7 to Watch Monday: Maddie, Mind Games and the Chance at a Miracle

[[468455733, R, 300, 87]]Here are our “7 to Watch” in Pyeongchang for Monday:  Must See Olympic Video: Chloe Kim Lands Back-to-Back 1080s, Wins Olympic Gold [[474212133,C]]1. U.S. Men’s Hockey Takes on Slovakia Must See Olympic Video: Snowboarder Lands on Back in Crash If the U.S. men’s hockey team is going to pull off a miracle, their magic run must start on Tuesday. The Americans face Slovakia in the first round of the elimination tournament.The Americans beat Slovakia 2-1 in group play last week. It was America’s only win in group play. The winner will face the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals. The Czech Republic moved straight to the quarterfinals by winning its group. Must See Olympic Video: Watch All 3 of Shaun White’s Gold Medal Runs In its win over Slovakia last week, the U.S. took advantage of a strong power play. Ryan Donato scored twice on the power play, including a third-period goal that broke a 1-1 tie and gave American the victory.Donato, who plays college hockey for Harvard, is part of a ragtag team of Americans hoping to compete for a medal. With NHL players sitting out these Olympics, the U.S. team is made up of mostly college kids and castoffs who couldn’t make the NHL.For the Donato family, though, that’s familiar territory: His father Ted scored four goals for the 1992 United States hockey team that finished fourth in Albertville while he was a student at Harvard. That was one of the last Olympic teams that didn’t include NHL players — until now.Other match-ups in the elimination round: Slovenia versus Norway, Finland versus South Korea and Switzerland versus Germany.Watch live at 7 p.m. PT Monday on NBCSN or on digital platforms at this link.[[474020363,C]]2. U.S.’s Maddie Bowman Defends Halfpipe GoldDefending U.S. Olympic champion Maddie Bowman is looking to repeat her Sochi result in the women’s freestyle skiing halfpipe. She heads a strong contingent of American contenders, which includes Brita Sigourney, the first women to land a 1080 in a competition halfpipe, and Annalisa Drew, who finished fourth in qualifying. Sigourney finished third in qualifying, Drew finished fourth and Bowman finished sixth.American Devin Logan, a silver medal winner in Sochi for slopestyle, finished 15th in the qualifying run and failed to advance to the final.Tough competition is expected from Canada’s Cassie Sharpe, known for her bold tricks, and France’s Marie Martinod, a silver medal winner in Sochi.Watch live on NBC 7’s primetime coverage beginning at 5 p.m. PT Monday or on digital platforms at this link.[[474478213,C]]3. Short Track Skaters Face New Record in 3,000 RelaySouth Korea traditionally dominates in the 3,000-meter short track women’s relay, having won five of the seven Olympic gold medals that have been awarded. And this year, it has the deepest team, which includes two-time world champion Choi Min-jeong and three-time Olympic medalist Shim Suk-hee. It holds the world record of 4:04.222 set in Salt Lake City in November 2016.But China has a strong team, and its skaters set an Olympic record of 4:05.315 in last week’s qualifying round. Its team includes Fan Kexin, who won a silver in the 1,000-meter race in Sochi and who helped her relay teammates take medals in six straight world championships.Italy and Canada are also competing in the finals. Watch live starting at 2 a.m. PT Tuesday on digital platforms at this link.  [[473177033,C]]4. Team USA Fights for Medal Round Spot vs. South Korea in Women’s CurlingIf the United States is going to have a shot at a medal in curling, its women’s team needs to finish strong. With two games left against two of the top teams, they’re fighting for the last spot in the medal round.That fight begins against South Korea on Tuesday.The top four teams in round-robin standings advance to the medal round. Entering the final stretch of round-robin play, the U.S. is tied for fourth place.The Americans are on a run. They’ve won three of their last four matches to improve to a 4-3 record, including wins over Denmark and China on Monday.Wins in their final two matches would guarantee life after round robin play. Even winning one of two could allow them to sneak forward. But they’re facing two of the top teams – South Korea is in first place at 5-1, and Sweden is tied for second at 5-2.Watch live beginning at 9:05 p.m. PT Monday on digital platforms at this link.  [[474448783,C]]5. Hubbell and Donohue, Shib Sibs Hope to Topple Canadian Ice Dance FavoritesCanada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir hope to regain their 2010 Olympic ice dance title when they skate in the free dance on Tuesday (Monday night in the United States), the second part of the ice dance competition.Virtue and Moir, who helped Canada win a gold medal in Pyeongchang in the team event, were in first place after the short program, with 83.67. Their main rivals, France’s Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, were in second — despite Papadakis suffering a wardrobe malfunction during their routine, and struggling to keep her top from falling down throughout the routine.The United States is represented by three top teams. Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue were in third place after the short program, just .02 points head of brother-sister duo Maia and Alex Shibutani (aka the Shib Sibs). Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who finished eighth in the Sochi Games and then won their first national title together in 2015, were in seventh place. Watch live on NBC 7’s primetime coverage beginning at 5 p.m. PT Monday or on digital platforms at this link. [[474244033,C]]6. Mikaela Shiffrin Pulls Out of Women’s DownhillMikaela Shiffrin will not race in the women’s downhill event at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, the United States Ski Team confirmed Monday morning. It’s the second consecutive event that Shiffrin has opted not to enter.Her schedule for the rest of the Games is still unconfirmed, but she plans to enter the super combined (moved up to Thursday). She had previously indicated that she is unlikely to enter the team event (set for Friday), but that remains a possibility.According to the U.S. Ski Team, with the super combined moved up a day, Shiffrin will skip Wednesday’s downhill event in order to focus on the combined.Shiffrin, 22, succeeded in taking gold in her first event, giant slalom, on Feb. 14, but was unable to defend her 2014 Sochi gold in the slalom the next day. After an evening medal ceremony and plenty of media interviews, she finished off the podium in fourth in what is considered her favorite event.[[474461713,C]]7. Lindsey Vonn Not Opposed to Playing Mind GamesLindsey Vonn slowed herself down so she wouldn’t clock the fastest time in downhill training, later admitting that she likes to play mind games in training.Vonn clocked the fastest time in Saturday’s downhill training run. But she went out of her way not to let that happen again in Sunday’s training run.As Vonn approached the finish, she stood up out of her crouch and extended her arms, purposely slowing herself down.“I actually didn’t want to win the training run today,” Vonn said on NBC. “I like letting other people think that they are faster.”See the clip at this link. Another training run is scheduled for Monday at 6 p.m. PT. The race is scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m. PT.[[472226703,C]][[472227583,C]][[474034123,C]]Photo Credit: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.
Source: NBC San Diego