Olympic Updates

VANCOUVER, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Switzerland booked their ticket to the quarter-finals of the Olympic men's ice hockey tournament on Tuesday with a 3-2 shootout win over Belarus.

As Swiss team mates stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their arms wrapped around each other, netminder Jonas Hiller denied Sergei Kostitsyn to win the shootout, triggering a stampede off the Swiss bench and an explosion of cowbells from the crowd.

With the win, the Swiss move on to play the United States in a quarter-finals game on Wednesday while the Belarusians will pack their bags and head home.

The seesaw contest saw the teams trade goals in each of the opening two periods as Aleksei Kalyuzhny and Konstantin Zakharov found the net for Belarus while Julien Sprunger and Hnat Domenichelli scored for the Swiss.

The remainder of the game turned into a goaltending duel between Hiller and Andrei Mezin, neither team able to collect the winner during a scoreless third period or 10 minute overtime. (....continue reading....)