U.S. men’s speedskating team wins silver medal in team pursuit

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After posting eye-opening upsets on Friday, the United States men couldn’t cut through the ear-splitting din at Richmond Olympic Oval and beat the home team for gold.

That went instead to the favorites from Canada, who led a fairly comfortably from start to finish in the speedskating team pursuit final and left a not-too-shabby silver medal for the U.S. trio. A stellar closing lap made it extremely interesting at the end, but Canada crossed in 3:41.37 -- just .21 seconds ahead of the U.S. contingent of Chad Hedrick, Brian Hansen and Jonathan Kuck.

After upending the Netherlands in the semifinals, though, this was essentially gravy for the Americans, only one of which -- Hedrick -- had medaled in individual competition throughout the Olympics.

The medal gives the U.S. 35 medals in Vancouver, the most it has ever won at a Winter Olympics, beating the previous high of 34 in Salt Lake City in 2002.

-- Brian Hamilton in Richmond, Canada