Per Yahoo:

The longer it went, the tighter the Americans got.

They clanged shots off the post, then the crossbar. A wrist shot early in the game by Phil Kessel that looked like a bad omen hit both. Everything else the U.S. hockey team threw on net Wednesday, Swiss goalie Jonas Hiller smothered.

But Zach Parise put all that frustration aside, deflecting a wrist shot from Brian Rafalski early in the third period. He then scored into an empty net to seal a 2-0 quarterfinal win that sends the U.S. to Friday’s semifinals against Finland, which beat the Czech Republic 2-0.

“The goalie was great and we did a good job of sticking with it. We were pretty confident and said just keep putting pucks at him,” said Parise, who failed to score on his first 13 shots of the tournament.

Ryan Miller made 19 saves to backstop the victory and move the Americans within two wins of their first men’s hockey gold medal in 30 years.

For a while, though, there was a chance their stirring 5-3 win over Canada on Sunday might go for naught. U.S. general manager Brian Burke said he wasn’t happy with his team’s play through the preliminary round, and cautioned that the Americans had to improve quickly if they hoped to make a run.

Their challenge came from the lightly regarded Swiss and not from tournament favorites Canada, Russia or defending Olympic champion Sweden.

“I thought after the first two or three games I could play better. I knew I would,” said Parise, who had no goals and three assists in the opening three games. “It’s always nice to get rewarded. I just kept wanting to keep shooting.”

In front of a full crowd that traded chants for each team, Hiller gave the Swiss a chance to pull off the upset by making 42 saves. He had stymied Parise several times earlier, but couldn’t keep the New Jersey Devils star down all the way.

Parise, the top-line forward who struck posts with two other shots, got a stick on Rafalski’s shot and bounced it off the mask and arm of Hiller before the puck sneaked past his pad and inside the left post 2:08 into the third. The goal came 12 seconds into a power play.

He then sealed the win by scoring into an empty net with 11.2 seconds left. The U.S. has earned two of its four wins in these games against Switzerland, including a tournament-opening 3-1 victory last Tuesday.

Switzerland seemed to tire as the game wore on. The upstarts, who forced Canada to a shootout in the prelims, reached the quarters with another tiebreaker win over Belarus on Tuesday. Switzerland was forced to play past regulation in its previous three games.

Despite only two regular NHL players, the Swiss were gallant in longtime coach Ralph Krueger’s last Olympics. Switzerland finished sixth in the Turin Games and was looking for its best showing in Canada.

“We had high expectations,” the teary-eyed Hiller said, his voice cracking. “We knew we had a solid team and we can upset some of the big ones and that’s what we tried to do. I wish we could have upset them a little more.

“It’s always tough to lose, but losing in the quarterfinals in the Olympics and being that close, it definitely hurts. I am quite disappointed right now.”

Until Parise scored, the signature moment in this one was a near goal the U.S. thought it scored to break the deadlock with less than one second left in the middle period.

Ryan Kesler’s shot struck Hiller’s blocker and popped in the air. The Anaheim Ducks goalie swatted it with his stick and deflected it off his shoulder before it fell behind him.

The puck tantalizingly slid onto the goal line and toward the net as the clock struck 0.0. A video replay confirming no goal sent the pro-Swiss crowd into jubilation as the teams headed to the dressing rooms.

“I thought I scored,” Kesler said “I thought it was in and we were going into the locker room up 1-0 but apparently the time ran out and I wasn’t lucky enough. I knew there wasn’t much time left and I just tried to throw it on net to generate a rebound and it happened to find the back of the net a half-second too late.”

A wild sequence in the third had both teams believing they had scored.

At 3:40, Sandy Jeannin sent a wide-angled shot that appeared to beat Miller inside the right post. The red light came on, but play continued. Before the next whistle, Ryan Suter fired a shot past Hiller. That goal was disallowed because of a high-sticking penalty against teammate Ryan Kesler.

Even with the benefit of three power plays in the second period, the U.S. couldn’t forge much of an attack. The Americans’ best scoring chances came at even strength, but when they wound up for drives in good areas many of their shots were blocked before they got to Hiller.

“I haven’t seen that for a long time, even in the NHL,” defenseman Tim Gleason said. “Guys are laying down left and right. That’s good to see and you hope they get right back up. Guys are getting their nose dirty, and that’s what wins championships and medals.”

The Swiss were content to clog the middle and contest every pass and each puck carrier as he tried to get into the offensive zone. Bobby Ryan rushed toward the blue line before being upended with a hip check by Mathias Seger that flipped him with 5:15 left in the second.

