updated 7:18 p.m. ET Feb. 14, 2006

SESTRIERE, Italy - Ted Ligety gave the United States the Olympic gold medal that Bode Miller couldn’t, uncorking two dynamic slalom runs to win the men’s combined and break the Americans’ bad luck in Alpine skiing.

The 21-year-old from Park City, Utah, had a combined time of 3 minutes, 9.35 seconds for the downhill and two slalom runs. Ivica Kostelic of Croatia won the silver medal and Rainer Schoenfelder of Austria the bronze.

Austrian favorite Benjamin Raich, last contender down the mountain as the leader going into the final slalom run, skied off course, sending Ligety into an explosion of joy at the finish area.

Miller was disqualified for straddling a gate in the first slalom run, just when he seemed to have built a commanding lead for his elusive first Olympic gold medal.

The disqualification gave the lead temporarily to Raich, who had trailed Miller by nearly a second.

Figure skating
Evgeni Plushenko’s personal best of 90.66 points gave the Russian a big lead over American Johnny Weir after the Olympic men’s short program.

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From the moment he stepped on the ice until the conclusion of his routine to Puccini’s “Tosca,” Plushenko never flashed even a hint of a smile. This was all business — and business was good for the 2002 Olympic silver medalist.

He nailed every element, from a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination to a solid triple axel to complex footwork into a triple lutz. Only when his final combination spin ended did he lighten up, going from intense concentration to a series of fist pumps. He seemed more relieved than excited.

Weir earned a personal-best 80.00 score.

Luge
Sylke Otto became the second women’s luger to win consecutive golds, leading Germany to its sixth medal sweep in 12 Olympics.

Courtney Zablocki of Highlands Ranch, Colo., was fourth to match her best international finish, but it wasn’t enough to crack the top three against the powerful Germans.

Silke Kraushaar won a record third overall medal and Tatjana Huefner edged Zablocki for the final podium spot. There have been 36 medals awarded in women’s Olympic luge history; 27 have been won by Germans.

Zablocki couldn’t snap America’s perpetual singles luge medal drought; that all-time total remains at zero.

Hockey
Angela Ruggiero scored the go-ahead goal on an end-to-end rush in the third period as the Americans rallied from a rare two-goal deficit to beat Finland in the Olympic women’s hockey tournament.

Sarah Parsons also scored two goals for the Americans (3-0), who struggled through most of the first 41 minutes of their final preliminary-round match.

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Canada got its first challenge — and finally allowed a goal — in the tournament. The gold-medal favorites barely seemed to notice in another dominant win.

Gillian Apps scored three goals, Danielle Goyette added two more and Canada (3-0) finished the preliminary round with a victory over Sweden (2-1).

Svetlana Trefilova and Iya Gavrilova scored two goals apiece to lead Russia over Italy. The teams had each lost two games to start the tournament, being outscored by a combined 42-1. Sabina Florian scored in the first period to give Italy a 1-0 lead — her team’s first goal of the Olympics.

Germany (1-2) held on to beat Switzerland (0-3) in another matchup of previously winless teams.

Curling
The U.S. men picked up a victory over New Zealand in eight ends, wrapping things up two frames early a day after a last-rock loss to Finland.

The Americans’ next game is against host Italy (1-2). Throw in Wednesday’s game against the winless Germans (0-2), and the United States (2-1) probably needs to steal just one or two more victories in its other four games to reach the medal round.

New Zealand (0-3) went scoreless for five straight ends despite having the last rock — a big advantage, called the hammer — in four of them.

Italy needed an extra end to beat Germany, and Canada (1-1) and Sweden (3-0) played an overtime of their own.

Norway (1-1) had little trouble with Switzerland (1-1).

The U.S. women remained winless after an extra-end loss to Japan.

The Americans (0-3), who conceded their earlier match against Canada after eight ends, are last in the 10-team field.

The United States faced a big disadvantage in the 11th end — or inning — because Japan (1-1) had the right to throw last. But the problem was exacerbated when Cassie Johnson tried to tuck her last rock behind a blocker and missed the target completely.

Japan needed only to put one in anywhere in the target to win the game, and Ayumi Onodera did.

Unlike the first two U.S. opponents, Norway (2-1) and Canada (2-1), Japan was not expected to contend for a medal against the North American and Scandinavian curling powers.

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