2022 Winter Olympics Day 14 betting picks – Friday, February 18

Some intriguing matchups take place this Friday as Canada and the United States meet in the Men’s Curling bronze medal game and Switzerland takes on Japan in the Women’s Curling semifinals. We’ve also got a play in the Men’s Ice Hockey semifinals matchup between Sweden and Russia in this Friday’s Winter Olympics best bets for Day 14.

Men’s Curling: Canada (-170) vs United States (+130)

We were expecting a good and competitive game between these two rival countries in the round robin stage, but the United States allowed a disastrous four-point end in the second end to give Canada an early 5-0 lead that would be nearly impossible to overcome. Canada went on to win that match 10-5. John Shuster and the Americans went on to go 5-3 in their other eight games during round-robin play, while Bruce Mouat and the Canadians went 4-4 in their other eight games.

Despite the surprising blowout in the last meeting between these two teams, we still think this is a far more even matchup than the betting odds would indicate. Canada came into Beijing as the bigger favorite and has allowed far fewer points (50) than the United States have (61). But don’t expect the Americans to go down without a fight after defying the odds to win gold in 2018. Expect a closer game this time around that Canada is a bit likelier to win, but not likely enough to justify its -170 price tag. The betting value is on the USA to win bronze.

Women’s Curling: Switzerland -1.5 (-160) vs. Japan +1.5 (+120)

Switzerland has been the best team in the women’s tournament thus far with the best record (8-1), the second most points scored (67) and the fewest points allowed (46) in round robin play. Compare Switzerland’s +21 point differential to Japan’s +2 point differential for an indicator of the gap between these two teams. The previous meeting between these two teams ended in an 8-4 Switzerland victory.

Giving up the 1.5 points against the spread shouldn’t be a problem for Switzerland, which earned six of its eight wins by two points or more. Japan also didn’t play many close games, going 5-4 with four wins by three points or more and all four losses coming by three points or more. Japan played well in this tournament to advance into the semifinals, but it would be a surprise if this group was able to give Switzerland much trouble in this matchup.

Men’s Ice Hockey: Russia (-140) vs Sweden (+120)

Russia was our pick to win the gold medal in Men’s Ice Hockey this year, and they’ve played about how we’ve expected them to. With the exception of a strange 6-5 loss to the Czech Republic, Russia has been smothering on defense with a 1-0 win over Switzerland, and 2-0 win over Denmark, and a 3-1 win over Denmark in the quarterfinals. Sweden has also been rock-solid on defense outside of a 4-3 loss to Finland with a 3-2 win over Latvia, a 4-2 win over Slovakia, and a 2-0 win over Canada.

We lean towards Russia here, but Sweden is playing well and this game figures to be a close one. But no matter which way it goes, goals are very likely to be hard to come by. Both of these teams are comfortable playing a tight and well-defended game, and once one of them gets a lead they should tighten the screws in their own zone even more. The 4.5-goal total doesn’t leave much room for error, but this should be a 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, or 3-1 result often enough to make a play on the UNDER.