“We waited and waited and waited, and I guess we waited them out,” Gleason said. “We got a little antsy … you want to do it yourself and you get frustrated.”

The only thing that got into either net in the opening two periods was Dustin Brown’s stick that was stuck in the back of the Swiss goal.

Switzerland generated only eight shots on Miller through 40 minutes while allowing 32. Hiller kept the Swiss in the game during the first period when the Americans held an 18-4 shots edge.

Passing was a problem on the uneven ice that kept pucks bouncing. Parise had three prime scoring chances, but was twice denied—including once with the U.S. short-handed—and had a 2-on-1 with Devils teammate Jamie Langenbrunner broken up. Kessel later fired a drive that struck the right post and crossbar behind Hiller.

• The average age of the U.S. roster is 26.5.
• The team has only three returning Olympians (Drury, Rafalski, Langenbrunner).
• Defenceman Ryan Suter is the son of Bob Suter who played on the 1980 gold medal team.
• The team has two #1 NHL Draft selections Patrick Kane (2007), Erik Johnson (2006).

• Team Canada includes 12 players aged 25 or younger, and 15 who are first-time Olympians.
• Chris Pronger is the lone veteran who played for Canada’s 1998 Olympic team. He will play in his fourth consecutive Olympics. (Martin Brodeur was on the ’98 roster but didn’t play.)
• Four members of the 2010 roster helped Canada win its first gold in 50 years at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, USA. They are Martin Brodeur, Jarome Iginla, Scott Niedermayer, and Chris Pronger.
• Seven players are returnees from the Turin roster. They include: Martin Brodeur, Dany Heatley, Jarome Iginla, Roberto Luongo, Rick Nash, Chris Pronger, and Joe Thornton.
• All selected players except Patrice Bergeron were on Canada’s summer orientation camp roster.

• The Czech Republic won the historic 1998 Olympic hockey tournament in Nagano. That was the first time the NHL took a break for the biggest winter sport event. Twelve year later, one player from ’98 remains on the Czech team: Jaromir Jagr.
• It will be Jagr’s fourth Olympic Games. Tomas Kaberle, Pavel Kubina, Petr Cajanek and Patrik Elias will appear in their third Olympics.
• Nine returning players were on the team that won bronze in Turin 2006. Twelve represented the Czech Republic in the 2009 World Championship.
• Most players on the team (16) come from the NHL. Five are from Russia, and two from the Czech Extraliga, including league scoring leader Roman Cervenka.

• Forwards Jere Lehtinen (1994, 1998, 2002, 2006) and Teemu Selänne (1992, 1998, 2002, 2006) will play in their fifth Olympic Winter Games. It’ll be the fourth time for Kimmo Timonen, Saku Koivu and Ville Peltonen.
• Peltonen has played the most international games (243) and scored the most goals (78) for Finland.
• The team looks quite different from the 2009 IIHF World Championship squad. Only six players on the Vancouver 2010 roster played in that tournament.
• Fourteen players from Turin 2006 will get another shot at winning the first Olympic gold for Finland. Four  years ago, they settled for silver with a painful loss to Sweden in the final.
• Finnish coach Jukka Jalonen had plenty of choices for his Olympic roster. He chose to go with 18 NHLers, four players from the Russian KHL, and one from Sweden.

• Germany’s roster features seven players from North America (6 NHL, 1 AHL), while the other 16 players come from the German league.
• Only two NHL players were not included, but are on the reserve list: Jochen Hecht and Christoph Schubert.
• Sven Felski has the  most international experience with 140 national team games, including the 2006 Olympics and nine World Championships.
• Seven players on the preliminary roster represented Germany in Turin 2006, while 10 played in the 2009 World Championship.

• Switzerland is relying on a young defence corps. Four defencemen are 24 years of age or younger and have a combined experience of three World Championships.
• Switzerland is the only country that has players from the 2010 World U20 Championship on its Olympic roster, with blueliners Roman Josi and Luca Sbisa.
• Sixteen of the 23 players play in the Swiss National League A, followed by the NHL (2), AHL (2), Russia (1), Sweden (1) and the WHL (1).
• Two Canadian-born players are not part of the team. Paul DiPietro and Ryan Gardner were not included, but there’s a new Canadian-born player. Hnat Domenichelli is the only roster player that is not Swiss-trained.
• Eighteen players were on the team that represented Switzerland at the 2009 Worlds on home ice in Berne, while 10 players participated in the 2006 Olympics.

