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Friday's Olympic Highlights

SOCHI, Russia, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Highlights from Friday's action at the Winter Olympics:

-- Canada won its second hockey battle with the United States in as many days. Jamie Benn scored on a deflection in the second period and Carey Price recorded the shutout in a 1-0 semifinal decision, pushing the Canadians into the gold medal game against Sweden. The night before the Canadian women had staged an amazing comeback in the championship and defeated the Americans in overtime 3-2.

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-- Mikalea Shiffrin of the United States became the youngest winner of the slalom gold medal in the history of the Winter Olympics and was the first American to win gold in the event in 42 years. She has been the phenom of he World Cup circuit for the last two seasons and, at age 18, is headed for her second straight year-long slalom title. Shiffrin led by almost a half second after her first run. She survived a momentary loss of balance in the final run to defeat Austria's Marlies Schild by 0.53 of a second.

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-- Shiffrin's gold medal gave the United States nine for the Olympics, one less than frontrunning Norway. The only time the United States has ever led a Winter Olympics in gold medals came in 1932 at Lake Placid.

-- A silver medal for the Americans in the men's short-track relay put the United States on top in the overall medal chase with 27, one more than Russia and three more than Canada. There are five countries with at least 20 medals. In Vancouver there were only four.

-- There was no medal in Sochi, however, for the United States speed skating squad. That had not happened in 30 years. No American finished better than seventh in an individual race and the United States shutout was ensured when the heats were run Friday in the team pursuit. The Netherlands, meanwhile, has 21 speed skating medals and likely will have 23 when the final races are run Saturday.

-- Both of the curling gold medals at these Olympics have gone to Canada. The Canadian men won their eighth straight match Friday. The championship came in a 9-3 decision over Britain. The women from Canada did not lose a match in their tournament, finishing things off with a triumph Thursday over Sweden.

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-- Four women from Ukraine pulled off an impressive win in the biathlon relay, defeating the Russians by 26 seconds. Ukraine became the 21st country at the Sochi Olympics to win at least one gold medal. The record for that sort of thing had been 19 countries, set in Vancouver in 2010.

-- Canada collected the most medals Friday with four, two of them coming in a 1-2 finish in the women's ski cross. Marielle Thompson won the gold and Kelsey Serwa grabbed the silver. It was the last of 10 freestyle skiing events at these Olympics. Canada won four gold medals in the sport and nine medals overall.

-- In the first report of a drug test failure at the games, German officials said biathlete Evi Sachenbacher had tested positive for methylhexanamine. This was her fourth Olympics. She did not win a medal at these Games but has collected five in her career, including a golds in 2002 in both the team sprint and the 4x5-kilometer relay.

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