Crosby gets a chance to chase gold

Team Canada alternate captain Sidney Crosby has dreamed about playing in a gold-medal game most of his life. Friday night, that dream came true as his Canadians held off a spirited late charge to defeat a Slovakian. With the 3-2 win at Canada Hockey Place, Team Canada booked passage into a dream gold-medal game against Team USA, which is 5-0 in this tournament after a 6-1 pasting of Finland earlier in the day in the other semifinal. Crosby, who had three shots and an even rating Friday night, stopped to talk exclusively to NHL.com after the game.

Morrow finds his role in Team Canada

Team Canada forward Brenden Morrow is one of the foot soldiers that makes any team work. The Dallas Stars winger showed his value to Team Canada on Friday night, scoring the team's second goal in an 3-2 win against Slovakia the Olympic tournament semifinal.

Morrow was also on the ice for the winning goal, by Ryan Getzlaf on a second-period power play. Morrow now has goals in back-to-back games as he and his teammates prepare to play Team USA in Sunday's gold-medal game here at Canada Hockey Place. On Friday night, he played 11:39, managing the goal, two shots and an even rating. Let us put on team usa jerseys and support them!

Maltby's season ends due to the surgery

According to mlive.com, Detroit Red Wings veteran Kirk Maltby will undergo a shoulder surgery next week. As a result, Maltby will be placed on long-term injured serve, solving the Wings' salary-cap problems and also enable defenseman Andreas Lilja to be activated. Lilja said he expects to be in the lineup Monday at Colorado, in the first game following the Olympic break. It seems that Maltby has to take off his red wings jersey and take a rest.

Flyers shut down goaltender Emery

Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren announced that goaltender Ray Emery, who has been out with tightness in his hip on Feb. 1, will be kept off of the ice for the next three weeks in the hopes he will recover shortly after the upcoming Olympic break. "Based on what the doctors have told us, we're just going to shut Ray down here for three weeks and give him some time to rehabilitate the hip, and then we'll go from there," Holmgren said Thursday from the Flyers' practice facility. "The idea of taking these three weeks to strengthen that [hip] area and the muscles around that area, we're hoping will be the right way to go."

"It is 16 days where we are not playing games," said Holmgren. "I feel good about what we are doing with Ray. Based on the information we have right now, I think it is the right way to go for both the Flyers and for Ray." It seems that he will take off his flyers jersey and rest for a while.

Rangers lost Gaborik and Zotto due to injuries

The New York Rangers' forward Marian Gaborik and defenseman Michael Del Zotto left in the first period of Friday night's game in Pittsburgh. Neither of them returned. Gaborik, who missed Wednesday's game against Nashville after suffering a 21-stitch cut above his right knee at practice the day before, dressed and started the game.

Del Zotto was injured when he fell on the skate of Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin and sustained a significant laceration to his abdomen and did not return either. “I thought maybe that just my ribs were bruised because I could feel the skate go there,” Del Zotto said after the game. “But I felt that I should take a check with my hand and I felt the blood and knew something was wrong.”Although the team lost both players, the Rangers won the game in the end.

Adam Graves will join NHL Live!

It is reported that former New York Rangers star Adam Graves will appear on Friday's edition of NHL Live! from noon-2 p.m. on NHL Network and NHL.com and broadcast on XM Radio. Also scheduled to appear to speak with co-hosts Deb Placey and E.J. Hradek are NBC hockey analyst Ed Olczyk, a former teammate of Graves, and retired defenseman Teppo Numminen.

Also on the show will be Joseph Bowser of EveryBODY Skates New Jersey, a group of disabled athletes who will make history this weekend by visiting all 54 rinks in the State of New Jersey in just 54 hours.

Dodgers sign deal with pitcher Weaver

The Dodgers announced that the club and free-agent pitcher Jeff Weaver reached agreement on an $800,000 Minor League contract with an invitation to Major League camp. The 33-year-old struck out 64 batters in 79 innings while walking 33. He also signed a Minor League contract with the club last February, but didn't make the team out of Spring Training. Weaver joined the Major League on April 30, when his contract was purchased from Triple-A Albuquerque.

After joining the Dodgers, Weaver post a 3.13 ERA in 31 2/3 innings as a starter and a 3.99 ERA in 47 1/3 innings as a reliever.He also played with the Dodgers in 2004 and '05 with a combined record of 27-24 and a 4.11 ERA in 444 innings pitched. The veteran has a career record of 99-118 and a 4.67 ERA in 312 big league appearances with the Tigers, Yankees, Dodgers, Angels, Cardinals and Mariners.