advancing. In the round of 16, all three Canadians won their matches, advancing to the quarterfinals. Unfortunately all three of them lost their quarterfinal matches.

Canada’s men in the event included reigning Olympic champion Jasey-Jay Anderson, as well as Matthew Morison and Michael Lambert. Anderson and Morison qualified for the round of 16, while Lambert failed to do so. The next round, Anderson and Morison both lost their heat and were eliminated much earlier than anticipated. It was a very disappointing showing for Canada’s snowboarders.

In the lone speed skating event of the day, the women’s long track 5000-metre saw Canadian Ivanie Blondin finish in a disappointing 14th place out of 16 skaters.

Canada’s cross country skiers failed to medal yet again at the men’s and women’s team sprints Wednesday.

Canada’s women’s team, made up of Perianne Jones and Daria Gaiazova, finished 5th in their semi-final, failing to qualify for the final. The men’s team of Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey did the same, with a 6th place finish.

Megan Imrie, Rosanna Crawford, Brendan Green and Scott Perras made up Canada’s biathlon mixed relay team. They weren’t expected to come close to reaching the podium but a 12th-place finish was still disappointing.

In alpine skiing, the men’s giant slalom event featured Canadians Trevor Philp, Philip Brown and Morgan Pridy. Each had a significantly better second run than first. Philp finished 25th, Brown 29th and Pridy 33rd.

In figure skating, young Canadians Kaetlyn Osmond and Gabrielle Daleman were not expected to be at the top of the standings – these Olympics are more of a learning experience than a medal chance for them. Osmond sits in 13th and Daleman is in 19th heading into Thursday’s free skate, for which both qualified.