TURIN, Italy (AP) – After managing only two goals in two consecutive losses, the U.S. men’s hockey team broke out with three power-play tallies, yet still fell 5-4 to Russia in an Olympic game that mattered only in the confidence department.

The Americans (1-3-1), the fourth-place team in Group B, were already locked into a quarterfinal matchup Wednesday with Group A-winning Finland (5-0). As the No. 2 team in Group B, the Russians (4-1) will face Canada (3-2) in the quarterfinals.

After scoring only nine goals in four games, the U.S. found its offense just as coach Peter Laviolette said his team would. This time, though, the Americans lacked the defense.

Brian Rolston, Brian Gionta and Scott Gomez all scored man-advantage goals but the U.S. allowed as many goals to Russia as it did in the three previous games of the tournament.

With the Americans scheduled to play again today in the medal round, goalie Rick DiPietro got the night off; Robert Esche started in his place.

Canada, which had lost back-to-back shutouts, got three first-period goals against the Czech Republic, then held on for a 3-2 win. The Czechs (2-3), last year’s world champions, finished a disappointing fourth in Group A and are to play Group B winner Slovakia (5-0) in the quarterfinals.

Finland remained undefeated in Olympic play with a 2-0 win over Germany (0-3-2) in which they rested first-string goaltender Antero Niittymaki and avoided injury.

Also, Switzerland’s Ivo Ruthemann scored at 16:38 of the third period to pull out a 3-3 tie with host Italy (0-3-2). The Swiss (2-1-2) finished with six points in Group A and will face Sweden (3-2).

Biathlon

Germany won the men’s 4×7.5km biathlon relay when star Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen got very little help from his friends.

Bjoerndalen gave the Norwegians a fifth-place finish by skiing a brilliant final leg for the pre-race favorites, but could not make up for his teammates’ poor performances.

The Americans took ninth, led by Jay Hakkinen, who dispatched his demons from his epic collapse in the 10km race by giving the United States the lead after the first of four legs.

Nordic combined

Felix Gottwald used a powerful sprint to rally to victory in the Nordic combined sprint Tuesday, giving Austria its record eighth gold medal of the Turin Games – a bright spot for a country caught in the middle of a doping scandal.

Gottwald earned his second gold medal of these Olympics by making up a deficit of nearly a minute from the morning’s jumping portion of the event.

American Todd Lodwick was ninth and teammate Johnny Spillane was 10th.

Gottwald, a member of Austria’s winning foursome in the large hill team event, won his sixth Olympic medal.

Freestyle skiing

Emily Cook’s inspiring comeback story ended a day earlier than she’d hoped after another disappointing outing for the American freestyle team on the Olympic aerials course.

Both Cook, a graduate of Carrabassett Valley Academy, and Jana Lindsey, the only other American entered, failed to qualify for Wednesday night’s finals. That left Jeret “Speedy” Peterson as the only one of six U.S. aerialists, men or women, to advance to the finals.

Cook qualified for the 2002 Olympics, only to break both feet about a month before the games. Doctors said she’d never walk normally again, but she set out to prove them wrong and make another run at the Olympics.

She made it to Turin, but her first Olympic jump was a near disaster. She bent forward on the landing, nearly did the splits, then tumbled forward.

toward the bottom of the hill. She was ranked 22nd of 23 jumpers after the first round and even with a solid second jump, she only improved to 19th.

Lindsey finished 16th, four spots out of the last qualifying spot.

Aussie Jacqui Cooper set a world record with her qualifying score of 213.36 to cap off a comeback story every bit as amazing as Cook’s.

The 33-year-old Aussie had qualified for the 2002 Olympics, but broke her left kneecap and tore cartilage in a practice accident days before the qualifying round. In 1998 at the Nagano Games, Cooper crashed in the qualifying round and didn’t make the finals.

She was considered a long shot this time around, but debunked that theory, throwing and landing a triple-twisting jump on her first run – the toughest jump anyone tried all night.

That helped her break the record held by her teammate, Alisa Camplin, who scored a 207.31 at World Championships in 2003.