• Fifteen out of 23 players come from Dinamo Riga, the Latvian team in the Russian KHL. The remaining eight players come from teams in the NHL (2), AHL (2), Germany (2), and Russian KHL (2).
• Head coach Olegs Znaroks, who was the assistant coach in Turin 2006, decided to go without the third Latvian NHL player, Los Angeles Kings winger Raitis Ivanans. He has represented his native country only once (in the 2008 World Championship).
• Sandis Ozolins has made a comeback at age 37 to play for Dinamo Riga, but he’s not on the roster for a third Olympic appearance. Ozolins is the skater that gets the most ice time with Dinamo, and also the top-scoring defenceman.
• Apart from 1936, Latvia has only participated twice in the Olympics in the post-Soviet era: in Salt Lake City 2002 and Turin 2006. For five players, it will be their third Olympics: goalkeepers Edgars Masalskis and Sergejs Naumovs; defencemen Karlis Skrastins and Rodrigo Lavins; and forward Aleksandrs Nizivijs. Thirteen players on this team also played in Turin.
• Nineteen players were on the team that reached the quarterfinals in the 2009 World Championship. Only one player has no World Championship experience: 22-year-old Dinamo forward Gints Meija.

• Defenceman Tommy Jakobsen is the only player with Olympic experience. The 39-year-old played in Norway’s last Olympic hockey tournament on home ice in Lillehammer 1994 as well as in Albertville 1992.
• Head coach Roy Johansen was also part of the 1992 Olympic team. He also participated in 1984 and 1988.
• Twenty-one players on this roster were on Norway’s team at the 2009 World Championship. There is one big absentee: veteran defenceman Anders Myrvold. This former NHLer (Colorado, Boston, New York Islanders, and Detroit) was not put on the list for Vancouver 2010.
• The Swedish Elitserien continues to be the most popular destination for the best Norwegian players. Eleven players come from Swedish top-league teams, followed by the Norwegian league (6) and the German DEL (3). Norway will use one player from each of the following: the NHL, the KHL, and Finland.

• 21 players come from two leagues: 13 from the NHL and 8 from the KHL. One player comes from a Swiss club. Zigmund Palffy is the only player from the Slovak Extraliga.
• Only two NHL players were not added to the roster: Marek Svatos and Boris Valabik.
• Miroslav Satan and Lubomir Visnovsky will play their fourth Olympic Games in Vancouver. For Lubos Bartecko, Pavol Demitra, Marian Hossa and Jozef Stümpel, it will be the third Olympics.
• Defenceman Martin Strbak has played the most games for the national team (146), while Miroslav Satan has scored the most goals (70).
• Chicago forward Tomas Kopecky has never played for the men’s national team before. The last time he represented Slovakia was in the 2002 World U20 Championship.
• Eight players on the roster won the 2002 World Championship in Sweden: Rastislav Stana,  Richard Lintner, Martin Strbak, Lubomir Visnovsky, Lubos Bartecko, Zigmund Palffy, and Josef Stümpel.

• Nicklas Lidström and Daniel Alfredsson are on the roster to play their fourth Olympic Winter Games.
• Sweden is the nation with most European players in the NHL. 19 players from the preliminary rosters come from the NHL, three from the Swedish Elitserien, one from the Russian KHL.
• When Sweden announced the roster on December 27, four of the key players were injured: Kronwall, Alfredsson, Forsberg and Zetterberg.
• 13 players from the provisional roster won the gold in Turin 2006.

• All players are picked from the two arguably best leagues in the world with 14 NHL players and 9 KHL players.
• Sergei Gonchar will play his fourth Olympics. It will be the third Olympic Games for three six players (Bryzgalov, Markov, Afinogenov, Datsyuk, Fedorov, Kovalchuk).
• Salavat Yulayev Ufa has most players on the team with Dmitri Kalinin, Viktor Kozlov, Alexander Radulov and Sergei Zinoviev. Also the coaching tandem, Vyacheslav Bykov and Igor Zakharkin, comes from Salavat.
• Eight players have won both the 2008 and 2009 World Championships: Grebeshkov, Kalinin, Korneyev, Nikulin, Kovalchuk, Morozov, Radulov, Zinoviev.

• Mikhail Zakharov is the newest coach from all Olympic hockey teams. He was hired in November to succeed Glen Hanlon, and had his first exhibition games with Belarus in mid-December.
• Belarus will be one of the few teams to have brothers on the team with Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn, who also play together at the Montreal Canadiens.
• Veterans Andrei Mezin and Ruslan Salei are the only players to represent Belarus in all three Olympic Winter Games participations (1998, 2002, 2010).
• Seven players come from the same club, Dynamo Minsk, the Belarusian entry in the Russian Kontinental Hockey League.